[634]
Colonel Jordan, after saying that the officers in immediate command of the troops were withdrawing before
General Beauregard's order to retire was generally distributed, adds in a note ( “Life of
Forrest,” page 134):
This was especially the case with Bragg's corps.
Yet, oddly enough, General Bragg, in his own official report, ventures to state that his men, though greatly exhausted, were about to charge with great alacrity upon the last position, and most probably would have carried it, when Beauregard's order was received recalling them.
He says further (page 150):
His order really was not distributed before the greater part of the Confederate troops had already given up the attempt for that day to carry the ridge at the landing.
As it might appear from these
dicta that
Bragg's report was baseless, the following extracts are given from the reports of his subordinates.
Major-General Withers, in his official report of June 20, 1862, says:
This division was then advanced to the Pittsburg edge of the field, in which the enemy had stacked their arms, and halted for a supply of ammunition.
Most of the regiments were supplied from the camps of the enemy.
The order was now given by General Bragg, who was present on the right during the fierce fight which ended in the capture of Prentiss, to “sweep everything forward!”
This division was moved promptly forward, although some regiments had not succeeded in getting a supply of ammunition, and had just entered a steep and precipitous ravine, when the enemy opened a terrific fire upon it. Staff officers were immediately dispatched to bring up all the reinforcements to be found, and the order was given to brigade commanders to charge the batteries.
These orders were being obeyed, when, to my astonishment, a large portion of the command was observed to move rapidly by the left flank from under the fire of the enemy.
Orders were immediately sent to arrest the commanding officers, and for the troops to be promptly placed in position for charging the batteries.
Information was soon brought, however, that it was by General Beauregard's orders, delivered thus directly to brigade commanders, that the troops were being rapidly led from under the fire of the enemy's gunboats.
Thus ended the fight on Sunday, and thus was this command disorganized, an evil sorely felt during the next day.
Major-General Ruggles,
Bragg's other division commander, makes the following statement in his report:
Subsequently, while advancing toward the river, I received instructions from General Bragg to carry forward all the troops I could find, and, while assembling a considerable force ready for immediate action, I received from Colonel Augustin notice of General Beauregard's orders to withdraw from the further pursuit; and, finding soon afterward that the forces were falling back, I retired with them, just as night set in, to the open field in the rear; and, as I received
