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IN ALLATOONA PASS.
General W. H. Young, command
ing the Texas brigade was wounded,
as were Colonel W. S. Barry, of the
Thirty-fifth Mississippi, Colonel J. L.
Camp, Fourteenth Texas, Majors C.
P. Partin, Thirty-sixth Mississippi, J.
H. Mcßeynolds, Ninth Texas, Lem.
Purdy, Fourteenth Texas, and R. J.
Williams, of the Missouri brigade
(regiment not specified).
Besides these, eight captains and
eleven lieutenants were killed, and
eleven captains and twenty-one
lieutenants were wounded.
On the Federal side Lieutenant-
Colonel James Redfield, commanding
the Thirty-ninth lowa regiment, was
killed and General Jno. M; Corse,
commanding the Federal forces in the
battle, was severely wounded,
Colonels J. E. Tourtellotte, Fourth
Minnesota, commandant of the post,
and Richard Rowett, Seventh Illinois,
commanding the third brigade of
Corse’s division, Major Fisher, com
manding the Ninety-third Illinois, and
Lieutenant-Colonel William Hanna,
commanding the Fiftieth Illinois regi
ment, were wounded. Besides these
the Federals lost five commissioned of
ficers killed and nineteen wounded.
It is interesting here to note the spir
it of the two commanding generals in
their official reports, after referring to
their losses.
General French writes as follows:
History will record the battle of Allatoo
na one of the most sanguinary conflicts of
the war, and when it is remembered that
the enemy fought from within their strong
redoubts; the desperate deeds of daring per
formed by our troops in ove coming so
many of the foe, a meed of praise is due to
their heroic valor. * * 1 cannot do
justice to the gallantry of the troops. No
one faltered in his duty, and all withdrew
from the place with the regret that General
Sherman’s movements—closing up behind
us—forbade our remaining longer to force
a surrender of the last work. * * ®
It is due to the dead, it is just to the liv
ing, that they who have no hopes of being
heralded by fame, and who have but little
incentive except the love of country and
the consciousness of a just cause to impel
them to deeds of daring, and who have shed
their blood for a just cause, should have
this little tribute paid them by me.
For the noble dead the army mourns, a
nation mourns. For the living, honor and re
spect will await them wherever they shall be
known as faithful soldiers who have for
their dearest rights so often gone through
the fires of battle and the baptism of blood.
General Corse makes the following
comment:
The gallant dead, whose loss conveys grief
to so many households, have left an "imper
ishable memory, and the names of Redfield,
Blodgett and Ayres must prove as immort
al as the holy cause for which they sacri
ficed their lives. I saw so many individual
instances of heroism that I regret I cannot
do them justice, and render the tribute due
each particular one. I can only express in
general terms the brightest satisfaction and
pride I entertain in having been with and
amongst them on that occasion.
' Thus a “just cause” animated the
soldiers on the one side to go through
the “fires of battle and the baptism of
blood,” and the names of the fallen on
the other side “must prove as immor
tal as the holy cause for which they
sacrificed their lives.” How thesefigures
of speech photograph the consciencious
belief of their writers I Yet, which was
right? I answer that both were right as
God gave them to see the right. And
who shall sit on the judgment seat in
the forum of conscience but He who is
Lord of the conscience? "Will the North,
which worships God and “the old flag,”
ever concede that it was not the stern
est necessity which impelled it to en
force its will with the bullet and the
torch of incendiarism? No one ex
pects that it will. Will the South,
through her people, ever concede that
it staked life, liberty, property and hon
or for a cause which was not right on
its merits? If it did its sons would de
serve to forfeit the respect and love of
their own mothers.
***
The writer will digress here for a
moment to remark that immediately
by the west side of the Western & At
lantic railroad track at the upper end
of the pass there is the grave j>t a Con
federate soldier. - For the
THE KENNESAW GAZETTE.
track hands have kept it clear of
bushes and briars. A neat marble
headstone has been placed over it, on
which is the inscription :
; AN UNKNOWN HERO. :
I He Died for the Cause I
I He thought was Right. I
It has not been known what was his
name; but holy to the writer of this
article (who likewise caused the head
stone to be put over this grave) is the
respect for the cause and the flag for
which this hero gave his life, and for
his devotion to them which was strong
er than love of life, and, animated by
this veneration, he has ever taken an
interest in seeing that this grave • was
cared for.
