Alfred Roman, The military operations of General Beauregard in the war between the states, 1861 to 1865

[288] fire brought to bear against it, when Colonel Daniel W. Adams, its new commander, seizing a battle-flag, ‘called upon his men to follow him, which they did with great alacrity;’¹ and such was the impetus, as Chalmers's brigade charged on the right, that Prentiss's entire line gave way in confusion and disorder. It was pursued through its camps and about half a mile across a ravine, to the ridge beyond, by Chalmers's brigade, till the latter was halted by order of General Johnston,² then in that quarter, and withdrawn to a position on the rear and right of General Gladden.

At the same time, Mungen's and Appler's regiments of Hildebrand's brigade, of Sherman's division, broke and fled, leaving Waterhouse's battery entirely exposed.³ Here the supporting regiments from McClernand's and Hurlbut's divisions pressed forward, and, together with Hildebrand's own regiment, still held their ground, while another brigade of McClernand's came to their support. Meantime McArthur's brigade, of Wallace's division, while moving to the assistance of Stuart's brigade, on the Federal extreme left, had mistaken its way, and come opportunely into the void left by the routed General Prentiss.⁴ For a while it stood firmly, but was forced back and formed farther to the rear, with the remaining forces of its own division, hurried forward to its relief. General Hurlbut also was bringing up his two remaining brigades for the support of Prentiss's left, when he met the fleeing troops of that division, who straggled through his lines. He formed his brigades on two sides of an open field with woods in rear, and his three batteries (Meyer's, Mann's, and Ross's) respectively on the right, the centre, and the left—their fire converging over the open ground in front;⁵ while General Prentiss, rallying what he could of his troops, led them, together with the 23d Missouri (just landed from a transport), into position on Hurlbut's right, and on the left of Wallace's division.⁶ But here, after the capture of Prentiss's camps, further advance on the right was suspended