d them. The
war was expensive to the South as well as to the North, both in blood
and treasure, but it was worth all it cost.

The enemy was surprised by the movements which secured to us a line of
supplies. He appreciated its importance, and hastened to try to recover
the line from us. His strength on Lookout Mountain was not equal to
Hooker's command in the valley below. From Missionary Ridge he had to
march twice the distance we had from Chattanooga, in order to reach
Lookout Valley; but on the night of the 28th and 29th an attack was made
on Geary at Wauhatchie by Longstreet's corps. When the battle
commenced, Hooker ordered Howard up from Brown's Ferry. He had three
miles to march to reach Geary. On his way he was fired upon by rebel
troops from a foot-hill to the left of the road and from which the road
was commanded. Howard turned to the left, charged up the hill and
captured it before the enemy had time to intrench, taking many
prisoners. Leaving sufficient men to hold this height, he pushed on to
reinforce Geary. Before he got up, Geary had been engaged for about
three hours against a vastly superior force. The night was so dark that
the men could not distinguish one from another except by the light of
the flashes of their muskets. In the darkness and uproar Hooker's
teamsters became frightened and deserted their teams. The mules also
became frightened, and breaking loose from their fastenings stampeded
directly towards the enemy. The latter, no doubt, took this for a
charge, and stampeded in turn. By four o'clock in the morning the
battle had entirely ceased, and our "cracker line" was never afterward
disturbed.

In securing possession of Lookout Valley, Smith lost one man killed and
four or five wounded. The enemy lost most of his pickets at the ferry,
captured. In the night engagement of the 28th-9th Hooker lost 416
killed and wounded. I never knew the loss of the enemy, but our troops
buried over one hundred and fifty of his dead and captured more than a
hundred.

After we had secured the opening of a line over which to bring our
supplies to the army, I made a personal inspection to see the situation
of the pickets of the two armies. As I have stated, Chattanooga Creek
comes down the centre of the valley to within a mile or such a matter of
the town of Chattanooga, then bears off westerly, then north-westerly,
and enters the Tennessee River at the foot of Lookout Mountain. This
creek