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On October 29 the battery was ordered to Sweet Water, East Tennessee, and
on the 5th of November to Bragg's army at Missionary Ridge.
On the morning of the 23d of November, 1863, the enemy, under cover of a
heavy fog, moved up and attacked the left wing of General Bragg's army, at the
foot of Lookout Mountain, and drove it back rapidly, the line at that point being
weak and the attack unexpected. The evacuation of Lookout Mountain followed,
and Bragg withdrew to Missionary Ridge. The next day he was defeated, and
the army fell back to Dalton. The Third Maryland was held in reserve.
General Bragg was here superseded in the command of the army by Joseph
E. Johnston. The Third Maryland went into winter quarters in Sugar Valley,
below Dalton, Georgia.
On the 2Oth of January, 1864, the whole battalion, for easier access to long
forage, was ordered to Kingston, where it again built winter quarters.
On the 7th of May the battery was ordered to the front of the line in Crow's
Valley, and when, on the 8th, the enemy moved up as if to attack the Confederate
works, they were received with so vigorous a fire that they rapidly withdrew.
But two men of the Third Maryland were wounded. Again, on the 9th, the
enemy charged our works, but were repulsed, with no loss to the battery.
On the night of the 12th the corps fell back to Resaca. Two days later the
battery took position on the front, two miles north of Resaca, to the left of the
Dalton road, and about a hundred yards to the right of an obtuse angle in the line,
at this time occupied by Dent's Alabama battery. The latter held the summit of a
ridge, the prolongation of which, in front, it was expected to command, while
Captain Rowan was directed to construct his works at right angles with the ridge,
so as to command the Dalton road. He saw that in case the enemy seized and held
the ridge in front of the angle his battery would be enfiladed, and, therefore,
began to construct a traverse for the protection of his men. Before it was
completed our skirmish line was driven off the ridge to the shelter of the earth-
works, and the battery had to begin firing. Dent's battery was soon withdrawn,
as the men were shot down as fast as they took their positions beside their guns.
Rowan's battery now became exposed to a raking fire from the left.
The first section, under command of Lieutenant Ritter, was on this occasion
on the left, instead of its proper place on the right, of the battery, for a special
reason, which it is not necessary to mention; and it was now consequently the
most severely handled. His two guns were speedily silenced, and not long after
the other two, under Lieutenant Giles. At the right gun of Ritter's section eight
men were killed and wounded within a few minutes, leaving but three at the gun.
The moment the gun was silenced, Sergeant Wynn, in charge of the second, was
directed to throw his trail to the right and fire over the first. It happened that
Lieutenant Ritter was lying just in front of the parapet of the second gun. so that
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