On May 15, 1864 the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Joe Johnston was entrenched north and west of Resaca, Georgia with its left on the Oostanaula River and the right extending to the Conasauga. They had just beaten back multiple assaults by the Union Army of the Cumberland and Army of the Tennessee commanded by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas and Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson the previous day.
On the morning of May 15, Lt. Gen. John B. Hood instructed his division commander Maj. Gen. Carter Stevenson - on the Confederate right - to position a battery so as to bear on enemy artillery bombarding Maj. Gen. Thomas Hindman's Division. Stevenson ordered Capt. Maximilian Van Den Corput's "Cherokee Battery" of four Napoleons to be placed about 80 yards in front of his entrenched infantry. Stevenson recorded the occurrence in his official report: "During the course of the morning I received orders to place the artillery of my division in such a position as would enable it to drive off a battery that was annoying General Hindman's line. Before the necessary measures for the protection of the artillery could be taken, I received repeated and peremptory orders to open it upon the battery before alluded to. Corput's battery was accordingly placed in position at the only available point, about eighty yards in front of General Brown's line."
Brig. Gen. John C. Brown's Brigade constructed an earthen lunette for the guns, but before they could connect it to their main line with rifle pits, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's XX Corps and Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard's IV Corps attacked the Confederate right. The IV Corps was repulsed by Hindman's Division, but at Van Den Corput's Battery - in front of Stevenson's Division - two Federal regiments of Brig. Gen. John Ward's brigade stormed up to the Confederate earthworks. Future U.S. President Col. Benjamin Harrison led one of them, the 70th Indiana.
Van Den Corput's infantry supports had run away, and "with a wild yell," Harrison reported, his troops "entered the embrasure, striking down and bayoneting the rebel gunners, many of whom defiantly stood by their guns til struck down." Some men of Col. Adolphus Buschbeck's Brigade also ran in through the embrasures in the entrenchments and over the battery's guns. Soldiers of the 33rd New Jersey planted their colors on the counter scarp of the ditch.
From the entrenchments behind the battery, Tennesseans of Brown's Brigade poured heavy fire into the Federals, who scrambled back down the slope. Neither side could sortie forward to reclaim Van Den Corput's battery. By 3 p.m. both sides resorted to heavy skirmishing and artillery dueling while the Confederate cannon sat in no-man's land. "Come on - take those guns!" yelled the Southerners. "Come on and take 'em yourselves!" the Northerners replied. After dark Brig. Gen. John Geary ordered his troops to move up and quietly dig through the earthwork, and with ropes drag the four guns back into Union lines. The mission was successful. The Cherokee battery was the only artillery lost by the Army of Tennessee during the Atlanta Campaign.
Men from Geary's division dig through earthworks to drag Van Den Corput's guns back to Federal lines. (Library of Congress)
On the morning of May 15, Lt. Gen. John B. Hood instructed his division commander Maj. Gen. Carter Stevenson - on the Confederate right - to position a battery so as to bear on enemy artillery bombarding Maj. Gen. Thomas Hindman's Division. Stevenson ordered Capt. Maximilian Van Den Corput's "Cherokee Battery" of four Napoleons to be placed about 80 yards in front of his entrenched infantry. Stevenson recorded the occurrence in his official report: "During the course of the morning I received orders to place the artillery of my division in such a position as would enable it to drive off a battery that was annoying General Hindman's line. Before the necessary measures for the protection of the artillery could be taken, I received repeated and peremptory orders to open it upon the battery before alluded to. Corput's battery was accordingly placed in position at the only available point, about eighty yards in front of General Brown's line."
Brig. Gen. John C. Brown's Brigade constructed an earthen lunette for the guns, but before they could connect it to their main line with rifle pits, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's XX Corps and Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard's IV Corps attacked the Confederate right. The IV Corps was repulsed by Hindman's Division, but at Van Den Corput's Battery - in front of Stevenson's Division - two Federal regiments of Brig. Gen. John Ward's brigade stormed up to the Confederate earthworks. Future U.S. President Col. Benjamin Harrison led one of them, the 70th Indiana.
Van Den Corput's infantry supports had run away, and "with a wild yell," Harrison reported, his troops "entered the embrasure, striking down and bayoneting the rebel gunners, many of whom defiantly stood by their guns til struck down." Some men of Col. Adolphus Buschbeck's Brigade also ran in through the embrasures in the entrenchments and over the battery's guns. Soldiers of the 33rd New Jersey planted their colors on the counter scarp of the ditch.
From the entrenchments behind the battery, Tennesseans of Brown's Brigade poured heavy fire into the Federals, who scrambled back down the slope. Neither side could sortie forward to reclaim Van Den Corput's battery. By 3 p.m. both sides resorted to heavy skirmishing and artillery dueling while the Confederate cannon sat in no-man's land. "Come on - take those guns!" yelled the Southerners. "Come on and take 'em yourselves!" the Northerners replied. After dark Brig. Gen. John Geary ordered his troops to move up and quietly dig through the earthwork, and with ropes drag the four guns back into Union lines. The mission was successful. The Cherokee battery was the only artillery lost by the Army of Tennessee during the Atlanta Campaign.
Men from Geary's division dig through earthworks to drag Van Den Corput's guns back to Federal lines. (Library of Congress)
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