Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/224

210 Confederates, now re-enforced in that quarter by Chalmers' and Jackson's Brigades of Bragg's Corps; and such was the vehemence of the attack that he was soon swept back with the loss of some artillery.

Thus the whole front line of Federal encampments was left in the hands of their adversary, rilled with equipage and baggage, the most abundant and luxurious that ever encumbered any except an Oriental army. (The tents were full of new capacious trunks; in many instances were furnished with stoves, and the ground around was thickly strewn with a species of vest-armor, of sheet steel, whose owners had not time to don.)

By this time both Cheatham's and Clark's Divisions, Folk's Corps, were also strenuously engaged, mainly on the left, where Sherman was making able, desperate efforts to redeem the losses of the morning. Several of his positions, as the Federals drifted riverward, were quite strong, fronted by tangled ravines and affording thick cover, from which they poured a desolating fire, that more than once checked the ardent press of their adversaries. But gathering volume and resuming the onset with fresh spirit, the Confederates still drove their enemy nearer the river.

Wallace (W. H. L.) had soon become involved in the battle. Manifestly a gallant soldier, he fought his division men, who had been at Donelson, with decided stamina. Stuart's Brigade, Sherman's Division, had also been attacked, and the Federal line of battle was pushed back to within a mile of the landing, and to the ground of their last encampments. There were massed what remained of their artillery and the fragments of Sherman's, Prentiss', McClernand's and Hurlbut's Divisions, as well as Wallace's and Stuart's.

In the meantime, from the nature of the field the network of ravines, the interlaced thickets and wide scope of forest the Confederate organization had become greatly disordered. Not only divisions and brigades had been dislocated, but regiments also; and the troopers of all three corps, in fact, were intermingled. For the most part, confident of the issue and bent on pressing toward the enemy, there was yet a lack of harmonious movement. Superior officers led, with notable courage, regiments or parts of brigades, and doubtless stimulated their