the battle, says:

I witnessed the first furious assault upon the Sixteenth Army Corps,
and its prompt and gallant repulse. It was a fortunate circumstance
for that whole army that the Sixteenth Army Corps occupied the
position I have attempted to describe, at the moment of the attack;
and although it does not become me to comment upon the brave conduct
of the officers and men of that Corps, still I can not refrain from
expressing my admiration for the manner in which the Sixteenth Corps
met and repulsed the repeated and persistent attacks of the enemy.

The Sixteenth Corps has a record in that battle which we seldom see in the
annals of war. It met the shock of battle and fired the last shot late
that night, as the enemy stubbornly yielded its grasp on Bald Hill. It
fought on four parts of the field, and everywhere with equal success. It
lost no gun that it took into the engagement, and its losses were almost
entirely in killed and wounded--the missing having been captured at
Decatur through getting mired in a swamp.

At no time during the Atlanta campaign was there present in the Sixteenth
Corps more than two small Divisions of three Brigades each, and at this
time these two Divisions were widely scattered; on the Atlanta field only
ten Regiments and two Batteries were present, three entire Brigades being
absent from the Corps. It was called upon to meet the assault of at least
three Divisions or nine Brigades, or at the least forty-nine Regiments,
all full to the utmost that a desperate emergency could swell them,
impelled by the motive of the preconcerted surprise, and orders from their
commander at all hazards to sweep over any and all obstructions; while, on
the other hand, the force attacked and surprised was fighting without
orders, guided only by the exigency of the moment. Their captures
represented forty-nine different Regiments of the enemy. How many more
Regiments were included in those nine Brigades I have never been able to
learn. The fact that this small force, technically, if not actually, in
march, in a perfectly open field, with this enormously superior force
leaping upon them from the cover of dense woods, was able to hold its
ground and drive its assailants, pell-mell, back to the cover of the woods
again, proves that when a great battle is in progress, or a great
emergency occurs, no officer can tell what the result may be when he
throws in his forces, be they 5,000