As I left General Lee’s tent, after bidding him good-by, he walked out with me to my horse. As my foot was in the stirrup he said again, “Now, general, you must beat those people out in the West.” Withdrawing my foot to respectful position I promised, “If I live; but I would not give a single man of my command for a fruitless victory.” He promised again that it should be so; said that arrangements had been made that any success that we had would be followed; that orders to that effect had been given; that transportation was also ordered to be prepared, and the orders would be repeated.
While the troops were in transit, Jenkins’s South Carolina brigade was transferred to Hood’s division, so that we had two South Carolina and four Georgia brigades of the two divisions, which gave us some little trouble in keeping our men on the cars passing by their homes. The people crowded every station to give us their all in most acceptable rations, and to cheer us with wishes for a happy issue.
The train upon which I rode reached Catoosa about two o’clock of the afternoon of the 19th of September. That upon which our horses were came up at four o’clock. Only part of the staff of the corps was with me, and General Alexander was with his batteries far away in South Carolina. As soon as our horses could be saddled we started, Lieutenant-Colonels Sorrel and Manning and myself, to find the head-quarters of the commanding general. We were told to follow the main road, and did so, though there were many men coming into that road from our right bearing the wounded of the day’s battle; the firing was still heard off to the right, and wagons were going and coming, indicating our nearness to the field. Nothing else occurring to suggest a change of the directions given us, we followed the main road.
It was a bright moonlight night, and the woodlands on the sides of the broad highway were quite open, so that we could see and be seen. After a time we were challenged by an outlying guard, “Who comes there?” We answered, “Friends.” The answer was not altogether satisfying to the guard, and after a very short parley we asked what troops they were, when the answer gave the number of the brigade and of the division. As Southern brigades were called for their commanders more than by their numbers, we concluded that these friends were the enemy. There were, too, some suspicious obstructions across the road in front of us, and altogether the situation did not look inviting. The moon was so bright that it did not seem prudent to turn and ride back under the fire that we knew would be opened on us, so I said, loudly, so that the guard could hear, “Let us ride down a little way to find a better crossing.” Riding a few rods brought us under cover and protection of large trees, sufficiently shading our retreat to enable us to ride quietly to the rear and take the road over which we had seen so many men and vehicles passing while on our first ride.
We reached General Bragg’s head-quarters at eleven o’clock, reported, and received orders, which he had previously given other commanders, for attack early in the morning. Our bivouac was made near the general head-quarters, and we rode at daylight to find the troops. Hood’s brigades that had arrived before us had been at work with the left of the army, which was assigned as my command. Lieutenant-General Polk was commanding the right wing.
Two brigades of McLaws’s division, Kershaw’s and Humphreys’s, came in the afternoon, and marched during the night and across the Chickamauga River.
The army had forced its way across the Chickamauga under severe skirmishes, little less than a battle, during the greater part of the 19th, and some of the commands had been engaged on the 18th working on the same plan.
The written order giving the plan was issued on the 18th. In general terms, it was to cross the Chickamauga, strike the enemy’s left, and roll it back on his right by a wheel to the left so as to come in between the enemy and Chattanooga. The work had been so persistent and assiduous during part of the 18th and all of the 19th, that General Rosecrans came to understand the plan as well as his adversary, and to arrange accordingly.
With my instructions for the 20th the commanding general gave me a map showing prominent topographical features of the grounds from the Chickamauga River to Mission Ridge, and beyond to the Lookout Mountain range.
At early dawn I found the left wing. It was composed of Buckner’s corps (Stewart’s and Preston’s divisions), a new division under General Bushrod R. Johnson, the division of General T. C. Hindman, and three of Hood’s brigades. Buckner’s corps had been cut in two. His division on the right of the left wing was under General Stewart, while Preston’s division, on the extreme left, on the bank of the Chickamauga, was assigned, by the order for battle, as the pivot upon which the battle should wheel. The commands stood: Stewart’s, Johnson’s, Hindman’s, and Preston’s divisions; Hood’s brigades in rear of Johnson’s line. General Buckner reported his artillery as amounting to about thirty guns. Three batteries were reported, of four guns each, with Hindman’s division, Johnson’s and Hood’s commands being without artillery. The brigades of Kershaw and Humphreys were ordered, with Hood’s, to be used as a column of assault, by brigades, at a hundred paces interval.