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the infantry arrived, some regiments showing fatigue.
Too exhausted for a forward movement, Taylor, who was as tender in bivouac as brave in action, ordered the men to rest for two hours.
From midday they rested until 3 p. m. At that hour the entire army was put in motion.
With the renewed energy of the infantry, the cavalry and artillery awoke to action.
The Louisianians had not yielded to fatigue.
Polignac's new division, whose losses on the 8th had made it memorable, was now held in honorable reserve.
On his side the enemy fought with renewed courage.
Fighting behind temporary intrenchments and with heavy masses in reserve to replace losses, he was making a formidable resistance.
With his infantry he skillfully occupied the wooded hill off the road.
From this plateau, the key to his position, a strong battery was breeding mischief.
On the left extended a range of broken hills densely clothed with young pines.
Along these, up and down, the Federals were massed, protected ‘by piles of logs, rails and some abatis,’ the usual accessories of a Louisiana wood.
Taylor's batteries, on the alert, responded viciously.
So eager were the artillerists that at one time they advanced unsupported within 200 yards of the enemy's guns, and concentrated the fire on the ridge which was threatening them.
The results were quickly made apparent on the foe. We so disabled many of his guns that they were removed to the rear.
Far from asleep, however, were the Federals to whatsoever was going on. Specially awake were they to a Confederate movement set in motion across the fields and up the opposite slope.
Without warning, from the thick woods on either side of the road hissed close by a deadly musketry fire, which caused loss and temporary disorder among the Southern men. At this point, an error in his attack threw Churchill's division into added disorder.
On the right, through the efforts of the leaders,
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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