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Maj.-Gen. P. R. Cleburne.
A Biography,
BY MAJOR CALHOUN BENHAM.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Battle of the 22d of July.
During the night of the 21st of July,
at one o’clock, a. m., Hardee relieved
by Lieut.-Gen. Gustavus W. Smith,
commanding as it was understood
about 8,000 disabled men, convales
cents and militia, retired through the
city of Atlanta, passing out of it by
the Whitehall road, and made a
detour by Cobb’s Mill, of about ten
miles to the south and east. The
object was to
GET UPON THE ENEMY’S LEFT FLANK,
and fall upon it with all our might
when Hood would advance upon his
front with the rest of the army.
The enemy’s left Rank rested a little
south of the railroad to Augusta on
the east side of the city, his line
stretching northerly and westerly in
the arc of a circle as has been stated.
By about mid-day, on the 22d of
July, Hardee had made the march,
finding himself within a mile and a
half of the enemy’s left. He was
ENTIRELY UNPREPARED FOR HARDEE,
and indeed ignorant of his approach,
the reconnoitering parties penetrating
to within a very short distance of his
actual flank, and encountering no
skirmishers or even scouts. He had,
however,
SEVERAL RETIRED LINES OF VERY
STRONG WORKS,
nearly if not quite completed; but, as
it was reported, they were not manned.
Hardee’s command consisted of his
corps only, Cheatham’s Division under
Brig.-Gen. Maney, and Cleburne’s,
Walker’s and Bate’s divisions. He
had the usual complement of artillery
and a small force of cavalry.
THE CORPS WAS FORMED IN TWO LINES,
the first line in a road parallel to the
enemy’s retired works, and perhaps a
little upwards of a mile distant from
them. Bate held the right of this line,
Walker the center, and Cleburne the
left, with two brigades, Smith and
Govan in line, and Lowrey behind
Smith (Cleburne’s own right) to follow
at 500 yards’ distance. Gen. Maney
was in a second line in echelon behind
the left of Cleburne.
CLEBURNE WAS TO STRIKE THE ANGLE,
where the enemy’s main and retired
line of works met. The artillery was
ordered to follow —batteries their re
spective brigades —and get forward
as well as it could after the infantry.
The ground between our lines thus
formed and the enemy’s works was
sufficiently level, but in the main
heavily wooded, a few fields here and
there, and the woods embarrassed with
VERY DENSE THICKETS OF UNDER
GROWTH.
Cranberry’s left (be held the left of
the whole first line) was in a road
running towards the enemy’s works.
He was to direct by this road, and
Cleburne’s Division was
THE DIVISION OF DIRECTION.
Unfortunately, the road obliqued to
the right, so that after advancing a
short distance, the line was found to
be in a most disordered condition.
We halted, and orders were given to
correct the whole alignment. It was
not accomplished. The attempt to do
it consumed considerable time, and
when we finally got forward, there was
no concert, owing to the want of align
ment. Besides,
THE ENEMY WAS READY FOR US,
liia works manned, and the benefit of
the surprise we had effected lost to us
by our unfortunate detention.
Bate engaged first, but was able to
accomplish nothing owing tog the im
practicable ground, he encountered
a pond and a morass.
Walker was next engaged; also in
effectively. At length
CLEBURNE WAS ORDERED TO ADVANCE.
Govan and Granbury, as stated, com
posed his front, Govan in the right,
Granbury the left. These two brig
ades again proved worthy of their
antecedents. Having perhaps better
approach to the enemy than Walker,
certainly better than Bate, they moved
with great rapidity upon the enemy’s
works, passing a sapling-tangle, and
TOOK THREE LINES OF WORKS IN
QUICK SUCCESSION,
a number of pieces of artillery and
many prisoners. After they had been
engaged some time, about thirty min
utes, Lowrey was thrown to the right
ofGovao, to whrfn the enemy were
proving great trouble on that flank.
