'A Little of Chickamauga' Quotes

"I have not the intention to record it here, only to relate some part of what I sawof it; my purpose not instruction, but entertainment."

"I was an officer of the staff of a Federal brigade."

"for Bragg always retred when we wanted to fight and gought when we most desired peace. We had manouvred him out of Chattanooga, but had not  manouvred our entire army into it, and he fell back"

"By the time Rosencrans had got his three scattered corps together we were a long way from Chattanooga, with our line of communication communication with it so exposed that Bragg turned to seize it. Chickamauga was a fight for possession of a road."

"Back along this road raced Crittenden’s corps, with those of Thomas and McCook, which had not before traversed it. The whole army was moving by its left. "

"There was sharp fighting all along and all day, for the forest was so dense that the hostile lines came almost into contact before fighting was possible. One instance was particularly horrible. After some hours of close engagement my brigade, with foul pieces and exhausted cartridge boxes, was relieved and withdrawn to the road to protect several batteries of artillery—probably two dozen pieces—which commanded an open field in the rear of our line. Before our weary and virtually disarmed men had actually reached the guns the line in front gave way, fell back behind the guns and went on, the Lord knows whither. A moment later the field was gray with Confederates in pursuit. Then the guns opened fire with grape and canister and for perhaps five minutes—it seemed an hour—nothing could be heard but the infernal din of their discharge and nothing seen through the smoke but a great ascension of dust from the smitten soil. ....  The Confederates were still there—all of them, it seemed—some almost under the muzzles of the guns. But not a man of all these brave fellows was on his feet, and so thickly were all covered with dust that they looked as if they had been reclothed in yellow."

"The enemy, everywhere held back from the road, continued to stretch his line northward in the hope to overlap us and put himself between us and Chattanooga."

"we met it by a parallel movement to our left."

"I saw the entire country in front swarming with Confederates; the very earth seemed to be moving toward us! They came on in thousands, and so rapidly that we had barely time to turn tail and gallop down the hill and away, leaving them in possession of the train, many of the wagons being upset by frantic efforts to put them about."

"By a misunderstanding Wood’s division had been withdrawn from our line of battle just as the enemy was making an assault. Through the gap of half a mile the Confederates charged without opposition, cutting our army clean in two. The right divisions were broken up and with General Rosecrans in their midst fled how they could across the country, eventually bringing up in Chattanooga,"

"General Garfield, who, caught in the rout of the right, nevertheless went back and joined the undefeated left under General Thomas."

"attributed to the general’s obvious absence of mind." - In reference to General Negley.

"General Thomas....He had assumed command of all the forces still intact and was pretty closely beset. The battle was fierce and continuous, the enemy extending his lines farther and farther around our right, toward our line of retreat. We could not meet the extension otherwise than by “refusing” our right flank and letting him inclose us; which but for gallant Gordon Granger he would inevitably have done. "

"What I saw was the shimmer of sunlight on metal: lines of troops were coming in behind us! The distance was too great, the atmosphere too hazy to distinguish the color of their uniform, even with a glass."

"see that they were of our kidney I hastened back with the glad tidings and was sent again, to guide them to the general’s position."

"It was General Granger with two strong brigades of the reserve, moving soldier-like toward the sound of heavy firing."

"I directed him to Thomas"

"A few moments later Granger's force was put in on the right"

"Hazen's brigade...which had made a half-mile march to add itself to the unrouted at the memorable Snodgrass Hill."

" for the last hour or two of that interminable day Granger’s were the only men that had enough ammunition to make a five minutes’ fight. Had the Confederates made one more general attack we should have had to meet them with the bayonet alone."

"probably short of ammunition"

"two days of hard fighting, without sleep, without rest, without food and without hope."


This recount shows the desperateness of the soldiers and also conveys a sense of what Bierce's overall aim is: "to entertain".