ORCHARD KNOB. 91 



part, I can see the man himself as I read the 

 words of one who was there with him. The 

 stormers of Missionary Ridge, as I have 

 said, after making the demonstration they 

 had been ordered to make, kept on up the 

 slope, thinking " the time had come to finish 

 the battle of Chickamauga." " As soon as 

 this movement was seen from Orchard 

 Knob," writes General Fullerton, " Grant 

 turned quickly to Thomas, who stood by his 

 side, and I heard him say angrily, ' Thomas, 

 who ordered those men up the ridge?' 

 Thomas replied in his usual slow, quiet man- 

 ner, 'I don't know; I did not.' Then, ad- 

 dressing General Gordon Granger, he said, 

 '• Did you order them up. Granger ? ' ' No,' 

 said Granger ; ' they started up without 

 orders. When those fellows get started all 

 hell can't stop them.' " In the heat of battle 

 a soldier may be pardoned, I suppose, if his 

 speech smells of sulphur ; and after the event 

 an army is hardly to be censured for beating 

 the enemy a day ahead of time. I speak as 

 a civilian. Military men, no doubt, find in- 

 subordination, even on the right side, a less 

 pardonable offense ; a fact which may ex- 

 plain why General Grant, in his history of 



