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

[296] The enemy's force was driven to the next ridge beyond, and Breckinridge's line was re-formed under a severe fire, when Governor Harris,¹ volunteer aid, returning from the delivery of an order to Colonel Statham, to charge a battery on their immediate left, found General Johnston wounded. This was between two and halfpast two o'clock. Sustaining him in the saddle, Governor Harris withdrew him to a ravine, about one hundred yards in the rear, where, within half an hour, that patriotic and noble soldier breathed his last. Meanwhile, General Hurlbut, informed by Stuart that his left flank was uncovered by the latter's forced retreat,² shifted his right (Lanman's) brigade to his left, and ordered Williams's brigade and Prentiss's command to fall back steadily, thus endeavoring to meet the flanking movement of Withers's division. Adjutant-General Jordan had come upon this quarter of the field at half-past 2, shortly after General Johnston's withdrawal, and finding Breckinridge's division at rest, ordered it to charge the enemy in front,³ posted behind a fence in the border of a wood. He gave the order in the name of General Johnston, not knowing at the time of his whereabouts or mortal wound. General Breckinridge advanced steadily, forcing the enemy back from their position.

While this was going on, and after the Federal right had been broken and driven back, General Beauregard, having ordered General Hardee to reorganize his forces for another onslaught, turned his attention to that quarter of the field, in the centre, where the enemy's obstinate resistance had baffled General Bragg's previous efforts. He advanced in that direction portions of Anderson's and Gibson's brigades, two detached batteries, and several battalions just formed from stragglers and scattered commands. At this moment Colonel Marshall J. Smith's Crescent regiment, of New Orleans, came up from the extreme left, with Colonel Looney's 38th Tennessee, and, seeing General Beauregard, raised a gallant cheer, which immediately drew upon the spot the concentrated fire of the enemy. General Beau regard, bidding them ‘go forward and drive the enemy into the Tennessee,’⁴ attached to them another