formation of new lines and
the posting of fresh batteries; and whenever the emergency permitted, he
took himself to the battle front, where his presence served to reanimate
his sorely-beset soldiers. In spurring from one part of the field to
another, his aide-de-camp and much-loved companion, Lieut.-Col. Julius P.
Garesche, was beheaded by a cannon ball, and his blood sprinkled the
uniform of his commander. But battles give scant time for mourning, and
Rosecrans, without delay, ordered the further disintegration of
Crittenden's corps, that reenforcements might be sent where needed.
Harker, of Wood's division, was hurried after Beatty,--to the right of
Rosecrans's division of Thomas's corps,--while Hascall's brigade was held
as a mobile body, under the eye of General Wood himself.

Upon Thomas now fell a burden of tremendous weight. He had early perceived
the displacement of Sheridan, and had sent two brigades of Rosseau's
division to reenforce that commander and support his right. Then he turned
to face one of the most dangerous and furious efforts made by the foe
during the whole day. Hardee, with his whole force, was moving to take
Sheridan in flank and in the rear; Cheatham, of Polk's corps, was
advancing against Sheridan in front, and Withers was preparing to leap
upon Negley. To give way here would be fatal, for back of Thomas and of
what was left of the right wing Rosecrans was hastily arranging a new
battle-line to hold the Nashville Pike.

The commander of the centre seemed ubiquitous. Though his charger never
broke out of the slow pace that had given its master the nickname of "Old
Trot," Thomas was apparently in all places at once,--now directing the
firing to repulse a charge, now placing a regiment in line, and again
marking a point to which his troops must retire and take up the fight
anew.

The Confederate infantry now pressed forward in a frenzy of enthusiasm.
The piercing "rebel yell" rose triumphantly above the roar of cannon and
the bark of musketry, and many regiments pressed clear to the borders of
the cedars in which the Union troops were posted, before they had to
retire from a merciless fire.

Again and again Hardee and Cheatham brought their men to the charge. The
exigencies of the battle twisted the Union line into strange shapes. Here
a brigade was in a half-circle with a concave side to the enemy; another
presented a convex front to attack. Miller's brigade of Negley's division
was like a