Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/765

soon made captain. He shared the service of General Chalmers' High Pressure brigade at Shiloh, where he was commended for gallantry, and at Munfordville. After the Kentucky campaign he was promoted to colonel, the rank in which he served at Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. General Tucker, who commanded the brigade at the opening of the Atlanta campaign, was severely wounded at Resaca, and Colonel Sharp afterward led the brigade throughout the Hundred Days' battles. He was promoted to brigadier-general for gallantry on the field of battle, at Atlanta, July 22, 1864. In his new sphere he displayed even more conspicuously the gallantry which had carried him so rapidly from one grade to another. At the battle of Ezra Church three new brigadier-generals came at once into prominence. Gen. John C. Brown, who on this occasion commanded Hindman's division, says in his report: "In the action Sharp's and Brantly's brigades acted with great gallantry." Again he says: "I must be pardoned for bearing testimony to the conspicuous gallantry of Brigadier-Generals Brantly, Sharp and Johnston, all of whom had received notice of their promotion a few moments before going into battle." Maj.-Gen. Patton Anderson, in a report of the operations of his division (formerly Hindman's), makes the following statement: "To the brigade commanders, Brantly, Sharp and Manigault, I am especially indebted for their prompt obedience to every order and cheerful co-operation in everything tending to promote the efficiency of their commands and the good of the service. Their sympathy, counsel and hearty co-operation lightened my burden of responsibility, and contributed to the esprit de corps, discipline and good feeling which happily pervaded the division, and without which the bravest troops in the world cannot be relied on." General Sharp led his brigade through the Tennessee campaign and afterward in the campaign of the Carolinas, fighting his last battle at Bentonville