[373] dispositions thus made necessary were effected before daybreak; but the line to be occupied was so extended that Hardee was obliged to form his troops for the most part in single rank; and in the operations of next day it was only by stripping portions of the line of all troops, except a skirmish line, and moving them rapidly to points of greatest pressure, that he was able to repel the assaults of the enemy and hold the position. There was in the line vacated by Lee an angle now held by Govan's brigade of veterans. The position was weak in itself, and the unabated pressure and converging fire of the enemy's artillery on this point, left no opportunity to strengthen it; and in the afternoon, after one determined assault had been repulsed, the enemy renewed the assault, in three converging columns, and succeeded in carrying a portion of the angle, and captured General Govan, a portion of his brigade, and the eight pieces of artillery there posted. The wheels of the gun carriages had long before been cut down by the enemy's artillery fire, and Govan's men stood at their post until the dense masses of the enemy rolled over them. This made it necessary to temporarily draw back the right of Granberry's brigade and the left of Lewis' brigade, on either side of Govan's position; but Govan's brigade of Tennesseeans, which had been withdrawn from another part of the line, was brought rapidly up, and with the remnant of Govan's troops in co-operation with Granberry and Lewis, charged upon the advancing enemy, pressed him back to the salient, and held him there until the withdrawal of the troops at 11.30 P. M. The peril of Hardee's position, the stubborn courage with which the troops held it, the skill with which they were handled, and were finally withdrawn when well-nigh enveloped by the enemy, and General Sherman's chagrin that the entire corps was not captured, are matters of history. General Sherman's says of it:
Being on the spot, I checked Davis' movement, and ordered General Howard to send the two divisions of the Seventeenth corps (Blair) around by his right rear, to get below Jonesboroa, and to reach the railroad so as to cut off retreat in that direction. I also dispatched order after order to hurry forward Stanley, so as to lap around Jonesboroa on the east, hoping thus to capture the whole of Hardee's corps. I sent first Captain Andenreid (Aid-de-Camp), then Colonel Poe, of the engineers, and lastly General Thomas himself (and that is the only time during the campaign that I can recall seeing General Thomas urge his horse into a gallop). Night was approaching, and the country on the farther side of the railroad
