Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1914-01-28
Longstreet at Chickamauga.

LOnSStreeC at SQlCHoIH6uSo'
All the blood shed by Longstreet's
corps was not poured out on the
Potomac, Sharpsburg and Gettys-
burg. On September 20, 1868 two
mighty armies met in fiercest con-
hict on stream near the Georgia
and Tennessee line under the brow
of Lookout mountain called Chicka-
mauga. name antedating history,
and called by the red man Stream
of death" 1t may be that prophetic
ken revealed to the red man, as ne
drank of its cooling waters or rested
in its grateful shade, that the white
men who were to drive him from
his home and possess his land,
would on its banks and amid its
waters meet in deadly conflict and
stain it's current with the flow OF
blood. Gen. Lee ordered Gen. Long
street of the army of northern Vir
ginia, on the banks of the Rappo-
hammock, to take (his) the first ar
my corps and move by rail with all
possible haste to Chickamauga to
reinforce Gen. Bragg, who was
being hard pressed there. About the
middle of September we left the
beautiful Rappohannock. Hoods
division and three other brigades
landed in time to be in the battle
of the 10th, two brigades of DC
Lanes division Kershaw's S. G.
Humphreys Mississippi came in on
the 10th about dark, marched to
the Chickamauga creek and biy-
ouacked for the night on its bloody
banks. The curtain of night slowly
descended, the powder b'ackened
bayouets and flags over the hostile
Lines s'ere,but dignly seem 4 The
after the battle no one but soldier
can realize the import of those four
words. One hour after dark the re-
morseless war-god relaxed his hold
on the two armies. whose blood had
been flowing since early morning
growing faint, bleeding and painting
heavily, aud silence reigned again
in the shell shivered forest, but the
gray and blue forms in the bushes
didn't move. Sunday morning Sep
tember 20, at 9 o'clock as the
church bells of Chattanooga sum-
moned It's children to Sunday
school, the signal guns sounded
through the forest at Chickamauga
calling the bleeding armies again to
battle. Here Gen. Longstreet com
,nanded the left wing, and opened
the battle and led in the van. Hood s
division of Lonsstreet's corps broke
the federal lines at the beginning
capturing their battery, later IN the
day, Longstreet drove his column
like a wedge into the union center,
ripping aounder the steady line oI
the federal division. 1t has beer
stated that the federal line had new
or been broken until this battle. u
do not vouch for that | am free tC
say, and justice requires 1t to b'
stated here, that no officer or body
of men of the same number could
have contributed more to the trl
umph of the Coneederates than did
Gen. Longstreet and the brave mer
who followed him from Virginia
The praises of Longstreet aud hi
men were freely proclaimed by th'
army of Tennessee. In writing thess
letters it is not my intention t
give the details of the battle, bu
simply in defense of Gen. Long
street, to let the world know tina
he was ready to 60 anywhere il
thick of the fight, and he alway
held his ground, and with him
was war to the knife. At the end o
the two days battle which ha
scarcely parallel, as the wv
wings of the Confederate army me
on the field their battle flags waved
triumphant'y above every CORY aer
of it and their ringing shouts rolle'
through Chickamauga's forest an
rose to heaven a mighty anthem o
praise and gratitude to God for tn
victory. Thus ended one of tn
bloodiest and most stubbornly col
tested battles of the war. Aud will
out hesitation or mental reservation
Gen. Longstreet never did dis
obey one single order of h
chief. My next will be Longstre'
at Knoxville Tenn.
J. Russell Wright.