Escape from East Tennessee to the federal lines

by Robert A. Ragan

We took these men to Knoxville and turned them over to the authorities, and then returned to our command, at Bull’s Gap.

CHAPTER VII.

Preparations were being made at Missionary Ridge for battle, and the rebels were concentrating all their forces at that point. Burnside’s Corps returned to Knoxville and was besieged. After Grant defeated the rebel forces at Missionary Ridge, Longstreet’s army came up to Knoxville and attacked the Federal forces on the west end, but were repulsed with great loss. Longstreet’s defeated and demoralized forces took up their march to East Tennessee, making their way to Virginia. Burnside’s Corps followed them as far as Jonesboro, and then returned by way of Knoxville.

Grant and Sherman were getting their forces together, and making preparations for the great march to Atlanta. Burnside arrived at Red Clay and marched out to what is called Buzzard’s Roost and attacked the enemy, but they were too strongly fortified. We fell back, and Sherman commenced for the first time with his “flanking machine,” as the rebels called it. We marched around through Snake Creek Gap and formed in line of battle about a half mile from the rebel breastworks, our Division being in front. We marched down through a piece of woodland and up a hill about two hundred yards from the rebel works. The grape and canister would cut through our ranks, and we would close up the gaps. It was said that there were about five hundred pieces of artillery playing at the same time. It seemed that the earth was tottering to the center.

We were ordered to lie down within about one hundred yards of the rebel breastworks. A line of battle passed over us, a Colonel being mounted. His horse was shot from under him, but he never halted. The horse fell and rolled down the hill, about ten steps from our line.

General Sherman, knowing our condition and that we were losing hundreds of men, moved around on our extreme right and, getting the range of the rebel breastworks, turned loose his artillery and plowed the rebels out of the works. They retreated, and the day was ours.

When the battle was going on the cannon balls cut off the tops of the trees, and they fell in our ranks and killed many of our men. After the smoke of the battle had cleared away, I could see the rebel sharpshooters hanging in the trees. They had tied themselves to keep from falling if wounded, but some were dead. It was reported that the rebels obtained from some foreign country the long-range guns then used by the Southern sharpshooters, which seemed to be superior to the rifles in possession of our forces.

This little account is not intended to give the history of the War or the exciting campaign through Georgia, but only to give an insight into my personal experiences.

I will here relate one little occurrence at Cartersville, Ga., after we had driven the rebels across the Etowah River. I was detailed with about fifty men to go around a mountain and down to a large flour mill on the river, if we could, and burn it up with all its contents. We arrived on the side of a mountain just above the mill and halted. On the opposite side of the river was a high bluff, from which we were fired upon by the rebels, but we sheltered ourselves behind trees.

I took eight or ten men and went back a few hundred yards to a little stream that flowed into a mill race leading to the mill. The race was quite large, and as the water overflowed on both sides it formed a screened pathway. We reached the mill, unseen by the rebels, and went from the basement to the upper floor, where we found four men sacking flour and corn meal and loading it in wagons in front of the mill. We arrested them and ordered them to help us carry the flour and meal back into the mill. We then unhitched the horses from the wagons, took off the wheels and rolled them into the mill, and then set the building on fire. When it was in full blast, we released the men and went back the same way we came. Finding that our men had silenced the rebels on the other side, we took up our march back to our command and made our report.