line of the
rebels. Without heeding the command, General McPherson and his party
wheeled their horses, and at that moment a heavy volley was poured in,
killing McPherson and so frightening the horses that they became
unmanageable and plunged into the underbrush in different directions. My
aide became separated from the General and the rest of the party, and was
knocked from his horse by coming in contact with a tree, and lay for some
time in an unconscious condition on the ground. As soon as he was
sufficiently recovered he returned on foot to me, having lost his horse
and equipments. Of General McPherson he saw nothing after his fall. His
watch, crushed by contact with the tree, was stopped at two minutes past 2
o'clock, which fixed the time of General McPherson's death.

General McPherson could not have left his point of observation more than a
few minutes when I detected the enemy's advance in the woods some distance
to my right, and between that flank and General Blair's rear. Fuller
quickly changed front with a portion of his brigade to confront them, and
pushing promptly to the attack captured their skirmish-line and drove back
their main force. Upon the persons of some of these prisoners we found
McPherson's papers, field-glass, etc., which conveyed to me the first
knowledge I had of his death; or, rather, as I then supposed, of his
capture by the enemy; and seeing that the papers were important I sent
them by my Chief of Staff with all haste to General Sherman.

General McPherson, it seems, had just witnessed the decisive grapple of
the Sixteenth Corps with the charging columns of the enemy, and, as
probably conveying his own reflections at that moment, I quote the
language of General Strong, the only staff officer present with him at
that critical time:

The General and myself, accompanied only by our orderlies, rode on and
took positions on the right of Dodge's line, and witnessed the
desperate assaults of Hood's army.

The Divisions of Generals Fuller and Sweeney were formed in a single
line of battle in the open fields, without cover of any kind (Fuller's
Division on the right,) and were warmly engaged. The enemy, massed in
columns three or four lines deep, moved out of the dense timber
several hundred yards from General Dodge's position, and after gaining
fairly the open fields, halted and opened a rapid fire upon the
Sixteenth Corps. They, however, seemed surprise