The Battle of Chickamauga
© All Photographs, Robert Marshall
Major McDowell continues:
Vacancies in Company officers were filled and the regiment was again placed in its old brigade and commenced drilling, a duty long neglected on account of hard marching and constant duties since it had left Huntsville in the summer of 1862. On the 24th day of June 1863, we broke camp at Murfreesboro and started south. Our Corps (the Fourteenth) went through Hoover's Gap, following closely Wilder's mounted infantry. After passing through the gap our brigade, under General John S. Beatty, made a detour from the main body of the army, going through Hillsboro and Manchester toward Tullahoma, where we were to rejoin the army proper. It was here we came very near, accidentally, getting into a fight with our own troops, mistaking them, and they us, for the enemy.
They arrived in front of Tullahoma before we did, and were not expecting us on the road by which we came, nor were we looking for "blue coats" in front of us. Both got ready, but happily the mistake was discovered before either party commenced "shelling the woods."
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July 1st we passed through town, and had a running fight with the enemy to Elk River, where he destroyed the bridge, and passed on to Chattanooga. The next day we crossed and, marching to the foot of a high ridge, encamped on July 4th in a camp which we named "Camp Mud," for it was more than a match for the muddy days at Bacon Creek, While in this slough we learned that Vicksburg had surrendered to him "whose demand was always unconditional, and whose modesty was only equaled by his success." To say we were jubilant over the news would not half express our feelings. Then came more marching, over mountains, rivers, and valleys, to Dechard, Tennessee, where we remained during August 1863. On the 1st of September we marched to Stevenson, Alabama, crossed the Tennessee River, Sand and Raccoon Mountains, and bivouacked in Hog-jaw Valley; thence on toward a mountain which, in the distance appeared to join on the clouds, and, indeed it seemed to grow as we approached.
To attempt to cross this with a vigilant enemy opposing seemed worse than rashness. But we rested not, and, with what we now called skirmishing, we forced our way to its top and down its south side to Cooper's Gap, entered McLemore's Cove, and awaited the other troops who were to cross at Stephen's Gap on our right, who, being retarded in their movements, did not join us until the next day. From here we marched toward the "river of death," Chickamauga.
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On the 18th of September, at night, we arrived at Owen's Ford, a crossing of the Chickamauga, about five miles to the right of Crawfish Springs. Here we relieved a brigade which, by its quiet actions in leaving, impressed us with the idea that we were in the immediate presence of the enemy, an idea which ripened in the morning to an absolute certainty, for as soon as it was light the Confederates tried to force the crossing, and we had hot work to prevent them.
All that day we lay on the bank of that stream, under the guns of the enemy, Captain Abe Rothchild, with Company "B," Mt. Eden sharpshooters (hidden behind rocks and trees), as skirmishes, was within one hundred yards of a rebel battery, and after a long contest silenced the battery and kept the rebs at bay until about four o'clock P.M., Saturday, September 19, 1863, when we were withdrawn and marched hurriedly to Crawfish Springs, where we arrived just at sundown, and while a desperate fight was progressing at that point. It was here our former brigade commander, General W. H. Lytle, was killed, and part of the famous Loomis battery was captured. Both of these casualties were very distressing to the Fifteenth, and cast a gloom over us, for they were both brigaded with us in our first year's army life, and were regarded almost as part of the regiment.
Troops were now pressed from our right to our left, and all were impressed with the idea that a battle was imminent. Sunday morning, September 20, 1863, cannon began firing, and with desultory skirmishing and continuous moving toward the left we got into line and threw forward a strong skirmish line.
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Heavy firing was going on to our right, and we were ordered to move further to the left as soon as we should be relieved by General Harris's brigade. While this was being done our lines were charged by the enemy, who advanced in line of battle, apparently without skirmishers, and poured through a gap in the line and got to our rear. The Third Ohio, Forty-second and Eighty-eighth Indiana were cut off to the left, and the One Hundred and Fourth Illinois (which had been attached to our brigade) and the Fifteenth Kentucky were thrown to the right, thus dividing our brigade, leaving General Beatty, with three regiments, to the left, and Colonel Taylor, with two regiments, to the right. As soon as the enemy was discovered in the thick bushes on our left, flanking us, we changed front and charged them, driving them steadily back assisted by the troops of Harris, Hambritht, and Turchin.