Since he began the preparation of
this article, however, on a visit to
Allatoona, he was informed by one of
its present residents that he had been
told shortly after the war by country
people, living in the immediate vicin
ity, who were there at the time of the
battle, that this was the grave of a
Mississippi Colonel. He said that
two of the people on separate occasions
had so informed him. They stated
that the Federals had buried the body
near where it was found, and that
some Confederate prisoners at the time
had told them whose it was ; but that
after the lapse of some years they had
forgotten the name.
As Col. W. H. Clark, was the only
Mississippi Colonel killed in this battle,
these statements would seem to indicate
that this grave is the one in which
that gallant and accomplished gentle
man’s remains have so long reposed.
If so it is a neat tribute to his manly
worth and loyalty to the cause of his
state and section that this grave has
been protected almost as holy ground
by those who honored his motives and
loved him for his heroic death, al
though ignorant of his name.
“And the blood that flowed from his hero
heart,
On the spot where he nobly perished,
Was drunk by the earth as a sacrament,
In the holy cause be cherished.
But a handful of dust in the land of his
choice,
A name in song and story,
And Fame to shout with her clarion voice
‘Dead on the Field of Glory ! ’ ”
***
As to the Federal garrison’s claims
to achievements in this battle we may
mention that their reports show that
they captured General W. H. Young,
who commanded Ector’s brigade. In
, ’FS.u A
THE SOLDIER’S GRAVE,
By the Western & Atlantic Railroad, in Allatoona Pass,
fact, General Young was wounded in
the battle, went with his command to
New Hope Church, obtained leave of
absence, and while en-route to New
nan, Ga., was captured by a raiding
party of Federals, and not at Allatoo
na. The truth of this statement is
established by the testimony of Gener
als French and Young, Major San
ders, and other officers of French’s
division who are still living.*
One of the most striking errors,
however, which the Federal writers
have perpetrated about this battle is
their claim of the great disparity of
the numbers under French and Corse
respectively.
They agree that Corse’s number was
1,944 at Allatoona. But when we con
solidate their regimental reports, we
find that they understate their own num
bers, while vastly over-estimating those
of the Confederates. General Corse
in reporting his force by regiments
and smaller detachments, in every in
stance, enumerates only the men, and
does not count the officers. Some of
his regimental commanders make the
same omission. The reports of the
regimental commanders of the 7th
Illinois, 12th Illinois, 93rd Illinois and
39th lowa regiments show a greater
total of officers and men than General
Corse’s reports of “men” in each, and
he omits altogether to give the number
(16 men) of a small detachment of the
sth Ohio cavalry, and that manning
the six guns of the 12th Wisconsin
* General Young, in conversation with a friend
of the writer some months ago, confirmed the
truth of tiiis assertion, Genera) French made the
same declaration to the writer himself, and a let
ter from Major Sanders gives the following de
tails :
“General Young, who commanded the Texas
brigade at this time,—General Ector having lost
his leg in a previous engagement in that cam
paign,—was wounded while leading the Texas
brigade in the assault made on the Federal lines
west of the railroad cut. He was not captured at
Allatoona ; this I recollect distinctly for this rea
son : French’s division marched directly for
New Hope Church where Hood’s aimy was en
camped, and I was left behind with the rear
guard to bring up the wounded and stragglers. I
remember distinctly that our wounded men in
the ambulances were apprehensive that they
would be abandoned and left to capture the next
day by the Federals. I ordered the ambulances
to be kept in front of the rear guard, and all night
long we marched, and over the difficult portions
of the road the rear guard assisted these ambu
lances, and especially across some water
courses, and brought off e.very wounded man who
was placed in the ambulances, safely to New Hope
Church.
“The next morning about eleven o’clock I met
General Young, wounded in the leg or foot, I have
forgotten which, in his headquarters ambulance
with his courier. I asked him where he proposed
to go, and he said he was going back to Newnan.
I observed to him that he would certainly, in the
course of a couple of hours, ride into the Federal
cavalry, and would necessarily be captured, and
I advised him to change his direction and go
across the country to Blue Mountain.
“Young was a very self-willed man and scouted
the idea of his being captured, and continued his
journey, notwithstanding this warning, in the
direction of Newnan.
“He was captured by Garrard’s cavalry, I
think, in Tess than three hours from the time I
had the conversation with him.