Brigadier-General Ellison Capers, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 5, South Carolina
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

At the railroad on the right the line was turned back, almost parallel with the deep railroad cut which passed through the ridge, north and south, on which Hardee's line was formed. This turn in the line was made to meet a fire from the opposite side of the cut, which was densely wooded, with a growth of small trees. The cut was too deep to be crossed at that point. About 1 o'clock Gist's brigade was ordered from the left, and put in position in one rank in the wood just described, by the lieutenant-general in person, and charged with the defense of the right flank. The Second battalion Georgia sharpshooters, Maj. R. H. Whiteley, and the Twenty-fourth South Carolina, Col. Ellison Capers, occupied the position at the railroad cut, and Colonel Capers was specially charged with its defense. On the right of the Twenty-fourth was the Sixteenth South Carolina and on its right the Forty-sixth Georgia. The men climbed up the smaller trees, bent them down, cut across the trunks with their pocket knives, and made a first-rate abatis of small trees, interlaced, covering the front for some distance. A barricade of rails, small trees, and timbers brought up from a settlement in rear, was quickly made, and these preparations saved the right when the attack came.

Early in the afternoon, the Fourteenth corps, of Thomas' army, came up and took position between the railroad and Howard's left. Still later, at 4 o'clock, the Fourth corps came up, and the leading division, Kimball's, deployed in front of Gist's brigade. At 5 o'clock Newton's division, of the Fourth corps, got into position in the woods on Kimball's left, the two divisions far overlapping Gist's brigade, and extending a quarter of a mile beyond the right flank of Hardee's position. General Sherman's plan of attack was to assault with the Fourteenth and Fourth corps, and send the Seventeenth