General Grant corroborates this statement of
General Beauregard, and adds: ‘If it had been true, as currently reported at the time, and yet believed by the thousands of people, that
Prentiss and his division had been captured in their beds, there would not have been an all-day struggle with the loss of thousands killed and wounded on the
Confederate side.’
At the close of the battle of April 6th,
General Grant had been forced back to his last stand on the banks of the
Tennessee.
Not a single attack had he made upon the
Confederates during the whole day. All his camps and a rich spoil of cannon, small arms and other war material was in the hands of the victorious southerners.
Just before dark
General Lew Wallace's division of fresh troops came upon the field, followed by the whole army of the Ohio, under
General Buell.
On the next morning this new army under
General Buell and the remnant of
Grant's defeated troops, all under
Grant orders, attacked the
Confederates, who had not been reinforced by a single man, and who, though fearfully outnumbered, held their ground until late in the afternoon.
Then, in accordance with the orders of
Beauregard, they made a show of resuming the offensive, which checked the
Federal attack.
Then, unmolested they retired from the field, carrying the caissons loaded down with captured muskets and rifles, and bearing off, besides, thirty pieces of captured artillery, twenty-six stands of colors taken from the enemy, and nearly 3,000 prisoners. Many of the soldiers had also exchanged their arms for the superior ones of the
Federals, captured in the battle of the 6th.
