Battle of Chickamauga: Union Regulars Desperate Stand

This two-rank line of battle was followed by the 130 men of Lieutenant H.M. Burnham’s Battery H, 5th U.S. Artillery. One hundred fifty yards to the rear, moving in column to provide support, was the brigade’s second line. Captain Albert B. Dod formed his 276-man 1st Battalion, 15th U.S. Infantry, on the left. To his right was the 2nd Battalion, 18th U.S. Infantry, 287 men strong, commanded by Captain Henry Haymond. King and his staff rode in the formation, ready to direct the actions of his five battalions.

The advancing Federals met the Confederates several hundred yards northwest of Jay’s Mill. King later recalled admiringly that as his Regulars moved through Brannan’s position and attacked the Rebels, they began ‘pushing everything to the front, my first line driving the enemy three quarters of a mile.’ As Wilson’s Georgians and Louisianans fell back, so did Ector’s brigade on Wilson’s right flank. Major Dawson ordered his men to open fire, and the 9th Texas, passing in front of the Regulars, fell apart, most running away but some joining the 200 prisoners bagged by the Union that morning.

Disordered by moving through the heavily wooded terrain, the Regulars began torturously advancing their right flank to the south to seal off their portion of the Union right. Battery H was unlimbered and the 16th Infantry was in position to support it when Scribner’s brigade suddenly poured through the woods, closely followed by the pursuing Confederates of Colonel Daniel C. Govan and Brig. Gen. Edward C. Walthall.

The 16th Infantry was first to feel the weight of the Confederate counterattack. Lying in front of the guns, the battalion was confronted by five regiments of screaming Mississippians who burst from the trees like wildfire. Ordered to support the battery, the 16th met the onslaught and was overwhelmed. Nearly 200 Regulars were captured. King stoically reported, ‘I lost the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry.’

King ordered Burnham’s gunners to limber up, but it was impossible. The Rebels were immediately in the midst of the guns. Musketry killed or wounded 31 cannoneers, including all three officers, and 65 of 117 horses. Another 13 men were captured as they vainly struggled to save the guns.

Walthall’s attack lost impetus as the Southerners sought to haul off the Union guns and loot the prisoners. The commanders of the four remaining Regular battalions felt the lessening Rebel pressure and disengaged. Through the chaos of Baird’s dissolving division, gun smoke, flying bullets and wood splinters, the Regular brigade retired 400 yards to a hill behind the right flank of Brannan’s division. Eventually, the Confederate attack was repulsed.

The attack also cost the Confederates heavy losses. The commander of the 29th Mississippi reported severe casualties, and the 34th Mississippi lost seven killed and 54 wounded. In captivity, the men of the Regular brigade continued to deceive their captors. Walthall and his division commander, Brig. Gen. St. John Liddell, recalled capturing prisoners who claimed to be in six Regular regiments that were not even on the field.

Following the repulse of the Confederate avalanche, Baird’s division was ordered to the Reed’s Bridge Road, southeast of the McDonald farm. This position–the extreme left flank of the army–they were ordered ‘to hold to the last extremity.’ The Regular brigade consolidated and reorganized after its battering earlier in the day. Only 62 men of the 16th Infantry remained with the brigade, and King consolidated the survivors within the 19th Infantry. Second Lieutenant Robert Ayres reported losses totaling 67 men, including Major Dawson. The other battalions had suffered similarly, and their battery was out of the fight. But here the training and discipline of the Regulars paid off. They had stuck together before through rough times at Shiloh and Stones River. Although chagrined at the outcome of the present fight, they were not discouraged.

Fortunately for the Regulars, the battle moved well to their right. About 1 o’clock, the Confederates made six separate attempts to pierce the Union line from the Reed’s Bridge Road to the Viniard farm. The Army of the Cumberland, however, was determined to hold the La Fayette Road. In one or two places, the Rebels actually crossed the road, but were driven back. When darkness fell the road was still secure.

In the desperate fighting along the La Fayette Road, Rosecrans was able to feed brigades into the fight where they were most needed. Although these tactics allowed him to hold the road, his battle line was disrupted. Corps commanders were stripped of their brigades for emergencies in another part of the line, and they were reinforced in turn by other commands when the firestorm of Rebel attacks reached their fronts. It became increasingly difficult for divisional commanders to know where their forces were at any one time, and almost impossible to efficiently transmit orders.

As the fighting sputtered out around 7 p.m., both sides began planning for the next day’s fight. Rosecrans’ primary concern was ‘the safety of the army and the possession of Chattanooga.’ To protect the vital roads, he ordered Thomas to maintain his position on high ground east of the La Fayette Road. McCook’s corps would stretch from Poe’s field southwest to the Widow Glenn cabin. Crittenden’s corps would station itself on higher ground northwest of the cabin and be prepared to move to the assistance of either Thomas or Crittenden. The Reserve Corps, from its position well to the north, was guarding Rossville Gap.

Bragg’s plan was to attack the Union line in the north around Reed’s Bridge Road, turning Rosecrans’ left flank. The attack was designed to push the Union troops south into McLemore’s Cove and seize the La Fayette Road and Rossville Gap. As the Federals gave way, the impetus of the attack would be kept up by a series of attacks running the length of the Union line. Bragg divided his army, placing one wing consisting of two corps under Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk. He would attack at daylight and be followed by the right wing under the newly arrived Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, who would command his own corps and one other.

The initial Confederate attacks were to fall on Thomas, who took the position delegated him by Rosecrans to help hold the gap. The attacking Confederates would be moving uphill from the West Chickamauga Creek valley. Thomas was responsible for a 2,200-yard front manned by five divisions. On his extreme left was the Regular brigade. King had been ordered to extend his line as far as McDonald’s, but because he was down to 1,000 men, his line fell one-half mile short.

In order to accomplish his mission, King organized his brigade in four lines. The 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry, was in front, behind breastworks of logs two feet high. Next was the 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry, with orders to support the front line. The third and fourth lines were made up of the 15th and 19th infantries, respectively, with orders to support the front line or to wheel to the left to protect the open flank. The 18th sent skirmishers to the front, while members of the 19th Infantry took up position about 400 yards off the left flank.

Breastworks were constructed to fortify the Union position. Confederate Lt. Gen. Daniel H. Hill reported that ‘the ringing of axes could be heard in our front all night.’ The labor made the cold night more bearable for the healthy, but for the wounded there was no respite. Unattended on the field, they could find no relief from the chill night air or their relentless thirst.

The only sources of water were at Lee and Gordon’s Mill and the Widow Glenn homestead. So many wounded crawled to the pond at the widow’s homestead that their blood stained the water–it was thereafter called ‘Bloody Pond.’

The Confederate chain of command, already attenuated by jealousy and faction, was further weakened by the casualties of the 19th and finally snapped under the strain of Bragg’s reorganization. His generals failed to get their troops ready on time, and the dawn attack was delayed almost two hours while the Federals worked vigorously to improve their positions.

Second Lieutenant Ayres reported that ‘action commenced on the picket line about 7 a.m.,’ as the Confederates moved into attack position in front of the Union lines. Polk had organized his wing into two massive lines of battle. The first line, extending north from opposite the Poe house to Reed’s Bridge Road, was composed of the divisions of Maj. Gens. Patrick Cleburne and John C. Breckinridge. Breckinridge’s three brigades were commanded by Brig. Gens. Ben Hardin Helm, Daniel W. Adams and Marcellus A. Stovall. Their line extended well beyond the Union left, with Helm’s brigade opposite the Regulars.