ence is confirmed a moment later by a staff officer from General
McCook, calling for reinforcements. "Tell General McCook," roared the
chief, "to contest every inch of ground. If he holds them, we will swing
into Murfreesboro and cut them off." Then Rousseau, with his reserves, was
sent into the fight, and Van Cleve, at the head of Crittenden's old Shiloh
division, came dashing across the fields, with water dripping from their
clothing, to take a hand in the fray. Harker's brigade was withdrawn from
the left and sent in on Rousseau's right, and the Pioneer brigade,
relieved at the ford by Price's brigade, was posted on Harker's right. The
remaining brigades of Van Cleve's division, Beatty's and Fyffe's, formed
on the extreme right, and thus an improvised line half a mile in extent,
presented a new and unexpected front to the approaching enemy. It was a
trying position to Van Cleve's men to stand in line, a living wall, while
the panic-stricken soldiers of McCook's beaten regiments, flying in terror
through the woods, rushed past them, the sharp rattle of McCown's musketry
behind them lending wings to their flight. The Union lines could not fire,
for their comrades were between them and the enemy. Rosecrans seemed
ubiquitous. All these dispositions had been made under his personal
direction. Finding Sheridan coming out of the cedars into which Rousseau
had just retired, he directed him to the ammunition train, with orders to
fill his cartridge boxes and return to the support of Hazen's brigade on
the edge of the Round Forrest. Captain Morton, with the Pioneers and the
Chicago Board of Trade Battery, pushed into the cedars, and disappeared
from view simultaneously with Harker. The general course of the tide of
stragglers toward the rear struck the turnpike at the point where Van
Cleve stood impatiently awaiting the order to advance. All along the line
men were falling, struck by the bullets of the enemy, who soon appeared at
the edge of the woods on Morton's flank. The order to charge was given by
General Rosecrans in person, and, like hounds from the leash, the division
sprang forward, reserving their fire for close quarters. It was the crisis
in the battle. If this line was broken all was lost. Every man rose to the
occasion and proved himself a hero. Steadily, as a majestic river moves on
its resistless way, the line swept forward, sending a shower of bullets to
the front. The left was now exposed to attack, and, riding ra