They debouched through the woods,
and passed out of sight in a little ravine, when we saw them emerge in an
open field and advance right upon the Federal breastworks. It was the
grandest spectacle I ever witnessed. We could see the smoke and dust
of battle, and hear the shout of the charge, and the roar and rattle of
cannon and musketry. But Breckinridge's division continued to press
forward, without wavering or hesitating. We can see the line of dead
and wounded along the track over which he passed, and finally we see our
battle flag planted upon the Federal breastworks. I cannot describe the
scene. If you, reader, are an old soldier, you can appreciate my failure
to give a pen picture of battle. But Breckinridge could not long hold
his position. Why we were not ordered forward to follow up his success,
I do not know; but remember, reader, I am not writing history. I try
only to describe events as I witnessed them.
We marched back to the old church on the roadside, called New Hope church,
and fortified, occupying the battlefield of the day before. The stench
and sickening odor of dead men and horses were terrible. We had to
breathe the putrid atmosphere.
The next day, Colonel W. M. Voorhies' Forty-eighth Tennessee Regiment
took position on our right.
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