[CHAP. XLIII.

ajack 10 miles from the north point of Lookout. The pass at the point and those nearest to it for 2 1/2 miles on the west side were held by detachments from the Twenty-third and Thirtieth Alabama Regiments, while reserves from the same regiments, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Hundley, officer of the day, were held near the line of defenses south of Summertown to re-enforce these pickets. One section of the battery under charge of----was in position near the point, while the other section was held disposable between the point and the line of defenses on the south.

About 12.30 p.m. I moved the Thirty-second Tennessee, the largest regiment of my brigade, to re-enforce the point and to support the battery.

At 1 p.m. the two Napoleon guns on the point opened fire upon the enemy, then passing near the Craven house, and continued it incessantly for two hours. At the same time I deployed sharpshooters from the Thirty-second Tennessee and the Thirtieth Alabama down the sides of the mountain, and directed a fire upon the enemy's flank. I ordered rocks rolled down the mountain also. The fog was so dense that we could not see the enemy, although we could hear his march, and guided by this and the report of his musketry ours was directed. His advance was quickly checked and his fire materially abated, and doubtless the effect of the shells from the two Napoleon guns and the fire of our sharpshooters contributed largely to this end.

Late in the afternoon (the hour not recollected) I reported to the major-general commanding, in answer to a summons from him, and was informed that he had been directed by General Bragg to withdraw from the mountain.

I gave orders to all the troops to be ready to move at 7 p.m. Nearly all of our wagons had been ordered the night previous to Chickamauga Station for supplies, and had not returned. The consequence was that our camp equipage and a part of our baggage was abandoned.

At 7 p.m. the troops, artillery, and ordnance trains were quietly withdrawn to the valley by the Chattanooga road, and crossed Chattanooga Creek by 10 o'clock. The Eighteenth and Twenty-sixth Tennessee Regiment were withdrawn by the McCullough road, and crossed the valley and Missionary Ridge by way of Rossville, and did not form a junction with the command until late in the afternoon the next day. I halted my brigade on the east side of Chattanooga Creek, fronting on that stream, my right resting on the left of Breckinridge's line.

At 4 a.m. the 25th, I received orders from Major Clare, of General Bragg's staff, to move to the extreme right of the line, which I did at once, reaching the position of Major-General Cleburne immediately after sunrise. Under the directions of Major-General Stevenson I formed with my left resting over the tunnel through which the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad passes Missionary Ridge. My line was soon afterward changed by Lieutenant-General Hardee so as to be in position to support Cleburne's left or hold the railroad, as occasion might demand. My skirmishers covered the ground from Cleburne's left to the railroad, moving as far forward as Glass' Station.

An hour or two later, by direction of Major-General Stevenson, I moved up so as to occupy the interval between the left of Cleburne's