The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 01Bierce, Ambrose
General
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 01
Bierce, Ambrose
Fiction
After resetting their line the victors could not clear their front, for
the baffled assailants would not desist. All over the open country in
their rear, clear back to the base of the hills, drifted the wreck of
battle, the wounded that were able to walk; and through the receding
throng pushed forward, here and there, horsemen with orders and footmen
whom we knew to be bearing ammunition. There were no wagons, no caissons:
the enemy was not using, and could not use, his artillery. Along the line
of fire we could see, dimly in the smoke, mounted officers, singly and in
small groups, attempting to force their horses across the slight parapet,
but all went down. Of this devoted band was the gallant General Adams,
whose body was found upon the slope, and whose animal's forefeet were
actually inside the crest. General Cleburne lay a few paces farther out,
and five or six other general officers sprawled elsewhere. It was a great
day for Confederates in the line of promotion.
For many minutes at a time broad spaces of battle were veiled in smoke. Of
what might be occurring there conjecture gave a terrifying report. In a
visible peril observation is a kind of defense; against the unseen we lift
a trembling hand. Always from these regions of obscurity we expected the
worst, but always the lifted cloud revealed an unaltered situation.
The assailants began to give way. There was no general retreat; at many
points the fight continued, with lessening ferocity and lengthening range,
well into the night. It became an affair of twinkling musketry and broad
flares of artillery; then it sank to silence in the dark.
Under orders to continue his retreat, Schofield could now do so
unmolested: Hood had suffered so terrible a loss in life and _morale_ that
he was in no condition for effective pursuit. As at Spring Hill, daybreak
found us on the road with all our impedimenta except some of our wounded,
and that night we encamped under the protecting guns of Thomas, at
Nashville. Our gallant enemy audaciously followed, and fortified himself
within rifle-reach, where he remained for two weeks without firing a gun
and was then destroyed.
'WAY DOWN IN ALABAM'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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