Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 5.
Frank Moore, Ed.

During this time the Fifteenth Kentucky, Col. Curran Pope, which was in the rear of the Third Ohio, and under shelter of the hill, became intensely anxious to advance, and more than once sent up to ask the Third Ohio to retire, and allow them for a time to face the foe. As soon as the disaster of the burning barn threw the Third into disorder, Col. Pope shouted “forward” to his regiment, and with the utmost alacrity it rushed up the eminence. No matter that muskets, rifles, cannons hurled immediately against it every deadly missile of war; no matter that the roar of musketry and artillery which greeted its appearance sounded not like successive volleys, but like the continued rattle of ten thousand drums. No matter that its ranks were decimated ere it had been there a single minute; it stood like a wall until Lieut.-Col. Jouett and Major Campbell were both killed, and Col. Pope was wounded and his horse shot from under him. Then it retired, and rallied at the foot of the hill.

All this time the Tenth Ohio were lying upon their faces to the left of the Third, near the summit of the same hill, and upon the other side of a lane, as I have before mentioned. And now occurred the most terrible disaster of the day.

The retreat of the Third Ohio and Fifteenth Kentucky had left the right wing of the Tenth uncovered, and a whole brigade of the enemy, forming in mass, advanced toward them over ground of such a nature that if the Tenth did not receive warning from some source, the rebel column would be upon them and annihilate them before they could rise from their faces and change front. Colonel Lytle was expecting the enemy to appear in his front, over the crest of the hill, and had intended to have the gallant Tenth charge them with the bayonet.

And they still lay upon their faces, while the enemy was advancing upon their flank, stealthily as a cat steals upon her prey. Nearer and nearer they come. Great heavens! will no one tell the Tenth of their fearful peril? Where is the eagle eye which ought to overlook the field, and send swift-footed couriers to save this illustrious band from destruction? Alas! there is none. The heroes of Carnifex are doomed. The mass of rebels, which a rising ground just to the right of the Tenth has hitherto concealed from view, rush upon the hapless regiment, and from the distance of a hundred yards pour into it an annihilating fire, even while the men are still upon their faces. Overwhelmed and confounded, they leap to their feet and vainly endeavor to change front and meet the enemy. It is impossible to do it beneath that withering, murderous fire; and for the first time in its history the Tenth regiment turns its back upon the enemy. They will not run; they only walk away, and they are mowed down by scores as they do so.

The noble, gifted, generous Lytle, the Chevalier Bayard of the Ohio troops, was pierced with bullets and fell where the storm was fiercest. One of his sergeants lifted him in his arms and was endeavoring to bear him from the field. “You may do some good yet,” said the hero; “I can do no more; let me die here.” He was left there, and fell into the hands of the enemy. It is fervently hoped that his wounds were not mortal, and that he may yet again be restored to us to fight for the cause he loved so well. The brave Major Moore was badly wounded while doing all in his power to retrieve the terrible blunder which some one had made. Lieut.-Col. Burke, with almost superhuman courage, endeavored to rally his men, succeeding at last, and forming the shattered remains of the Tenth in line of battle a considerable distance to the left.

During all these bloody conflicts, Gen. Rousseau seemed everywhere present, and, as if he possessed a charmed life, rode fearlessly amidst the iron hail, directing and encouraging his men. If the “dark and bloody ground” had furnished for the Union army only two such men as Pope and Rousseau, the patriot might cry exultingly, “Well done, Kentucky!”

While the Tenth Ohio was being so terribly cut up, another immense body of rebels filed off to the left, disappeared behind the woods fronting General Sheridan's division, and soon after commenced a desperate assault upon our right and right centre. But Mitchell and Sheridan were ready to receive them, and the high hill to the right of the road, occupied by the latter in the morning, instantly became a huge volcano, belching forth from every quarter volumes of fire and smoke, and flinging into the midst of the dismayed and staggering traitors, ten thousand projectiles, deadly as a volley of stones shot from the crater of Etna. After vainly endeavoring to storm the hill, the shattered masses of the enemy gave way, and were pursued by General Mitchell beyond Perryville.

And now while the Seventeenth brigade was still struggling gloriously, and even after its frightful losses, was actually holding the rebels in check, the Ninth and Twenty-eighth brigades, both of which had borne a distinguished part so far, came to the rescue. A half-dozen regiments rushed up along the crest of an eminence situated to the left, and with loud shouts bore down upon the enemy. Around a farm-house to the left of the Seventeenth brigade and in a woods in front of it, (the same under cover of which the rebels had advanced in their assault upon Jackson's division,) the combat raged with unintermitted fury for more than half an hour. But when the attack upon our right was repulsed, the enemy retired from this portion of the field.

Just about sundown a last despairing effort of the baffled foe was made upon the right of Rousseau's division. Our line of battle in all this part of the field, had now completely changed direction, ranging from north to south instead of from east to west, as in the beginning of the day. A battery, which I believe was Captain Loomis's, repulsed this last assault. But the firing of artillery continued half an hour into the night, forming a scene awfully sublime. At last its thunder