MAGNIFICENT CONFEDERATE FIGHTING.
GENERAL BOYNTON'S DESCRIPTION Of OUR SOLDIERS AT CHICKAMAUGA.
As one advances in the study of the battle of Chick-
amauga he must, at every step, become more and more
impressed with the magnificence of the Confederate
fighting. Since tlir first assertion that Chickamauga
was for both sides the bloodiest battle of the war, in
proportion to numbers and the time of the engagement,
and that it far outranked in the percentage ol killed
and wounded any of the battles of modern Europe,
there has I n an industrious searching of records,
both of our own war and ol recent famous foreign
campaigns, to test the accuracy of the claims made for
Chickamauga. But the further the investigation has
proceeded, and ii is now sufficiently completed to allow
general results to be stated with certainty, the more
clearly the truth of the first assertion has been made to
appear. It is not strange, therefore, that the discussions
of the past year, which have served to dispel so many of
the misapprehensions which clouded the public mind
in regard to this battle, and dwarfed it in thehistorj of
the country, should have created such widespread
interest in its real history, and raised it at once t<> tie-
very front rank of our nmst notable engagements.
Tin marvel of German fighting in the great battle
of Mars la Tour was performed by the 3rd Westphalian
regiment. It suffered the heaviest loss in the Gei
man army during the Franco-Prussian war. Ii went
into the battle 3,000 strong, and its loss was 19.4 per
cent. There was nothing in the campaigns of which
this formed a part which exceeded these figures, and
they became famous throughout the German army.
Ami yet in our war there were over sixty regiments
whose Losses exceeded this, seventeen of them lust
above sixty per cent., and quite a number rangi d from
seventy to eighty per cent. There were over a score
of regiment- OH each side at ( !h ickaniauga who-e loss
exceeded that of the Westphalian regiment.
But the object of this letter is more particularly to
set forth the character of the splendid lighting per-
formed by every portion of Bragg's army on this noted
field in ( reorgia.
The battle of Saturday opened in front of General
Brannan, on the extreme Confederate right, and here
a brigade of Forrest's cavalry, dismounted, assisted
almost immediately by < lonfederate infantry, assaulted
the Union lines. As they were driven back by an
overwhelming lire they were continiously reinforced
for nearly four hours. The battle was continuous and
constantly at short range. In fact, it was a distin-
guished feature of the whole two day-' battle that most
of the lighting was at close range, much of it band to
hand, with the bayonet and clubbed muskets. For-
rest's men in front of Brannan assaulted time and
again, marching up into the very face- of the Union
infantry, and in their final effort came on four lines
deep, with their hats drawn down over their lace.-, and
bending forward against the storm of lead as men face
the (dements. The rapid tire of long and well-trained
infantry seemed to have no effect upon these veteran-.
and it was not until they had marched up into the line
of lire of batteries, which, with double-shotted canister,
enfiladed their ranks at a murderous range, that their
advance was checked. Even here they stood and
fought with desperation. Ector and Wilson of Walk-
er's division, and Walthall and Govan of Liddell's, all
marching to the assistance of those contending in this
hell of battle, became, in turn, a- hotly engaged them-
selves in front of I'.aird. and for hours on this portion
of the field the scene just described mi the extreme
Confederate right was repeated tor all of these brigade-.
At the fust onset Walthall and Govan drove their
lines over the flank of the regular brigade and captured
its battery, only to be themselves pushed back again
almost at the point of the bayonet, and so -battered
from their own courageous exposure at short range as
to be practically put out of the light tor several hour-.
Nothing could 1 xceed the valor of these troops. Tie
was nothing in the way of desperate fighting either of
infantry or artillery which they were not called upon
to lace. And they did face it with a courage seldom
equalled, ami which it was impossible to surpass.
Cheatham, moving to the support of Walker.
turned on Johnson with irresistible fore, mid drove
him well backward toward tic LaFayetti road, when
Palmer arriving on Johnson's right, these two divis-
ion-, acting in concert, drove Cheatham back a mile.
and badly shattered bis entire command. Next ca
Hood with I .aw and Bushrod Johnson's divisions and
one brigade of Preston's, and these grappled with
Davis, Woo.l and Sheridan along lines ol battle that at
time- were scarcely two musket lengths apart, and
thus till sundown this contest raged in tin thick woods
betwei n the I. a Fayette road and the Chickamauga, each
line bending backward as the other delivered its
heaviest blows, and as if gathering strength by the
recoil, in almost every instance, rushing forward again
to -way the opposite backward in turn. There was
no general stampede on either side al any point of the
• day- battle, but weight of lim- and weighl of
metal, and the momentum of blows vigorously deliv-
ered controlled the result at every point.
Late in tl ven Saturday, when the lighting
on tic (lank- bad well nigh Ceased, came Stewart's
division of Bate's, Clayton's and Brown's brigad
pounding it- way past the flanks of two Union divis-
ions, and, doubling back the Hank of a third, they pen-
etrated beyond the LaFayette road Before its brave
career was checked it had well nigh divided the Union
line. It i- easy to see that ovei all tin- exti nded area
of bitter and continuous lighting the loss must have
"in terrific. The figures to be presented below will
make t be character of this fighting, to which reference
has thus been made in most inadequate terms, mi
dearly understood. But stubborn, terrific and deadly
a- was the Confederate fighting of Saturday, it became
but ordinary performance when compared with the
marvellous exhibition of courage and endurance which
were exhibited in that army on Sunday before the
Union breastworks about the Kelley farm, and upon
the slopes of Snodgrass Hill and the Horseshoe Ridge.
The Union line about the Kelley farm was estab-
lished on the crest of a low ridge sheltered by heavy
woods, anc^ the troops were protected in their position
by a low breastwork of logs and rails v a lying from two
to four feet in height. Time and again from pi o'clock
till 2, the who],- right wing of the Confederate army
rolled its lines in on the -light works in continual
breaker-, only to he shattered and driven back as the
waves of tl -i .hi go to pieces on the beach; brigade
after brigade da-bed themselves against the salient of
this low work, to be shattered and broken, and to retire
with a loss SO great that after 2 o'clock, and throughout
most of the afternoon, the right wing of the Confed-
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