Joe:

In my opinion, the most definitive account of Wauhatchie was written 10-15 years ago by a fellow named Cubbage. I don't have Wauatchie file before me, but Cubbage (I hope I have his name spelled correctly) seems to have used primary material very effectively. He cites serveral sources which are in local libraries or historical collections in Pennsylvania. He debunks the myth of the "Charge of the Mule Brigade," and has written a very even handed account.

I have tended to focus on the action at Wauhatchie Junction, so what I have on the engagement along the ridges south of Brown's Ferry may be a little of the spotty side. I just finished going back over my original sources and exclusive of matter iun the Official Records or the Broadfoot Supplement, I counted 35-40 "major" accounts, and a host of minor ones. I do have a number of diary and letter acocunts from the Federal side, and I hope the pertinent regimentals, but I do not have contemporary newspapers accounts from the Northern papers

There were significant newspaper accounts in the Charleston Daily Courier (by Personne), on 5 Nov, 7 Nov, and 9 Nov; in the Columbia Daily Southern Guardian on 6 Nov (by a correspondent named "Clarence"), copied by the Charleston Mercury on 11 Nov; two accounts in the Charleston Mercury (which were copied from P. W. Alexander's reports in the Savannah Republican) on 4 and 7 Nov; a letter of an officer of the 5 S.C. printed in the Yorkville Enquirer 11 Nov (the author was by elimination, J. D. McConnell); and a very nice letter and report from an officer in one of the batteries posted atop Lookout who watched the battle develop by the flashes of light in the valley below -surreal -- which I picked up from the Columbia Tri-Weekly South Carolinian 17 Nov, but was copied from the Richmond Sentinel, and thus was probably by an officer of Parker's Battery. The fact that it was first publihed in Richmond almost certainly brands its author as a Virginian.

There are some excellent accounts in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, including John W. Geary's letters to his wife Mary announcing proudly his victory, but tinged with the personal tragedy of the death of his son, who was a lieutenant in Knap's Battery. There is an excellent little book on Knap's Battery by James P. Brady, Compiler, Hurrah for the Artillery ..., which has three or four first personal accounts in it, including one of the Geary letters.

Rather than post all of my research on line, I would suggest that you E-Mail me directly at Sturkey@wctel.net.

A little over a week after the battle Longstreet's two divisions were pulled out of the line to enbark on the fruitless foray into East Tennessee, a weakening of Bragg's army at precvisely the time when Grant was planning an assualt on the long line. It was flawed strategy of the rankest sort. But as they withdrew in the night, over muddy traces that could barely be called roads, the men were in high spirits; they knew that they had been ill-used in Tennessee, and had been half fed and poorly supplied, but they hoped for better days. So the men were exuberant; they hoped that their withdrawl from the line presaged a retun East, and when one of the bands struck up the popular tune, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginney's Shore," the men cheered. Their optimism and never-say-die spirit seem to epitomize what made the Army of Northern Virginia such a potent force in the hands of good leaders.