In his memoir, Pvt. Philip D. Stephenson of the 5th Company, Washington Artillery, described the same snowball battle while the AoT was winter quartered at Dalton, GA:
But perhaps the most interesting of all episodes was the Snow-ball Battle! A battle indeed! A battle royal! A battle in which ultimately thousands of men engaged. In regular organization too, by batteries, regiments, brigades and divisions. One of those late March blizzards had come upon us, the last compliments of a stern winter. The snow lay deep upon the ground, six inches or so, and things looked dismal, and men felt dismal. The tent flies in the woods, stretching as far as the eye could reach, and the snow over everything, trees, tents, underbrush, streets, and other open spaces of the camps! Not much moving around! A figure now and then. That was all. Depressing picture!
Suddenly, some fellows in Cobb's Battery, next door to us, ran out in the open and began snow-balling each other. Others joined them and more and more! Presently there was a lull and a sort of conference, and then--the whole crowd broke into our grounds and began "shelling" us in our tents! Come out, yelled they, "Come out and fight!" No response. Our Louisiana boys were shivering and demoralized. They were not used to snow, and that was the biggest one most of them had ever seen! It was all very well for Cobb's men. They were Kentuckians and used to snow. As for the Louisianians, they did not see where the fun came in. A few of us (I being a Missourian) ran out and "engaged the enemy," but the rest kept close in their holes. The Kentuckians kept jeering and daring us and bombarding us! "Come out, come out and fight!" At last there was a shout, "I can't stand this any longer! Here boys let's at them!" And out from an officer's tent shot a figure, stooping down as he ran, gathering snow and charging into the midst of the foe. It was Chalaron our peppery little 1st Lieutenant, hatless and his bald head shiny and red, while his Louis Napoleon moustache and imperial beard bristled up like the whiskers of a cat. It needed no second cry! Our men had stood it long enough. Out they tumbled after their leader.
We drove the enemy back to their quarters, but we had a tough time doing it. Such pounding and thumping, and rolling over and over in the snow, and washing of faces and cramming snow in mouth and ears and mixing up in great wiggling piles together. But we drove them back and made them respect us. By that time our blood was up and we wanted other worlds to conquer. We concluded to combine forces and attack the other battery of our battalion, Tennessee boys. Our battalion was made up of three batteries: our own, Cobb's Kentucky, and Mebane's (I think) Tennessee. We pitched into them and "wiped them out" in short order. Then we proposed combination with them and to extend operations on a grander scale. To this they agreed, and so, with increased and formidable front, and tremendous yelling and great stores of ammunition, we went forth to conquer.
This time the onset was upon the infantry, those nearest to us. It happened to be an Alabama regiment and they at first were like our Louisiana boys--no fight in them, shivered and demoralized by snow, moping about the fires or rolled up in their blankets in the tents. But we put life into them! I remember helping to drag one fellow out of his tent myself. We would not let them alone. We yelled and searched, ran through their streets, pelted them in their tents, around their fires, everywhere, until at last, in desperation, they became aroused also and went for us. After a while, a junction of forces was made again and we charged other camps.
By this time other portions of the army had heard what was going on and had caught the infection. Officers and all. Yes, Generals of brigades and divisions! I remember seeing a group of them, with their staff officers, in grave conference together, planning evidently some "big strategy," but nightfall was now near, and so decisive operations were postponed until the next day.
And the next day, we had it sure enough! Brigades and divisions were on either side, and it was a pitched battle, full of vim and dead earnestness. How I wish I could recall the details: the troops engaged, their numbers, and disposition, also the generals who led us. I think it was confined mostly to Hardee's Corps (our Corps) with volunteers from elsewhere. Cheatham and Cleburne led the opposing sides, but I cannot speak positively. Nor can I say who whipped. My impression is both "whipped." Partial advantages were gained by each side. It was an all day fight and everybody covered himself with glory and with snow. The incidental value of this episode is that it shows the rejuvenated spirits of the men, how altogether different they were from what Johnston had found only four months before.
- The Civil War Memoir of Philip Daingerfield Stephenson, D.D.