THE RELIEF WAS NOT IN TIME,
however, and the forward line taken
had to be abandoned to prevent the
right of Govan being enveloped. At
this moment report was made to
Hardee that the
ENEMY WAS MOVING IN HEAVY FORCE
to turn his left. Such a movement
was doubly dangerous, as without
moving far enough to turn the left,
the enemy could at least establish him
self between Hardee’s force and the
main body under Hood, which it was
apparent, did not consider our attack
sufficiently established to make
the general movement contemplated
against Sherman’s front. On this in
telligence, as to the menace upon his
left, Maney advanced, and Hardee
promptly sent for Mercer’s Brigade to
sustain him. A few moments later
Col. Baucum, of Govan’s, just arrived
on the field with the skirmishers left
upon the line at Atlanta the night
before, four hundred strong, was sent
in on the left, and soon Mercer’s Brig
ade under Lowrey followed. These
troops moved well forward and
WERE HEAVILY ENGAGED,
but finding the enemy showed no dis
position to advance, as supposed, upon
Hardee’s left, it was thought enough
to hold the advanced position gained.
Col. Baucum was badly wounded here
by a minnie ball, which shattered his
jaw-bone and passed into his neck and
shoulder. Lowrey also advanced his
own brigade. From this time until
night, now near at hand, the firing
was desultory, and without result.
Gen. Maney took upwards of three
hundred prisoners. This battle was
SEVERELY CONTESTED AND VERY
BLOODY.
The enemy’s loss was not so heavy as
our own. This was to be expected,
however, as we moved upon him in
his works. The enemy lost one of the
most distinguished generals of his
army,
MCPHERSON,
an accomplished, brave, energetic
and humane soldier. He was much
respected by the Confederates. We
lost on our part
MAJ.-GEN. WM. H. T. WALTER,
a veteran soldier, who had distin
guished himself in the war with Mexico.
He died in his saddle, cheering and
leading his men into action, shot
through the heart. Both these offi
cers were graduated at West Point.
Cleburne’s command suffered the
MOST HEAVILY OF ALL,
Some idea may be formed of his
casualties, now not to be ascertained,
from the fact that twenty*seven of his
THEfKENNESAW GAZETTE.
field officers of the line out of less than
forty fell. They were of the flower of
the army.
CLEBURNE TOOK 1,600 PRISONERS
and eight pieces of artillery.
Soon after Hardee attacked, Cheat
ham advanced from Atlanta and drove
the enemy for some distance, taking
six guns and some prisoners.
This battle, on the whole, was a
failure. We suffered a heavy loss
and did not advance the campaign.
It was not Hood’s fault. If Hardee
could have struck soon after his arrival
at the enemy’s right with his divisions
supporting each other’s flanks, Hood
would most probably have achieved
one of the greatest victories of the
war. The blow of Hardee’s corps,
unprepared as the enemy was to receive
it, would have crushed his right flank
into fragments, its further advance
would have stripped the works, render
ing them useless against Hood’s main
attack from the lines of Atlanta, and
Sherman would have been caught
between two fires. The Peachtree
creek and the Chattahochee were
streams he would have crossed with
great difficulty with the murderous
pursuit upon his rear which would
have been made if those troops had
had the opportunity. It was an op
portunity lost never to be had again,
she first shock on the right success
ful, the enemy’s superiority of force
would have been vastly more than
compensated in a minute, and his dis
tance from his base would have en
sured his capture.
Cleburne’s men fought magnifi
cently,
they took works, tangle and all.
There was but little straggling. At
one moment, however, the staff were
sent along the line to drive up such as
there were, I amongst the rest. Riding
along for that purpose I saw a young
fellow sitting down, holding another’s
head in his lap. I said to him, “Come,
my friend, you must get forward.
We cannot stop for the wounded,
the infirmary corps will take care ol
them.” “But, Major,” said he, “this
is my brother, he is dying. You know
lam a good soldier, Major, but it is
my brother.” The dying man looked
up as if to second his request. He
evidently would be dead in a lew
moments. Indeed, 1 think one of
them said so. It was too much for
my feelings, and I rode away. In a
few minutes I came back, the wounded
man was dead, the other was com
posing the arms upon the breast,
he then arranged the hair about the
brow, moved the head gently from
his lap, rested it reverently and with a
woman’s tenderness upon the ground.
