Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/531

50 second day, when the battery fought bravely and in an exhausted and depleted condition until the infantry support retired.

Col. John D. Martin, Second Confederate (old 25th Mississippi), was, with his regiment, prominent in the work of Breckinridge’s division. Striking Prentiss' division Sunday afternoon, the regiment made a gallant fight under a heavy fire that would have annihilated them if Prentiss' men had not fired too high. As it was, they lost 100 men, including Captain Davis, mortally wounded, Sergeant-Major White shot dead, Lieutenant-Colonel McGhee severely wounded, and Captain Snodgrass and Lieutenants Murray and Patterson wounded. After two hours' fighting the enemy fell back, and, General Bowen having been wounded, Colonel Martin took command of the brigade and moved toward the river, where they were met by the fire of the gunboats and batteries. After spending the night in the enemy’s camps they renewed the fight toward the river, and were led in person in a gallant charge by General Hardee. Major Mangum, with the Second Confederate, gallantly led the advance in this movement, which drove the enemy in confusion. Two more charges were made here, until, being flanked, the brigade fell back to the bark road. Here the brigade, with remarkable coolness, lay down in the ravine and kept perfect order while the fleeing mass of Confederate cavalry, artillery and infantry passed by, and until the pursuing enemy was within 100 yards, when it was, "Up guards, and at them!" The confident Yankees were repulsed in confusion, and two pieces of captured artillery and five of the enemy's taken. After pursuing the enemy some distance, the brigade took position on a hill and, under the eye of General Hardee, twice again repelled the enemy’s efforts to seize the bark road.

Thus ended the sanguinary battle of Shiloh, which promised, up to the death of General Johnston, to completely carry out his plan of crushing Grant's army.