Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

[450] the flashes of their fire-arms. The strange echoes of the cannon among the hills, and the muttering of musketry from every quarter, alarmed the teamsters of Geary's wagon-train, who deserted their mules, and in the darkness and noise, the animals became more frightened than their drivers; they soon broke loose, and, with their tackle dangling and rattling about their heels, rushed in a body directly towards the enemy. This augmented the confusion of the rebels, who supposed it to be an attack of cavalry, and their rout was rendered inglorious by the assistance of a pack of mules.

By four o'clock, the battle was over, and the enemy repelled at every point. Hooker had nearly¹ seven thousand men engaged; his loss was four hundred and sixteen, in killed and wounded; he took more than a hundred prisoners. Geary buried one hundred and fifty-three rebels, on his front alone; but the whole loss of the enemy is not certainly known.² The heights which had been carried by Howard were fortified at once, and the entire position made secure against any further assault. Hooker, thereafter, remained undisturbed. Flanked as he was by mountain and river, on either hand, it was useless for the rebels to repeat the attempt at surprise. Every advantage they could hope for in an assault, they had already enjoyed at Wauhatchie—the night, the surprise, Hooker unfortified, and unfamiliar with the country; and yet they had failed; while, in case of another effort, Grant had a shorter line by which