the
troops using bayonet freely and the officers their swords. This attack
failed; it was no doubt timed to occur at the same time that Cheatham's
Corps attacked from the Atlanta front, which Leggett met. The brunt of
Cheatham's attack was against Leggett's Hill, the key to the position of
that portion of the Army of the Tennessee. General Giles A. Smith's
Division had to give up the works they occupied and fall into line at
right angles with Leggett's Division, Leggett's Hill being the apex of the
formation; and around this position for three-quarters of an hour more
desperate fighting was done that I can describe. Up to midnight the enemy
occupied one side of the works while we occupied the other, neither side
giving way until Hood saw that the whole attack was a failure, when those
who were on the outside of the works finally surrendered to us. Their
attack at this angle was a determined and resolute one, advancing up to
our breastworks on the crest of the hill, planting their flag side by side
with ours, and fighting hand to hand until it grew so dark that nothing
could be seen but the flash of guns from the opposite sides of the works.
The ground covered by these attacks was literally strewn with the dead of
both sides. The loss of Blair's Corps was 1,801 killed, wounded, and
missing. Blair's left struck in the rear flank, and the front gave way
slowly, gradually, fighting for every inch of ground, until their left was
opposite the right flank of the Sixteenth Corps; then they halted, and
held the enemy, refusing to give another inch.

It would be difficult in all the annals of war to find a parallel to the
fighting of the Seventeenth Corps; first from one side of its works and
then from the other, one incident of which was that of Colonel Belknap, of
the Union side, who, reaching over the works, seized the Colonel of the
Forty-fifth Alabama, and, drawing him over the breastworks, made him a
prisoner of war.

About 4 p. m. Cheatham's Corps was ordered by Hood to again attack; they
directed their assault this time to the front of the Fifteenth Corps,
using the Decatur wagon-road and railway as a guide, and came forward in
solid masses, meeting no success until they slipped through to the rear of
the Fifteenth Corps by a deep cut used by the railway passing through our
intrenchments.

As soon as they reached our rear, Lightburn's Division of the Fifteenth
Corps became partially panic-stricken, and fell back, givin