At the close of this battle, my company, the largest in the brigade, was selected for picket duty to cover the brigade front. Lieutenant Freeman, the adjutant, posted me close to the rebel lines. He rode out a couple of hundred yards and was taken prisoner by rebel pickets springing from behind trees, and sent to Libby Prison, from which he escaped through a tunnel in time to join Sherman's army near the sea. During the entire night our picket line was compelled to listen to the shrieks and cries for water and help from the wounded and dying, who lay immediately in front, but whom we were unable to assist, although they were only a few hundred yards from us. Some time after midnight an order came for a change in the position of the army, which moved our brigade a mile and a half to another position. As Freeman was absent, the regimental commander was unaware of the exact location of my company; and, in the morning, hearing no noise from the location of the regiment, I sent a sergeant to find out the cause. The sergeant returned, reporting that the regiment and the troops adjoining had abandoned the field, so I relieved my company and marched, following the trails of the different regiments, and finally arrived at their line of battle. I did not see Freeman again until on recruiting duty at St. Louis. Rosecrans was practically defeated at Chickamauga and retired to Chattanooga, where Thomas concentrated his army for defense. Bragg besieged the city with so large an army it was found necessary to reinforce the Army of the Cumberland by the Army of the Tennessee, under Grant and Sherman, and two divisions of the Army of the Potomac, under Hooker. General Thomas, who succeeded Rosecrans, was besieged and on half rations for months, the Confederate cavalry cutting off supplies. Finally there came the wonderful battle of Missionary Ridge, with Grant commanding the whole army; Hooker, the right (Lookout Mountain); Thomas, the center; and Sherman, the left. Hooker took Lookout during the night, but neither army knew it until daylight. As the sun rose, a bugle was sounded and a sergeant and three men presented to the breeze a large American flag from the point of Lookout Mountain, announcing the defeat of the Confederate Army. The whole Federal Army took up the cheer that swept from right to left. By ten o'clock, Thomas' army, numbering perhaps twenty thousand men, was in battle line at the foot of Missionary Ridge, five hundred feet high, well designed for defense. Three guns from Thomas' headquarters was the signal for the whole line to charge. Thomas' army stood for hours, with fixed bayonets, reflecting dazzling sun rays to the Ridge.