ets that intervened between it and W.H.L. Wallace.
McAllister's battery, and Schwartz's battery commanded by Lieutenant
Nispel, were reinforced by Taylor's battery, commanded by Captain
Barrett, brought over from Sherman, and by Dresser's battery, commanded
by Captain Timony.

A determined and desperate struggle ensued, which lasted, with
occasional intermissions, till late in the afternoon. Shaver's brigade,
which, after a severe and protracted contest, had overcome Peabody's
brigade of Prentiss' division, was ordered to the attack upon the left
of McClernand's line. Advancing across a wide and open field, he
encountered so hot a fire in front and on his right flank, that his
brigade recoiled back to the shelter of timber and halted paralyzed,
till later in the day he was ordered to attack in another quarter.
General B.R. Johnson was wounded, and his brigade so severely handled
that it retreated from the field, leaving its battery, Polk's, behind.
McClernand's whole division advanced in line, pushing the enemy back
half a mile through and beyond his camp. This success was only
temporary. Changing front to meet fresh attacks, refusing first one
flank, then the other, clinging desperately to his camp, but, on the
whole, shifting slowly back from one position to another, he formed, in
the afternoon, in the edge of timber on the border of an open field, and
here, during a pause of half an hour, supplied his command with
ammunition. The respite was followed by a more furious assault. Falling
back from his camp toward the river, to the farther side of a deep
ravine running north and south, being the continuation of the valley or
ravine of Brier Creek, he formed his line, facing west with wings
refused, the centre being the apex, and still connecting on the right
with the remnant of Sherman's division. Several fitful onslaughts at
intervals forced McClernand to refuse his left still farther.

The swinging around of McClernand's left, while he receded in a general
direction toward the northeast, left a wide interval between his command
and W.H.L. Wallace. The force which had been massed against him and
Sherman had been diminished by detachments sent to aid in the attack
against W.H.L. Wallace and Prentiss. The remainder drifted through the
gap to Wallace's rear. Pond's brigade, to which had been assigned the
special duty of guarding along Owl Creek against any advance around
Johnston's left flank, constituted the extreme Conf