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Russell and A.P. Stewart were first sent to oppose Crittenden, but were afterward shifted toward the Confederate left, to McCook's front. The report of Colonel Thompson, Beauregard's aide-de-camp, to General Beauregard, states: "About 11.30 o'clock it was apparent that the enemy's main attack was on our left, and our forces began to yield to the vigor of his attack."
The march of McCook's corps from Valley Head to Alpine was in pursuance of orders directing it to advance on Summerville, the possession of which place would further threaten the enemy's communications, it being assumed that Bragg was in full retreat south, as he had abandoned Chattanooga on the 8th.
Had the different corps, beginning with McCook's, been drawn in toward Chattanooga between the 8th and 12th of September, the objective point of the campaign would have remained in our hands without the battle of Chickamauga, but, as has been seen, this was not done.
This time he was in the large majority. All of McCook's men were with him. A general hunt was instituted through the train, and one by one his possessions were recovered and brought back to him. "Thankee, gentlemen; thankee very kindly. Will any o' you gentlemen have a chaw of terbaker? It's all I have to offer you, but it's good."
This charge entirely shattered Cleburne's brigade, and it disappeared from the contest. This ended the battle in Crittenden's front, and Mendenhall's battery advanced and fired on the flank of the column, by that time retiring before McCook's division.
McCook pushed his line forward to Sherman's camp. The lines were pressed closer and the fire was hotter than ever. General Grant called two regiments, and in person led them in a charge in McCook's front, and broke the enemy's line. Endurance has its limits. The intense strain of two days was telling. Beauregard saw his men were beginning to flag; exhausted regiments were dropping out of line.
Considering the number of troops actually engaged, the losses to Buell were severe, amounting to something over five thousand in killed, wounded, and missing. Among the killed were two brigade commanders of much promise General James S. Jackson and General William R. Terrill. McCook's corps lost twelve guns, some of which were recovered next day.
My division became at the same time the Third Division, Right Wing, Fourteenth Army Corps, its three brigades of four regiments each being respectively commanded by General Sill, Colonel Frederick Schaefer and Colonel Dan McCook; but a few days later Colonel George W. Roberts's brigade, from the garrison at Nashville, was substituted for McCook's.
I reckoned that ten thousand of our men were dead, wounded, or prisoners, and that the enemy's loss could not be much less. Buell said that Nelson's, McCook's, and Crittendens divisions of his army, containing eighteen thousand men, had arrived and could cross over in the night, and be ready for the next day's battle. I argued that with these reenforcements we could sweep the field.
On the 26th of June McCook's corps advanced toward Liberty Gap, my divisions marching on the Shelbyville pike.
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