uit.
At company headquarters, when the full quota of officers was on hand,
were Capt. C. L. Lumsden, Lieuts. Eb H. Hargrove, A. C. Hargrove, John
A. Caldwell, and Cadet Lieut. Sykes. Also Chas. M. Donoho, bugler and
messenger, and Henry Donoho, his cousin, headquarter's clerk. But it
sometimes happened that every commissioned officer was away with Cadet
Sykes, left in the command. Caldwell, being promoted to Lieut., J. Mack
Shivers, was appointed Orderly Sergeant. The other Sergeants were John
Little, James Jones, (from Autauga County,) James Cordwell and Wilds,
with John Snow, quartermaster and commissary Sergeant.
The Corporals were: Thomas Owen, T. Alex Dearing, Wade Brook, and J. R.
Maxwell, gunners, J. Wick Brown, John Watson, W. B. Appling, and ----,
chiefs of caissons. About May 1st, 1864, Sherman moved out from
Chattanooga, and Lumsden's Battery left winter quarters for good, never
again to be in a permanent camp for any length of time.
It was placed on the left of railroad north of Dalton, on Mill creek
gap at east end of Rocky face ridge.
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was now in command. The whole army had lost all
confidence in Bragg's ability to secure the fruits of victory, gained
by the hard fighting alone, of his troops. Perryville, Murfreesboro and
Chickamauga had also ended.
On May 8th, the enemy attacked Stevenson's Division, along Buzzard
Roost Ridge, east of railroad, and Mill creek gap with Geary's
Division. They were easily repulsed. Lumsden's battery assisting by
placing a few shells in the gap on the right of the attacking Division.
Geary reported a loss of 200 to 300 men, and that it was impossible to
take the position by assault. As Sherman's army forged to the South
west on its flanking movement, the battery was withdrawn, and on May
15th, next faced the enemy in a field of green wheat on the Oastenaula
river, below the railroad bridge at Resaca, 18 miles south of Dalton,
on the day of McPherson's attack at that point, but did not get to fire
a shot.
The position was on the west of a gentle rise, that inclined slightly
to our rear. Had infantry charged our front, a few steps forward, would
have enabled us to sweep the field. A Federal rifle battery, fired at
us for a while, where we lay on the ground barely covered from their
fire, when one of the shells skimmed the crest of the hill, it would
miss our back a foot or two and pass on with no damage to us. The
ground was hot under us, and
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