The “loyal mountaineers” of Tennessee who enlisted in the United States army proved their courage upon various battle-fields. No opportunity has heretofore occurred in this narrative, to say a word on that subject. The commendation which Gen. Burnside gave his troops, of course included the East Tennessee soldiers, who were a part of his command before and during the siege of Knoxville. The valor which animated them and their compatriots from the same region, was signally illustrated by the conduct of the above named regiments at the battle of Resaca. The army corps to which they belonged having been united May 2d, on the Hiwassee River, proceeded to the vicinity of Dalton, Georgia, before which place Gen. Sherman was arranging his lines for the first of the series of encounters with the Confederate army which he had on his way to the sea. Gen. Thomas on May 7th had a successful engagement at Tunnel Hill. Schofield’s corps--of which the Third and Sixth Tennessee regiments were a part--came into position on Thomas’s left, and occupied a steep ridge. On its side the men slept. The right wing and centre of Sherman’s army had advanced so far that on the 9th Schofield was ordered to extend his lines farther to the left. An East Tennesseean, who was then a Union officer and an actor in the scene, relates that Gen. Schofield, “forming his divisions in two lines of battle, with his right resting at the base of the hills, moved down the valley in the direction of the Confederate lines, entrenched behind earthworks. As these two long blue lines moved forward under the eye of the soldiers who covered the crest of the hills to the north, their hundreds of flags floating in the breeze and their bayonets glistening in the bright sunshine, a band began to play ‘The Star-spangled Banner,’ and cheers rent the air from ten thousand voices. It was a most inspiriting pageant and filled the men with the wildest enthusiasm.”[55]