tack because
Hardee struck me, which was a surprise to them as well as to me, and when
Cheatham got ready to attack Blair's front, hitting Leggett's Division,
and on down the Fifteenth Corps, two Divisions, Bate's and Walker's, had
been whipped, and were virtually out of the fight, because after the third
attack upon me, and my breaking up of one of their columns so badly, they
did not come again in any force. They went back to the road on the ridge,
just south of and parallel to my line. I forget the name of the road, but
it was the one that led off to Decatur, and there they intrenched, and
when I pushed forward my skirmishers I found them in force. Between 3 and
4 o'clock Maney's Division left my front and went around to help Cleburn.

There have also been many statements that in the first attack two
Divisions of Hardee's Corps struck the Sixteenth Corps and two the
Seventeenth, Blair's. This is not correct. Three Divisions struck my
Corps, and one Division, Cleburn's, struck Blair's Corps, and caught his
left and rear; but after the third attack on my front Maney's Division was
sent around to join Cleburn, and joined in the fiercest attack of the day,
about 4 p. m., upon Leggett's and Smith's Divisions after their line had
been refused and formed almost at right angles at Leggett's Hill, and
reaching out towards me, with Waglin's Brigade on their left. From all
accounts this attack was a fearful one, Maney's men reaching and holding
the outside of the intrenchments that were occupied by Blair's men. This
line faced almost due south, and both forces fought there off and on until
about 7 p. m., some of the enemy remaining in the outside intrenchments
until Mercer's Brigade of the Sixteenth Corps went in at near midnight to
support that line.

Again, many records have it that Blair was forced back early in the
battle. This is a mistake, as his Fourth Division, commanded by General
Giles A. Smith, which was on the extreme left, held most of his original
intrenched line until between 3 and 4 o'clock, when the attack of Cheatham
from the Atlanta side forced them to take a new position to keep them from
being crushed by Cleburn in the rear and Cheatham's attack from the
Atlanta front.

There is another thing that does not seem to be fully understood, and that
is that when Blair got his left refused so as to face Maney and Cleburn in
his front they were unable to gain any headway on him in their attacks. In
fact, they suf