The National tribune., 1910-09-29

Ohio. It was commanded by Col. Sedg-
wick, of the I'd KY, until Craft recov
cred from his wounds sufficiently to re-
sumo command. The 31st Ind. was on
detached duty frequently, and much of
the time all of the brigade was on side
marches. After reaching Louisville,
KY, we lost the goth KY. and received
the S0thAhio, a full regiment of new
men, clean clad and well equipped, as
| fine a regiment as was in the service
| Except the 31st Ind, of course).
At that time the 31st Ind. was almost
destitute of wearing APPAREL, save a few
rags courteousIy called clothes-just
enough to show that they were blue.
| As soon as occasion demanded we ac-
quired informally new uniforms, un-
derclothes, shoes, blankets, knapsacks
and other Quartermaster stores from
comrades of the goth Ohio They did
rot approve of our relief in that way.
Indeed, / personally heard language
from them that 1 never heard in Sun
day school. However, when we got on
| the march we reminded them that We
saved them much fatigue by relieving
them of so much weight. Still, they did
not really manifest gratitude, tho ad-
mitting that We We're carrying weight
thai ought to lie upon their shoulders.
The two regiments became great
! friends, and we love each other to this
fday. II they felt aggrieved then they
soon forgave us.
| AT Stone River we were in front the
| first day, and drove the rebels out of
Lavergne and went into camp for the
night The enemy had his artillery
ranged to take the bridge, but we wad-
ed the stream below the bridge, and
they got up and departed with their
guns. We were now the First Brigade,
Second Division, Fourteenth Corps, Col
Craft commanding: We had also Bat
terry =, 1st Ohio Art. Col. Craft posted
/ half of the, battery on the right and
half on the left, with the 31st Ind and
Cd Ky. forming the front line. Three
times the enemy charged us, suffering
| greater loss at each attack. Each sue
ceSsive advance we allowed them to
| approach a little closer than before.
The 9Gth Ohio and the LIST KY. then
charged the rebel lines, but they were
met by such terrific fire of musketry,
double charges of canister and shell
that they were unable to reach the
enemy and were recalled. Our position
was along the edge of a cottonfeld, in
the cedars, a little to the right of the
! brick house, on the left of the Four
teenth Corps.
We held our position till fianked on
| both right and left, when we had to
fall back or be surrounded on the
1 morning of Dec 81, while awaiting at
tack by the enemy, we made a stone
| wall about Is inches high, which we
found exceedingly useful later. Chai-
imcrs's rebel brigade, six regiments in
ieluding the 9Th Miss. battalion of sharp
shooters, attacked us, and fighting was
lso desperate and determined that il
was actual slaughter. Chalmers was
carried off the field wounded in their
first charge, which was repulsed with
disastrous losses. In its second charge
the brigade was so wrecked that it was
completely wiped out as an organiza-
tion. Chaimers's Brigade was supported
by that Of ID. S. Donaldson. This bri-
gade of 10 regiments came up with de-
liberate step and the fighting was again
desperate slaughter.
The rebel commander, Polk, reported ::
! The slaughter was terrific The Sth
Tenn. lost 300 men out of its 425 and
the 18th Tenn. lost 207 out of 402"
He SAYS: "DOnaldson's Brigade was met
by fire of musketry and artillery that
moved down half its numbers"
The 90th Ohio brought one gun off
the field and the I'd KY. brought off
three. The 31st Ind. and the 1st Ky.
supported the 7th Ind Battery. which
Gen. Rosecrans personally directed
our brigade was moved to the left to
isupport the artillery. There were AZ
guns there. The time to use them
came on the afternoon OF Jan. 2, 1865,
when Breckenridge made his last des-
perate charge. In all of my four and a
| half years service in the war / never
elsewhere heard such roar of artillery
as was made by our AZ guns and all the
active artillery of the rebels responding.
The boom Of the guns and the detona-
tions of exploding shells made an un-
broken roar. The whole region was