Thomas' Corps.
— Brigadier General Absalom Baird —
Text on the First Tablet:
Baird's Division - Thomas' Corps.
Brigadier General Absalom Baird.
September 20, 1863, till 6 p.m.
1st Brigade - Colonel Benjamin F. Scribner.
2nd Brigade - Brigadier General John C. Starkweather.
3rd Brigade - Brigadier General John H. King.
At 3 o'clock a.m. September 20th, General Baird, having withdrawn the evening of the 19th from the vicinity of Jay's Mill, posted his division in the woods around the northeast corner of the Kelly field and about 150 yards in advance of it, and strengthened his front with a breastwork of logs and rails. Starkweather's brigade was on the right facing east with four guns in such position as to enfilade the line to the left.
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Text on the Second Tablet:
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Scribner's brigade was next on the left with its left refused and facing north east, while King's brigade facing north formed the left of the Baird's line, which soon after was further extended to the left by Dodge's brigade of Johnson's division. The remainder of Johnson's division was in line on Baird's right. The fighting on Baird's front began about 10 o'clock, and was heavy until 1 p.m. Breckinridge's division assaulted first and gained the Lafayette road, but was finally driven back and around the Union left at 11 a.m. when it was replaced by Walker's and Liddell's divisions of Walker's corps. These were repulsed by 1 p.m. The contest on the left of Baird for the possession of the Lafayette road was participated in, though not all at the same time, by the brigades of Dodge, John Beatty, Grose, parts of Willich and Berry, Stanley, VanDerveer and Barnes.
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Text on the Third Tablet:
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With the exception of the heavy skirmishing there was little fighting on the Kelly field from 1 p.m. till late in the afternoon. At 5:30 p.m. General Thomas sent orders to General Reynolds to begin the withdrawal of this portion of the army. Baird and Johnson were heavily attacked when the order reached them to retire. They held their lines for a short time and then withdrew in confusion to the woods west of the Kelly field, into which they were not pursued. Thence Baird's division proceeded to Rossville by way of McFarland's Gap. The total loss in the division during the two day's battle was: killed 181; wounded, 794; missing, 1202; total 2177.
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