Hardship on the Union Line

On the night of September 19, 1863, after the first day of bloody fighting had ended, the two armies regrouped and planned for the next day as the Federal left withdrew to a line extending from this point while the Confederate line stood behind it. Already weary from the day's combat, Union soldiers here spent the night building breastworks of logs, rails, and earth for the attacks expected in the morning. Cold and thirst plagued the Federals through the night because their canteens ran dry, Confederates blocked access to Chickamauga Creek and other water sources, and campfires were forbidden despite an unusually chilly September night. A Wisconsin soldier recalled a slight frost and lying on his arms without blankets or even coats after throwing away everything but gun and ammunition. Not far from here on the morning of September 20, Confederate Brig. Gen. Benjamin Helm, President Abraham Lincoln's brother-in-law, was wounded while leading his Kentuckians against the Union breastworks when a bullet pierced his right side, and he died that night. Lincoln had offered the West Point graduate a commission in the Union Army, but Helm joined the Confederate Army instead, and when Lincoln learned of his death at Chickamauga, he was visibly stricken; it is said the loss hurt him as much as the death of his son Willie from fever in 1862.

Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia · United States