James D. Porter, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.1, Tennessee
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[76] loss of the army was in Cheatham's division of Tennesseeans, 36 per cent killed and wounded. Johnson's Tennessee brigade, of Cleburne's division, lost 29 per cent, Palmer's Tennessee brigade the same, and the Tennessee troops in other commands sustained about the same loss.

They fought heroically and were led superbly, took the enemy's positions, his artillery and small-arms and many prisoners, and met the perils of the battlefield, and death, with the high-born courage that springs from a sense of duty. Yet the commanding general in his official report had no word of commendation for them, or for the men who led them with so much skill and courage.

Cheatham, the ranking officer of Tennessee, with a division of the troops of the State, seemed inspired by the fierceness of the battle. He was like Marshal Massena, as described by the Emperor Napoleon: ‘His conversation gave few indications of genius, but at the first cannon shot his mental energy redoubled, and when surrounded by danger his thoughts were clear and forcible. In the midst of the dying and the dead, the balls sweeping away those who encircled him, he was himself, and gave his orders with the greatest coolness and precision.’

The striking feature of this battle is that Rosecrans, who led the attacking army, was on the defensive every hour of the battle, never pursued an advantage if it was won, in the actual fighting was beaten at all points and driven from the battlefield with enormous losses. He permitted three days to pass, after the battle of the 31st of December, without firing a shot, except on the skirmish line and to defend himself from the assault of Breckinridge on the afternoon of the 2d of January.

Bragg retired at 2 o'clock a. m. on the morning of the 4th, and two hours later the cavalry under General Wheeler occupied his position, and continued in it until