We only had time to reform our lines, when we were again attacked and driven inch by inch, and hour by hour, fighting and pressed back, until we got Mission Ridge, near Rossville, where General Thomas bivouacked with the army for the night. To attempt any further description of the part taken in the battle of Chickamauga would be useless, for the regiment only did its duty as a part of as noble and brave an army as ever fought a battle.
On Monday, September 21st, we were in line of battle across Mission Ridge, near Rossville; during the day and night the army was withdrawing to Chattanooga, the Fifteenth Kentucky being left all night as rearguard on the ridge. It was lonesome duty we performed that night, being in the face of and immediate proximity to the rebel lines, and being able to hear them distinctly in the valley below.
On the morning of Tuesday, September 22nd, we moved down the mountain to Rossville, and thence to Chattanooga, where we found the army prepared to receive any attack. Weary from hard service, not having had any rest since the Thursday before, we were glad to receive the command, "Rest."
Lying down and sleeping two or three hours, we were again called to the front and put to work building "Fort Negley," where we had to work in range of the enemy's guns on Lookout Mountain, to our right and rear, and at the same time defend our front toward Rossville. To make things more comfortable our lines of communication were cut, and provisions became scarce. We learned to live on meager rations, buoyed up by the hope of better days coming, and tried to verify general Thomas' dispatch that "we would hold the place till we starved." The promise was kept, for we did hold the place till we starved.
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After weeks of suffering and chafing under the restraints of being besieged, a rumor spread about that General Grant was near, and approaching on the other side of Lookout Mountain. One night a brigade, thought to be Hazen's embarked in pontoons and floated down the river, passing the rebel pickets, who rejoiced because "the Yankee brigades were being 'busted' above," made a landing at "Moccasin Point," capturing the picket-post there, and intrenching themselves so securely by morning that the enemy could not dislodge them. Here a junction was formed with General Hooker, who came up from Bridgeport with the Eleventh and Twelfth corps from the Army of the Potomac.
Chattanooga, the position gained by the battle of Chickamauga, was now ours to hold, and we felt fully repaid for all the privations we had endured. Then came "Hooker's fight above the clouds," which we could hear, but could not see on account of the dense fog arising from the river. With great anxiety we awaited the result of that battle. Everything was hushed in our camps, and a painful stillness resigned until we saw the smoke of the steamer "Dunbar," as it rounded the bend in the river and steamed toward us at Chattanooga. Then we knew that Hooker was victorious, and that our "cracker line" was reopened.
Now, it seemed that bedlam had broken loose, for the whole army yelled as if with one impulse, and made preparations to fill their "empty breeches," and after weary days of fasting and short rations we were once again restored to a full supply of bacon, crackers, beans and potatoes.
The Fifteenth Kentucky was then placed on duty as post guard, and was not on duty with the brigade again until the spring of 1864, when it rejoined the division and started for the "Gate City." It was a privilege of the Fifteenth Kentucky to take a back seat on Forts Weed and Negley, and witness the battle of Missionary Ridge. Here we saw the gallant charges of the Army of the Tennessee on our left, which we had not seen since the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, and now we felt proud of their acquaintance.
In the center, under the guns on the ridge, lay the Army of the Cumberland ready to try the hills again. General Hooker was on the right, moving toward Rossville; Generals Grant and Thomas on Orchard Knob, just in the rear of the Army of the Cumberland, when the order was given to advance to the foot of the ridge. The army moved rapidly forward, driving in the skirmish lines, not only to the foot, but pressed for the top, and halted not until the ridge was again in our possession and the enemy's guns were turned upon him.
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