155                                HISTORY OF THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT O.V.V.I.

noble McPherson said, "We must have that hill." General Blair directed General M. D. Leggett, commanding Third Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, to adjust his troops so as to charge and take the hill in the morning. General Leggett did as commanded, (he always does) for about six o'clock, A. M., of the 21st inst., he made a magnificent charge, in the face of a deadly fire of musketry and artillery, and took the hill with many prisoners.

           In a few minutes he had artillery in position, and was playing vigorously upon Atlanta. The rebels made several vigorous charges to retake the hill during the day, but without success. General Leggett lost between three and four hundred men in the charge, and inflicted a still greater loss upon the enemy. The Fourth Division, commanded by General G. A. Smith, attempted, also, to advance with General Leggett, but met such a murderous fire of artillery and musketry as to compel him to fall back under a sheltering ridge, after leaving many men in killed and wounded. During the day of the 21st, General Smith's Division was placed in position to the left of General Leggett, and both Divisions thoroughly entrenched themselves, facing toward Atlanta. The enemy was discovered moving toward our extreme left, (Smith's Division was now on our extreme left,) and the Sixteenth Army Corps was directed to take up position so as to protect our left flank. The Sixteenth Army Corps was moving to this position on the 22d, but had not reached the left of General Smith by about three-fourths of a mile, when the enemy fell upon it from the rear in heavy force. General Dodge met this unexpected onslaught with a resistance so vigorous and persistent as to cause the rebels soon to retire.

           The enemy were as much surprised to find General Dodge where he was, as was General Dodge at being attacked. The enemy expected to meet no obstruction from the rear except the pickets of the Seventeenth Corps, and did not meet anything else in the gap of three-fourths of a mile between the left of the Seventeenth and right of the Sixteenth Corps. Through this gap the whole of Claiborne's Division of Hardee's Corps passed undiscovered, the ground being covered by a dense forest. The pickets were many of them killed or captured, and the balance followed in so closely as to be able to give but little alarm. The enemy rapidly advanced upon the rear of General Smith and Leggett. It was the advance of this force that shot the gallant and greatly beloved McPherson. The enemy first struck General Smith's Division on his extreme left, but very soon were upon the rear of both Third and Fourth Divisions. Generals Leggett and Smith both put their men over their works, and met the enemy's mad charge with a terrible volley of musketry. The enemy pushed, however, up to within a few feet of our works, but were finally repulsed with a slaughter almost unparalleled. They fell back, reformed their lines and soon came up again in the same direction, and the conflict for some time was a hand to hand combat, the bayonet and the clubbed musket were freely used, and the enemy again repulsed, leaving the ground literally carpeted with the dead and wounded. After a quiet of a few minutes, the enemy, a part of Hood's old Corps (now Stevenson's) was discovered moving upon us from the front.

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