CHAPTER XXII.

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We will not undertake to follow every movement of the army made to capture the heights of Missionary ridge, as it would be, perhaps, uninteresting to the reader, and out of place here, but will pass on to the morning of the 25th. So far every thing had gone well with the union army. Every movement had been successful. Suddenly from a point overlooking the field of battle, known as Orchard Knob, and on which army headquarters had been established, rang out the signal ordering an advance of our entire front. The line moved rapidly and orderly. The rebel pickets discharged their muskets, and ran into their rifle pits, much resembling the ground squirrel, when alarmed he seeks his den. Our skirmishers followed closely on their heels. The line of battle was not far behind, and the gray rebels were seen to swarm out of their rifle pits in surprising numbers, and over the crest of the hill. A few turned and fired their pieces, but the greater number collected into the many roads which cross obliquely up its steep face, like cattle trails, and went to the top. Our lines pressed on and up the steep sides of the ridge, and here and there a color was advanced beyond the lines. The attempt appeared most dangerous, but the advance was supported, and the whole line was ordered to storm the heights, upon which not less than forty pieces of artillery, and no one knows how many muskets, stood ready to slaughter the assailants. With cheers answering to cheers, the men swarmed upward. They gathered to the points least difficult of ascent, and the line was broken. Color after color was planted on the summit, while musket and cannon vomited their thunder upon them. A well directed shot from Orchard Knob, exploded a rebel caisson on the summit, and the gun was seen galloping to the right, its driver lashing his horses. A party of our soldiers intercepted them, and the gun was captured with cheers. A fierce musketry fire broke out to the left, where between Thomas and Davis a mile or two of the ridge was still occupied by the rebels. Bragg left the house in which he had held his headquarters, and rode to the rear as our troops crowded the hill on either side of him. General Sherman proceeded to the summit, and then only did he know its height. Some of the captured artillery was put in position. Artillerists were sent for to work the guns. Caissons were searched for ammunition. The rebel log breastworks were torn to pieces, and carried to the other side of the ridge and used in forming barricades. A strong line of infantry was formed in the rear of Baird's line, hotly engaged in a musketry contest with the rebels to the left, and a secure lodgment was soon effected. The other assault to the right of our centre gained the summit, and the rebels threw down their arms and fled. Bragg's remaining troops left early in the night, and the battle of Chattanooga, after days of manoeuvering and fighting, was won. And now commenced a movement in which our brigade took a part that called forth our strongest efforts to endure. Major General Burnside, with his command, was holding the city of Knoxville in the eastern part of the state. This part of Tennessee was intensely loyal to the old flag, and it was the intention of Burnside to hold his position, cost what it might. Knoxville is guarded on the south by the Holston river, and on the west side by a range of hills, so that Longstreet had tried to reach it from the east and north. Here the place had been fortified as well as the short time would permit, but Longstreet had Burnside surrounded, and if relief did not shortly arrive he must surrender to the rebels. Information reached us on the 27th of November, that General Burnside was completely invested, and had provisions only to include the third of December. Seven days before, we had left camp on the north side of the Tennessee, with two days rations, without a change of clothing, stripped for the fight, with but a single blanket or coat per man, from the general down to the private. We had no provisions, only what we could gather as we went along, and were ill supplied for such a march. But intelligence that twelve thousand of our fellow soldiers were besieged in the mountain town of Knoxville, eighty-four miles distant, had reached us. This was enough, they must be relieved, and away we went to their aid. It was a terrible march and we made it in six days. But before our arrival Longstreet had raised the siege and departed, with Burnside's troops in pursuit. General Granger moved into the city with his troops, and we returned to our old camp on Chickamauga Creek, foot sore and weary, our clothes torn almost into shreds, and our shoe soles entirely gone, but we had marched for a big stake and had won. We remained in camp resting, and receiving supplies and clothing, and on the seventh of May, moved with the rest of the army on the road to Atlanta. The rebel army at this time lay in and about Dalton, and were superior to our army in cavalry, and with three corps of infantry and artillery, the whole commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston, making a grand total of infantry, cavalry and artillery of about 60,000 men. Now commenced a campaign, which for fighting, stubborn resistance and manoeuvering, can not be equalled in any history. It was on the seventh of May that we left Chattanooga, and not until the seventh of the following September, five months in all, did we rest from our labors. We will not attempt to relate each and every battle that was fought, for we cannot do that; it was continual battle from the time we left our fortifications near Chattanooga, until we arrived at Atlanta, so we will journey on, merely mentioning places at which some event took place that bore particularly on the conduct of the regiment.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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