Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

[312] The Graveyard road runs along the crown of an inferior ridge, over comparatively smooth ground. Its general direction was perpendicular to the rebel line; but, as it approached the works, it bent to the left, passing along the edge of the ditch of the enemy's bastion, and entering at the shoulder of the bastion. The timber, on the sides of the ridge and in the ravine, had been felled, so that an assault at any other point in front of the Fifteenth corps was almost impossible. The rebel line, rifle-trench as well as small works for artillery, was higher than the ground occupied by the national troops, and nowhere, between the Jackson road and the Mississippi on the north, could it be reached without crossing a ravine a hundred and twenty feet below the general level of the hills, and then scaling an acclivity, whose natural slope was everywhere made more difficult by fallen trees and entanglements of stakes and vines.

A forlorn hope was formed of a hundred and fifty men, who carried poles and boards to cross the ditch. This party was followed closely by Ewing's brigade; Giles Smith and Kilby Smith's brigades bringing up the rear of Blair's division. All marched by the flank, following a road selected the night before, on which the men were partially sheltered, until it became necessary to take the crown of the ridge, and expose themselves to the full view of the enemy, known to be lying concealed behind his well-planned parapet.

At the very moment named in Grant's orders, the storming party dashed up the road, at the double quick, followed by Ewing's brigade, the Thirtieth Ohio leading. Five batteries, of six pieces each, stationed on the ridge, kept up a concentric fire on the