The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003 Page: 589
675 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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"... Willing Never To Go in Another Fight"
ments. Longstreet ordered an all-out assault on Knoxville. Rufus King
and the men of the Texas brigade charged bravely up the icy slopes in
front of the massive fortifications of Knoxville, only to be slaughtered in
repeated assaults. The Confederates were forced to withdraw. Knoxville
and eastern Tennessee remained in Union control for the remainder of
the war. Perhaps more serious was Bragg's gamble in diverting Long-
street's veteran corps from Chattanooga to Knoxville. The Confederates'
seemingly impregnable position on Missionary Ridge overlooking Chat-
tanooga was overrun on November 25, 1863. The Federal victory left
Atlanta open to invasion.
Rufus King Felder and his comrades were back in Virginia with Robert
E. Lee prior to the spring campaign of 1864. The Texas Brigade was un-
der the command of Texan John Gregg. The Federals under Ulysses
Grant pressed southward into Virginia in what became known as the
Overland Campaign. The first battle was The Wilderness on May 5-7, said
by some to be the finest hour for the Texas Brigade. Felder wrote home:
"I am sorry to say that I was not in the great fight of the wilderness. I was
quite sick with the fever at the time in the hospital at Lynchburg." The
Brigade's unsupported charge stopped the attack of two Federal corps
and restored the army's right flank, but the price paid was high. Five hun-
dred and sixty-five of the eight hundred Texans were killed or wounded.
The Fifth Texas Regiment lost its commanding officer, all of its officers,
and nearly two-thirds of its infantrymen. Corps commander Gen. James
Longstreet was seriously wounded. Felder's illness may have saved his life.
He returned to take part in the Battles of Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor,
which would be Lee's final victory of the war. Grant swung south and pro-
ceeded to lay siege to Petersburg. The next ten months would cost thou-
sands of lives on both sides."
Rufus King Felder wrote from Petersburg on July 14 that he received
six letters that week, the first correspondence he had received for
months. He wrote, "It affordes me great pleasure to know that, though I
have been so long absent from home & negligent about writing, that my
dear mother and sisters have not so far forgotten me as to cease writing al-
together." He offered the latest details of the fighting, writing:
We are in strong entrenchments here. The breastworks of the enemy are in 75
yards of ours in some places. Our brigade was relieved last night to rest two days.
We have been in entrenchments six days without relief, sharpshooting with the
enemy. . . . There were only eight or ten killed or wounded. McPherson of our
company was wounded in the waist ...
"' Felder letter, July 14, 1864 (quotation); Gordon Rhea, The Battle of the Wlderness, May 5-6,
1864 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994), 302-303.589
2003
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003, periodical, 2003; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101223/m1/667/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.