Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1913-09-12

of north Georgia, This road was the dead line
in the battle of Chickamauga. If its dust its
rocks and its trees could be animated and en-
dowed with the power of speech the story they
could tell would turn into sickly romance the best
pages of heroic history. The struggle for pos
session of this now historic highway no less
heroic and deadly than the numerous assaults and
repulses at Snodgrass Hill. The flame of battle
swept the forest each side of the road with
fury that no pen can describe
Practically all of the first day of the battle of
Chickamauga was contest for the possession of
Lafayette road The sun went down and dark
ness enveloped the field, leaving the mighty hosts
still contending for the highway. The Confed-
crates had been driving west all day in an effort
to break the Union lines and Lafayette road be-
came the bloody lane" of Chickamauga.
The blood of the two armies still flowed when
night threw its shadows the field. Neither
had been victorious. No more indescrbably op-
pressive spectacle can we'll be imagined than
night brought to the two armies. They were so
close together than the groans of the wounded
and dying of both armies could be plainly heard.
The field was strewn with the unburied dead.
By the close of the first days fighting the Con-
federates had become the aggressors. Their pur-
pose was plainly apparent to break across La
fayette road and pierce the Union lines, cutting
the army in two sections, hopelessy dividing it,
and annhiatirg each section in detail
Not until church bells in Chattanooga were
calling the people to divine worship did the roar
Of battle again resound throughout the plain
But 1t came with a more deadly roar than any
which had swept through the forest on Saturday.
The Union forces were steadily driven back from
Lafayette road, but doggedly held their position
In Dyer and Kelley fields against every assault
inficting heavy damage on the Confederate col
umns. Through a jumbling of field ORDERS the
Kelley field line of the Union forces weak
ened, and Longstreet drove three divisions
against the weakened point 1t was the opportu-
nifty that had been the hope of the Confederates
all day. Rosecrans, Crittenden and McCook were
caught in the break separated from Thomas
wing and retired to Chattanooga.
1t is not surprising that the break in the lines
and departure Of Rosecrans for Chattanooga dis
heartened the Union forces and inspirted the Con-
federates. However the Confederates had a
great commander to contend with in the person
of Gen. George H, Thomas, the Rock Of
Chckamauga" AS the of battle swept
through Kelley field, 1t seemed that the Union
forces doomed. Snodgrass Hill rises some
three hundred feet high Immediately west of Kel
ley field It's eastern side is precipitous and in
some places rough.
b General Thomas rallied his men Snodgrass
Hill, and here occurred the heaviest fighting of
the entire engagement.
The best regiments of the southern armies
sent against Thomas at Snodgrass Hill, to
be shot to pieces on the very breastworks of the
enemy. Some of the Confederate regiments lost
as high as 10 per cent. of their men in their at
tempts to dislodge Thomas, while the Union
regiments suffered almost as heavily. The shouts
of the living, mingled with the groans of the
dying and walls of the wounded, made Snodgrass
Hill veritable inferno of death
Not long ago stood on horseshoe summit the
crater of Snodgrass Hill. AS far as the eye
could reach along the crest of the ridge ] saw
handsome monuments of marble and bronze,
tributes of grateful people to the vaor of their
sons. But these memorials emblazoned with the
deeds of the living and the dead, carved into
them by the chisel of an artist, did not impress
me profoundly as what saw through the gray
msts Of fifty years ] allowed my mind to 60
back and saw as heroic display of human
courage as the world ever witnessed, The roar