[12] he required, so that by an obstinate resistance, somewhat prolonged, Cheatham's attacks on that “rivet” point had to fail.
Meanwhile the two left divisions of Cheatham breasted the whole front of the Fifteenth Corps, now commanded by Morgan L. Smith, and reached Hascall's division, of the Twenty-third. An outwork near the railroad on our front, held by two regiments and a section of an Illinois battery, as soon as outflanked, was given up. This demibrigade regained the main line near a cut in the railroad in good time, but the Confederates took the advantage afforded by the cut and by a building that masked their design. These obstacles wondrously helped their sharpshooters to hold their ground in that vicinage after Lightburn's division had bravely withstood the first assault.
The Confederate brigade of Manigault behind that troublesome building was compactly formed for attack; Colonel W. S. Jones was commanding the Union brigade in his front. Jones's men were occupied by the shooters from that building and elsewhere and blinded by the thick smoke of the artillery.
Like the sudden break of a dam, when the rushing water carries all before it, so that close-formed and waiting Confederate brigade left its cover and rushed down the railway cut and not only displaced Jones's front, but carried away the supporting lines and seized two of our batteries. It was the first bona fide break in Logan's front, and it afforded Cheatham a temporary triumph. During that exciting, noisy, tumultuous and eventful afternoon my own part was easy. I was constantly reminded to keep the Confederate Stewart or G. W. Smith from leaving my front. We did that. I was also to be carefully prepared to reenforce
