enemy kept up a heavy artillery and musketry fire
on my skirmishers, he occupying, with his sharpshooters,
beyond some open fields, a heavy belt of timber to
my front and right, where it was intended the left
of Davis should finally rest. To gain this point
Davis was ordered to swing his division into it in
conjunction with a wheeling movement of my right brigade,
until our continuous line should face nearly due east.
This would give us possession of the timber referred
to, and not only rid us of the annoying fire from
the skirmishers screened by it, but also place us
close in to what was now developing as Bragg’s
line of battle. The movement was begun about
half-past 2, and was successfully executed, after
a stubborn resistance. In this preliminary affair
the enemy had put in one battery of artillery, which
was silenced in a little while, however, by Bush’s
and Hescock’s guns. By sundown I had taken
up my prescribed position, facing almost east, my
left (Roberts’s brigade) resting on the Wilkinson
pike, the right (Sill’s brigade) in the timber
we had just gained, and the reserve brigade (Schaefer’s)
to the rear of my centre, on some rising ground in
the edge of a strip of woods behind Houghtaling’s
and Hescock’s batteries. Davis’s
division was placed in position on my right, his troops
thrown somewhat to the rear, so that his line formed
nearly a right angle with mine, while Johnson’s
division formed in a very exposed position on the right
of Davis, prolonging the general line just across
the Franklin pike.
The centre, under Thomas, had already formed to my
left, the right of Negley’s division joining
my left in a cedar thicket near the Wilkinson pike,
while Crittenden’s corps was posted on the left
of Thomas, his left resting on Stone River, at a point
about two miles and a half from Murfreesboro’.
The precision that had characterized every manoeuvre
of the past three days, and the exactness with which
each corps and division fell into its allotted place
on the evening of the 30th, indicated that at the
outset of the campaign a well-digested plan of operations
had been prepared for us; and although the scheme
of the expected battle was not known to subordinates
of my grade, yet all the movements up to this time
had been so successfully and accurately made as to
give much promise for the morrow, and when night fell
there was general anticipation of the best results
to the Union army.
CHAPTER XIII.
ASSAULT ON OUR RIGHT FLANK—OCCUPYING A
NEW POSITION—THE ENEMY
CHECKED—TERRIBLE LOSS OF OFFICERS—AMMUNITION
GIVES OUT
—RECONSTRUCTING THE LINE—COLLECTING
THE WOUNDED AND BURYING
THE DEAD—DEALING WITH COWARDS—RESULTS
OF THE VICTORY.