CLINGMAN’S BriGapE. 495

unequal fight until Ransom’s Brigade came up and retook the
lost position. Very early next morning, I went on orders
to General Hoke’s headquarters. On my way I met a news-
boy with an early edition of a Petersburg paper. I got one
and saw in it this paragraph:

‘Hoke’s Division stood last night like a rock wall and
saved the city. They may be overrun, but no power on earth
ean drive them from a position.’

On reaching the division headquarters, I showed the paper
to General Hoke, and he remarked, ‘They should have said
Clingman’s Brigade, for no other troops of my command
were engaged.’ This was literally true, for on that occasion
our brigade unaided, until Ransom’s gallant brigade came to
our assistance in the night, held Grant’s army in check and
saved the city of Petersburg. When the mine was sprung
30 July, 1864, the Eighth and Sixty-first Regiments were
detached from their positions in the trenches and participated
in the charge by which our lost works were retaken. We
were next engaged in the attack on Grant’s lines near the
Lead Works (19 August, 1864), when we brought off the
field three times as many prisoners as we had men in the
fight.”

General Clingman here received a painful wound in
the leg, from which he never sufficiently recovered to take ac-
tive command of his brigade in the field, though he was with
his command in Johnston’s retreat before Sherman through

Raleigh, and at the surrender of Johnston’s army at Greens-
1. (A Gregory, Captain, Co. D, 8th Regt. 2. Isaac J. Moore, Private, Co. G, 61st Regt.

boro 26 April, 1865.
Wounded at Plymouth, 1864. cea the trenches at Petersburg, 28 ASSAULT ON FORT HARRISON.

5d Fee Epa. ENG Cee ae Stee eee The brigade occupied the trenches in the lines protecting
Petersburg until 29 September, when it was ordered to Chaf-
fin’s Farm to retake Fort Harrison, captured the previous
day by General Butler’s troops.

Clingman’s Brigade was selected to lead the assault, sup-
ported by Colquitt’s Georgia Brigade of the division. The
troops were formed for the assault in a-ravine some two hun-
dred yards from the fort. The enemy had diligently strength-
ened its defences since the day before and, in anticipation of
the attack, had massed his troops in several ranks deep, and

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLINGMAN’S BRIGADE.