The Confederate commander made no secret of his plan of battle, for it had been formulated three days before, and his manoeuvers on the 18th and 19th indicated his plan of operations.  Early in the morning Bragg saluted his adversary with thirty pieces of artillery from his right wing, and the Federal Commander was not slow in acknowledging the salutation.  The thunder of these guns echoed along the mountain sides and up and down the valleys with thrilling effect.  Soon the ridges in our front were one blaze of fire as the infantry began their movements for attack, and the smoke from the enemy’s guns was a signal for our batteries along the whole line.

The attack on the right was not as prompt as the commander in chief had expected, so he rode in that direction and gave positive orders for the battle to begin.  General D.H.  Hill now ordered up that paladin of State craft, the gallant Kentuckian and opponent of Lincoln for the Presidency, General John C. Breckenridge, and put him to the assault on the enemy’s extreme left.  But one of his brigade commanders being killed early in the engagement, and the other brigades becoming somewhat disorganized by the tangled underbrush, they made but little headway against the enemy’s works.  Then the fighting Irishman, the Wild Hun of the South, General Pat Cleburn, came in with his division on Breckenridge’s left, and with whoop and yell he fell with reckless ferocity upon the enemy’s entrenchments.  The four-gun battery of the Washington (Louisiana) Artillery following the column of Assault, contended successfully with the superior metal of the three batteries of the enemy.  The attack was so stubborn and relentless that the enemy was forced back on his second line, and caused General Thomas to call up Negley’s Division from his reserves to support his left against the furious assaults of Breckenridge and Cleburn.  But after somewhat expending their strength in the first charge against the enemy’s works, and Federal reinforcements of infantry and artillery coming up, both Confederate divisions were gradually being forced back to their original positions.  Deshler’s Brigade, under that prince of Southern statesmen, Roger Q. Mills, supported by a part of Cheatham’s Division, took up Cleburn’s battle, while the division under General States R. Gist (of South Carolina), with Liddell’s, of Walker’s Corps, went to the relief of Breckenridge.  Gist’s old Brigade (South Carolina) struck the angle of the enemy’s breastworks, and received a galling fire from enfilading lines.  But the other brigades of Gist’s coming up and Liddell’s Division pushing its way through the shattered and disorganized ranks of Breckenridge, they made successful advance, pressing the enemy back and beyond the Chattanooga Road.

Thomas was again reduced to the necessity of calling for reinforcements, and so important was it thought that this ground should be held, that the Union commander promised support, even to the extent of the whole army, if necessary.