two companies, the
Continental Guards and Cannon Guards, both from New Orleans, was as
well known to the Army of Tennessee as any organization in it, and
commanded the respect and admiration of all the army. The following
lines from the pen of a gallant soldier in Fenner's Louisiana Battery
truly portray the sentiments of their army comrades towards the famous
battalion:

"In the Army of Tennessee, Austin's Battalion always occupied the post
of honor in the brigade (Adams's and Gibson's Louisiana) to which it
belonged. In the advance, that battalion was in the front; in the
retreat, it hung upon the rear, a safeguard to the Confederates, and a
cloud threatening at every step to burst in destructive fury upon the
advancing enemy.

"Who is on the front?" "Austin's Battalion." "Then, boys, we can lie
down and sleep." Such were the words heard a hundred times among the
troops of the Army of Tennessee, to which was attached Austin's
Battalion of Sharpshooters. Whose tongue could so graphically picture
to the mind's eye a soldier and a hero as do these brief questions and
answers interchanged between battle-scarred veterans in the gathering
gloom of the night, when they knew not, until they were assured
Austin's Battalion was in the front, if they could snatch a few hours
of repose from the toil and danger of battle? Austin's Battalion,
famous throughout the armies of the Confederacy for its discipline and
fighting qualities, was formed out of the remnants of the Eleventh
Louisiana Regiment, which distinguished itself at Belmont, and which
was literally shot to pieces at Shiloh. The battalion is well known to
all the survivors of the Army of Tennessee as a fighting organization.
During the active campaign of the army, it was almost continually
under fire, and Ned Austin, on his little black pony, was always in
the advance, "fooling the enemy, or in the retreat fighting and
holding him in check."

As the title of the battalion indicates, it was always in the front,
on the advanced skirmish-line, pending a battle. It will be remembered
by all the heroes of the Army of Tennessee that nearly every regiment
in that army at the time of the battle of Chickamauga had on its
battle-flag "cross-cannon," which signified the regiment's
participation in the capture of a battery, or part thereof, at some
time and place. Austin's Battalion had not won that honor when it
commenced its destructive fire upon the enemy early Saturday morni