Skirmishing commenced again early this morning. The rebel
batteries off on the left would fire a round or two and just as soon as our
guns would open on them they would stop firing. General Leggett's Division on
the left drove the rebels back about a mile, and there was some very heavy
cannonading in the afternoon on the right, where it is reported that General
Thomas made a charge on the rebels' left, around the rear and got possession of
Pine Hills. It was reported that at one point a rebel regiment, the Forty-third
Mississippi, was ordered to make a charge on our lines and when they started
their colonel ordered them to reverse arms, and they came marching right into
our lines, surrendering themselves as prisoners of war. While our men were
making demonstrations all along the line yesterday, about one thousand rebels
were taken prisoners, some of them surrendering without firing a gun. They said
that there was a great discontent in the ranks of their army around Atlanta:
that they were tired of continually falling back, and that many had come to the
conclusion that the war on their part could be nothing else than a failure.
Company E is lying quiet today. The rough treatment we experienced yesterday
was a hard blow to the company, for the loss of nine men from one company in a
skirmish line, in less than four hours, does not often happen.1
1 Our losses were as follows: William Alexander,
killed; Lieutenant Alfred Carey, mortally wounded; John Zitler, a thumb shot
off; Thomas R. McConnell, a
minie ball passed through thigh; John Ford, LeRoy Douglas, George G. Main and
John Albin, slightly wounded. James Martin, it was thought at the time, had
been taken prisoner, but on the fifth day after the skirmish his body was found
by an Ohio regiment, lying with the bodies of two Confederate soldiers. They
had made Martin a prisoner, it seems, but before they could get to the rear with
him, a shell from one of our batteries exploded over them, killing all three.
Then, as they were considerably back from our lines, the body was not found
until the enemy had fallen back and our army had advanced; besides, our brigade
in the meantime had moved two miles to the left.
Martin had both legs cut off by the shell. A captain from
the Ohio regiment which had found his body, brought his silver watch, Bible,
some letters and other articles found on his person, and turned them over to
our captain, informing him how Martin, in all probability, lost his life. — A.
G. D.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 197-8
