to
Springfield, afterward became Colonel of a Wisconsin regiment, and made
a brilliant record.
It was yet but little after 9 o'clock, and despite the stubbornness of
the fighting no decisive advantage had been gained on either side.
The Union troops were masters of the savagely contested hill, but all
their previous efforts to advance beyond, pierce the main Confederate
line, and reach the trains below had been repulsed. Had they better make
another attempt?
The hasty council of war decided that it would be unsafe to do so until
Col. Sigel was heard from. The army was already badly crippled, for the
1st Kan. and the 1st Mo. had lost one-third of their men and half their
officers, the others had suffered nearly as severely, and everybody was
running short of ammunition. They had marched all night, and gone
into battle without breakfast, had been fighting five hours, and were
suffering terribly from heat, thirst and exhaustion.
174
The council was suddenly brought to an end by seeing a large force which
Price and McCulloch had rallied come over the hill directly in the Union
front A battery which Gen. Price had established on the crest of the
hill somewhat to the left opened a fire of canister and shrapnel, but
the Union troops showed the firmest front of any time during the day,
and Totten's and DuBois's batteries hurled a storm of canister into the
advancing infantry. Gen. Price had brought up fresh regiments to replace
those which had been fought out, and it seemed as if the Union line
would be overwhelmed. But the officers brought up every man they could
reach. Capt Gordon Granger threw three companies of the 1st Mo., three
companies of the 1st Kan., and two companies of the 1st Iowa, which had
been supporting DuBois's battery, against the right flank of the enemy
and by their terrible enfilade fire sent it back in great disorder. On
the right Lieut.-Col. Blair, with the 2d Kan., was having an obstinate
fight, but with the assistance of a section of Totten's battery under
Lieut. Sokalski the enemy was at last driven back clear out of sight.
The battle had now raged bitterly for six hours, with every attempt of
the enemy to drive foe stubborn defenders from the crest of the hill
repulsed. The slope on the eminence was thickly strewn with the dead and
wounded. The Confederates had suffered fearfully. Cols. Weightman and
Brown, who commanded brigades, had been killed, and Gens. Price,
Slack and Clark wound
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