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bank on elevated ground, some distance to the left of the ford. En- cased in this open space by woods on three sides, the battery formed a splendid target, and with a plunging fire and better view of his shots, Bridges could not fail to inflict great damage on his adversary. However, he also suffered severely. A caisson was seen to explode in his battery, and his official report gives two men killed, nine wounded, and twelve horses killed, as his losses at this spot. Schultz's loss, if any, is not known.
In its first engagement the next morning, on Bragg's extreme right, the Fifth Company struck Bridges' Battery again. Like itself, it had been thrown during the night from one extremity of the line to the other. This time the contest was not so long, and more decisive. Bridges met with a great disaster he lost two guns and thirty-four horses ; his first lieutenant and three men killed, and seven men wounded, so says his official report. The Fifth Company advanced over his ground, found the body of his lieutenant, examined his guns, refitted from their equipments and ammunition, and hitched up to its guns those of his horses that were found serviceable. A gallant battery it was that there was overwhelmed in the blow that Breckin- ridge struck Thomas's left flank on that morning.
But the Fifth Company was soon to be severely tried also. When came the recoil of Adams' Louisiana Brigade from that point it reached 500 yards in Thomas' rear, when Beatty and Stanley beat it back reduced to shreds, the little Fifth Company was called upon to show the best mettle it could command. Behind its guns rallied the remnants of Adams' Brigade; behind it formed the lines of Liddell to stem the overwhelming pressure of the foe, and until the line was made strong enough to advance, the Fifth Company held the ground as ordered by Breckinridge, unmindful of enormous opposing guns, devoting its canister and shots alone to the enemy's infantry, hurling it back as it charged time and again. Six men killed and fourteen wounded, with ten slaughtered horses, and Graves, the battalion major, lay around its guns when it ceased firing to let Liddell pass to the front in a charge that drove the foe back to where Breckin- ridge had pushed before. Then, with crippled carriages bearing its dead and wounded, the Fifth Company was withdrawn to where Bridges' captured guns stood, and stripped them and others to be fit, and soon it reported back to enter the fray again.
Many other episodes at Jackson, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Ken-
