ise ten feet in the air
and knew that another comrade had gone.

Here, on July 17th, at evening roll call, technically named the
"Retreat" call, the memorable order was read to our command, relieving
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, and placing Gen. J. B. Hood, in command of the
army. It was received in dead silence, and figuratively speaking "our
hearts went down into our boots," or whatever happened to be covering
our heel.

The army had still the fullest confidence in Johnston. They knew that
for more than two months he had baffled Sherman in spite of his
overpowering force of two to one, and had inflicted heavy losses on the
enemy, with small loss to his own army either in men or material. They
idolized Johnston and were ready to fight, whenever Johnston was ready.
They believed "Old Joe" knew his business, and did not believe that
Sherman could hold on to his line of supplies, and still surround the
city. They believed that President Davis had made a terrible mistake,
and that belief remains to the officers and men of the army of
Tennessee to this day. They admired Hood, his personal character and
gallantry, but they believed in Johnston as second only to Robert E.
Lee, and that the Confederacy did not hold another man who could so
well serve her.

Sherman moving the main portion of his army towards the northeast,
covered by the Chattahoochee, but still holding the W. & A. railroad
with his right wing, our battery was ordered to report to Gen. Wheeler,
who with his cavalry was on the extreme right of our army. We were
placed in position on the bank of the Chattahoochee, where a ravine
entered the river at a very acute angle, forming a narrow ridge between
river and ravine, so that by cutting down into the ground and throwing
the dirt out toward the ravine, we made level places for our guns with
a solid wall of earth as high as the muzzle of our guns, overlooking
the slope toward the river, the hills opposite, and the Federal
entrenchments along the upper edge of the fields with an embrasured
battery in view. Our entrenchment, as described, made no show. We were
there simply to guard against an easy crossing at this point.

Lt. A. C. Hargrove, next day was standing at the parapet near muzzle of
3rd piece talking to Corporal Maxwell, who was gunner to that piece. A
puff of smoke came from a Federal embrasure across the river and both
squatted below the protecting bank. The shell struck the body of an oak
tree standing j