| LEE AND GORDON'S MILLS ON THE CHICKAMAUGA. |
| BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA, GA., SEPTEMBER 19th AND 20th, 1863. |
Among the killed in this battle were Brig.-Gen. William H. Lytle on the National side, and on the Confederate side Brig.-Gens. Preston Smith, Benjamin H. Helm, and James Deshler; also on the National side, three colonels who were in command of brigades—Cols. Edward A. King of the Sixty-eighth Indiana Regiment, Philemon P. Baldwin of the Sixth Indiana, and Hans C. Heg of the Fifteenth Wisconsin. The number of officers of lower rank who fell, generally when exhibiting notable courage in the performance of their dangerous duties, was very great. Of General Whittaker's staff, numbering seven, three were killed and three wounded. His brigade lost nearly a thousand men, and Colonel Mitchell's brigade of four regiments lost nearly four hundred. The Ninety-sixth Illinois Regiment went into the battle with four hundred and fifteen men, and lost one hundred and sixty-three killed or wounded. Of its twenty-three officers, eleven were either killed or wounded. In the fall of General Lytle we lost another man of great literary promise, though his published writings were not extensive, whose name must be placed on the roll with those of Winthrop, Lander, and O'Brien. He was the author of the popular poem that begins with the line—
"I am dying, Egypt, dying."
Another poet who distinguished himself on this field was Lieut. Richard Realf, of the Eighty-eighth Illinois Regiment, who was honorably mentioned, especially for his services in going back through a heavy fire and bringing up a fresh supply of ammunition when it was sorely needed. Realf was a personal friend of Lytle's, and the bullet that killed Lytle passed through a sheet of paper in his pocket, containing a little poem that Realf had addressed to him a short time before. Some of Realf's war lyrics are among the finest that we have. Here are two stanzas from one:
| "I think the soul of Cromwell kissed The soul of Baker when, With red sword in his bloody fist, He died among his men. I think, too, that when Winthrop fell, His face toward the foe, John Hampden shouted, 'All is well!' Above that overthrow. "And Lyon, making green and fair The places where he trod; And Ellsworth, sinking on the stair Whereby he passed to God; And those whose names are only writ In hearts, instead of scrolls, Still show the dark of earth uplit With shining human souls." |
And here is a sonnet suggested by the loss of many of his comrades on the battlefield:
| "Thank God for Liberty's dear slain; they give Perpetual consecration unto it; Quickening the clay of our insensitive Dull natures with the awe of infinite Sun-crowned transfigurations, such as sit On the solemn-brooding mountains. Oh, the dead! How they do shame the living; how they warn Our little lives that huckster for the bread Of peace, and tremble at the world's poor scorn, And pick their steps among the flowers, and tread Daintily soft where the raised idols are; Prone with gross dalliance where the feasts are spread, When most they should stride forth, and flash afar Light like the streaming of heroic war!" |
General Garfield was distinguished in this action for his judgment and incessant activity. As chief of staff he wrote every order issued by General Rosecrans during the action, except the blundering order that caused the disaster by the withdrawal of Wood's division from the line. He was advanced to the rank of major-general "for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Chickamauga."