He gazed a moment and turned to
wards the front. In a minute he was
in the line which was still engaged.
Amongst our killed, were two very
young men from Arkansas. They
were Col. John Edward Murray, of
the Fifth Arkansas, and Lieut.-Col.
Anderson Watkins, of the Eighth
Arkansas regiment. They were
amongst the best officers in the com
mand. Col. John E. Murray was
regarded by Cleburne as the most
promising officer he had. If he had
lived through the day, he would have
been a brigadier, Cleburne having one
to make. These officers
DIED TOGETHER ON THE ENEMY’S
PARAI’ET,
and were buried, wrapped in one
cloak, in the same grave.
On the 25th of July Hardee moved
his corps back into Atlanta, taking
position on the right.
[To be continued-}
The Kennesaw Route is the quickest.
Iffeut.-Gen. D. H. Hill.
This distinguished Confederate gen
eral died September 24th, at Charlotte,
North Carolina. Gsn. D. H. Hili
was for a long time a prominent figure
in the southern army, and his connec
tion with Georgia troops during the
war, and his recent service as president
of the Agricultural and Millitary Col
lege at Milledgeville, entitle his memo
ry to the special notice of our people.
Colquitt’s brigade of Georgians was
for a long time in Hill’s division, and
to the 28th and 23d Georgia regiments
is largely due the credit of holding
South Mountain Pass, where the divis
ion of Gen. D. H. Hill fought the
whole of McClellan’s army, covered
the capture of Harper’s Ferry and
saved Gen. Lee’s army from an attack
that would have divided and perhaps
destroyed it. The truth is that Col
quitt’s brigade was ordered to retreat,
but these two regiments were so close
ly pressed and so situated that they
could not retire, and fought until
night closed the contest. Doles’ bri
gade, afterwards Cook’s regiment,
was also in D. H. Hill’s division.
Gen. Hill was a man of marked pecu
liarities, and he was regarded as a
fatalist on account of his insensibility
to fear. He hated the yankees, as he
always called the Federal soldiers, even
in his official papers. He married a
Miss Morrison, who was a sister of the
wife of General T. J. (Stonewall)
Jackson, and they were devoted
friends. Pollard, in his sketch of
General Hill says : “The associations
of Prof. Hill at Washington College,
Virginia, was the occasion of his ad
vice being sought by the visitors of
the adjoining military institute in fill
ing the vacancy of one of the chairs
of that school, and he strongly recom
mended Stonewall Jackson, and pro
bably his influence secured his appoint
ment over the claims of several more
pretentious and persistent candidates.
The relations of these two men were
very affectionate and honorable. Their
attachment commenced at West Point;
they served together in Mexico in
many and varied scenes of danger;
they were brothers in affections and
feelings long before they married sis
ters and contracted in reality a frater
nal tie ; they both married daughters
of Rev. Dr. Morrison, son of a revo
lutionary patriot, and himself one of
the most gifted, accomplished and
talented men North Carolina ever pro
duced.
General Hill was a very strict dis
ciplinarian and many anecdotes are
still current among the old soldiers
that illustrate his peculiar methods.
He refused to sign furloughs for musi
cians on the ground “that fighters
were to be preferred to ‘footers’.” In
another official correspondence he re
commended that engineers be put to
work with orders “to leave their kid
gloves behind.”
He got into disfavor with the au
thorities at Richmond, and during the
latter part of the war did not have a
command commensurate with his
services. He was the most stolid and
indifferent man under fire that ever
came under my notice during the war,
and lam persuaded from the univer
sal testimony of those who knew him
best that he had no sense of fear.
Colonel Thomas C. Carter, of the
Southern Railway & Steamship Asso
ciation, was for a long time on his staff
as chief of artillery and Colonel Mercer
Slaughter was with Colonel Carter.
General Hill was a good soldier and a
devoted Christian.
The following sketch of him was
written by the Rev. J. W. M. Jones,
from data furnished him by Gem
Hill’s family.