Randal,

Here is one of the descriptions I was relying upon from Wiley Sword's "Mountains Touched With Fire", page 321.

"Their progress was abetted by various other Confederate tactical mistakes. Hardee's engineer officer, Capt. John W. Green, had belatedly laid out a line of breastworks atop the ridge, based more on the topographical rather than the military crest. The proper military crest, below the actual crown of the ridge, would have given Bragg's soldiers a more direct and destructive line of fire. The resulting inability to see many of the enemy troops as they advanced up the slopes, as well as the overshooting caused by the breastwork placement, contributed to the defeat. Furthermore, the artillery was dispersed along prominent spurs, often without protective breastworks or modifications made in the ground to enable both a vertical and lateral field of fire. The guns' muzzles thus were unable to be depressed sufficiently to hit infantry crawling upward along the irregular slopes. In order to shoot at the enemy, the artillerists often had to fire at troops distant from their own sector, which generally meant aiming to one side and not head-on..."

It's amazing how such a minor miscalculation could so dramatically affect our history.

Jim