According to Withers' report, he moved his division forward and just entered a steep and precipitous ravine when he was met by a terrific fire. He sent to the rear for reinforcements and ordered his brigade commanders to charge the batteries in front. The orders were about being obeyed, when, to his astonishment, he observed a large portion of his command move rapidly by the left flank away from under the fire. He then learned that this was in accordance with General Beauregard's orders, delivered directly to the brigade commanders. Jackson reports that he began a charge, but his men, being without ammunition, could not be urged up the height in face of the fire of Hurlbut and the batteries. Leaving his men lying down, he rode to the rear to get an order to withdraw, when he met a staff officer bearing such an order from General Beauregard. General Chalmers plunged into the ravine, and the order to retire did not reach him. He was not aware that his brigade alone, of all the Confederate Army, was continuing the battle. He brought Gage's battery up to his aid, but this battery was soon knocked to pieces by the fire of the heavier National artillery. The gunboats, having previously taken position opposite the mouth of the ravine, opened fire as soon as the assault began. They opened fire at thirty-five minutes past five.
Chalmers had not ended his useless attempt when the boats bearing Ammen's brigade of Nelson's division of Buell's army crossed the river and landed. General Nelson, when ordered by General Grant, early in the morning, to move up the river, sent out a party to discover a route. No practicable way was found near the river; one, a little inland, was ascertained, practicable for infantry, but not for wheels. The division moved at one o'clock. General Ammen's brigade, composed of the Thirty-sixth Indiana and the Sixth and Twenty-fourth Ohio, being in advance, crossed the river first. The Thirty-sixth Indiana, landing first, pushed up the bluff through a great mob of fugitives from the field, some thousands in number, and, by direction of General Grant, General Ammen sent it forward to the support of the batteries. One soldier was killed while the regiment was forming; one was killed and one wounded after it reached its position. The Sixth Ohio marched up under like order in reserve to the Thirty-sixth Indiana. The Twenty-fourth Ohio marched half a mile to the right of the batteries, scoured the country half a mile out to the front without finding any enemy, and there went into bivouac. The day's battle was over.
Prentiss was driven back through his camp about nine o'clock; Sherman was forced from his about ten o'clock; at the same time, Stuart took position in rear of his. McClernand was compelled finally to abandon his camp about half-past two, and at half-past four Hurlbut fell back through his. When night came, the National troops held W.H.L. Wallace's camp and an adjoining portion of Hurlbut's, while Beauregard's army occupied Sherman's, McClernand's, and Prentiss'.
When Prentiss and Sherman were attacked, there was a wide gap between their lines. A little after ten o'clock the National line was connected, Sherman on the right, McClernand next, then W.H.L. Wallace, and next, on his left, Prentiss, and Hurlbut and McArthur filling the space between Prentiss and Stuart. The right was gradually forced back on a curve till, at half-past four o'clock, there was a gap between McClernand and Wallace. Hurlbut held his ground till four o'clock, but by half-past four he retreated, leaving Prentiss' left in air. Through the two gaps thus made the Confederate left and right poured in and encircled Prentiss and Wallace. After their surrender there was no fighting, except Chalmers' bold, but idle assault.
In this day's battle the National loss was nearly ten thousand killed, wounded, and captured. The Confederate loss was as great in killed and wounded, but the loss in prisoners was small.
CHAPTER VII.
The vice of the formation of Johnston's army into three long, thin, parallel lines, together with the broken character of the ground and the variable obstinacy of resistance encountered, produced a complete and inextricable commingling of commands. General Beauregard left it to the discretion of the different commanders to select the place for bivouac for the night.
Colonel Pond, retiring from his disastrous repulse toward the close of the afternoon, found himself wholly separated by an interval of more than a quarter of a mile from the nearest support, the whole of the Confederate left having drifted from him toward the southeast. Assembling all his brigade, except the Crescent Regiment, which had become detached, and recalling his battery—Ketchum's—he remembered that the special duty had been assigned to him, by General Bragg, of guarding the flank along Owl Creek. When night fell, he moved to his rear and then to his left, and bivouacked in line facing to the east, on the high land west of Brier Creek. Ketchum's battery was placed in a field a little back from the ravine. He posted pickets to his rear as well as to his front. The other two brigades of Ruggles' division spent the night to the east of Shiloh Church.