During the attack on Prentiss, Stuart's Brigade was formed along the road, the left resting near the Lick Creek Ford, the right, Seventy-first Ohio, Colonel Rodney Mason, (late Assistant Adjutant-General of Ohio, and Colonel of the Second Ohio at Manassas,) being nearest Prentiss. The first intimation they had of disaster to their right was the partial cessation of firing. An instant afterward muskets were seen glinting among the leaves, and presently a Rebel column emerged from a bend in the road, with banners flying and moving at double-quick down the road toward them. Their supports to the left were further off than the Rebels, and it was at once seen that, with but one piece of artillery a single regiment could do nothing there. They accordingly fell rapidly back toward the ford, and were re-formed in an orchard near the other regiments.
The Rebel column veered on further to the right, in search of Prentiss's flying troops, and for a brief space, though utterly isolated, they were unmolested.
Before ten, however, the brigade, which had still stood listening to the surging roar of battle on the left, was startled by the screaming of a shell that came directly over their heads. In an instant the batteries of the Rebel force that had gained the commanding bluffs opposite, by approaching on the Corinth and Hamburgh road, were in full play, and the orchards and open fields in which they were posted (looking only for attack in the opposite direction) were swept with the exploding shells and hail-storm rush of grape.
Under cover of this fire from the bluffs, the Rebels rushed down, crossed the ford, and in a moment were seen forming this side of the creek, in open fields also, and within close musket range. Their color-bearers stepped defiantly to the front, as the engagement opened furiously, the Rebels pouring in sharp, quick volleys of musketry, and their batteries above continuing to support them with a destructive fire. Our sharpshooters wanted to pick off the audacious Rebel color-bearers, but Colonel Stuart interposed: "No, no, they're too brave fellows to be killed." Almost at the first fire, Lieutenant-Colonel Barton S. Kyle, of the Seventy-first, was shot through the breast. The brigade stood for scarcely ten minutes, when it became evident that its position was untenable, and they fell rapidly back, perhaps a quarter of a mile, to the next ridge; a few of his men, at great personal risk, carrying Lieutenant-Colonel Kyle, in a dying condition, from the field they were abandoning. Ohio lost no braver, truer man that day.
As they reached the next woody ridge, Rebel cavalry, that had crossed the creek lower down, were seen coming up on their left; and to resist this new attack the line of battle was formed, fronting in that direction. For three quarters of an hour the brigade stood here. The cavalry, finding its purpose foiled, did not come within range. In front they were hard pressed, and the Rebels, who had followed Prentiss, began to come in on their right. Colonel Stuart had sent across to Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace, then not engaged, for support. Brigadier-General McArthur's Brigade was promptly started across, but mistaking the way, and bearing too much on the right, it speedily found itself in the midst of the Rebel forces, that had poured in after Prentiss. General McArthur could thus render Stuart's Brigade no assistance, but he vigorously engaged the Rebels to his front and flanks, fell back to a good position, and held these troops in bay till the rest of his division came up to his aid. General McArthur was himself disabled by a wound in the foot, but he rode into a hospital, had it dressed, and returned to the brigade, which meantime sturdily held its position.
But this brought Stuart's isolated brigade little help. They were soon forced to fall back to another ridge, then to another, and finally, about 12 o'clock, badly shattered and disordered, they retreated to the right and rear, falling in behind General McArthur's Brigade to reorganize. Colonel Stuart was himself wounded by a ball through his right shoulder, and the loss of field and company-officers was sufficient to greatly discourage the troops.
This clears our entire front line of divisions. The enemy has full possession of all Sherman's, Prentiss's, and McClernand's camps. By 10 o'clock our whole front, except Stuart's Brigade, had given way, and the burden of the fight was resting on Hurlbut and W. H. L. Wallace. Before 12 Stuart, too, had come back, and for the time absolutely only those two divisions stood between our army and destruction or surrender.
Still all was not lost. Hurlbut and Wallace began making a most gallant stand; and meantime most of the troops from the three driven divisions were still to some extent available. Many of them had wandered down the river—some as far as Crump's Landing, and some even to Savannah. These were brought back again on transports. Lines of guards were extended to prevent skulkers from getting back to the Landing, and especially to stop the shrewd dodge among the cravans of taking six or eight able-bodied soldiers to assist some slightly-wounded fellow into the hospital; and between this cordon and the rear of the fighting divisions the fragments of regiments were reorganized after a fashion, and sent back to the field. Brigades could not be got together again, much less divisions, but the regiments pieced together from the loose squads that could be gathered and officered, often by men who could find scarcely a soldier of their own commands, were hurried to the front, and many of them did good service.
It was fortunate for us that the accidental circumstance that Prentiss's portion of our lines had been completely broken sooner than any of the rest, had caused the enemy's onset to veer chiefly to our left. There we were tolerably safe; and at worst, if the Rebels drove us to the river on the left flank, the gunboats would come into play. Our weakest point was the right, and to turning this the Rebels do not seem to have paid so much attention on Sunday.
According to general understanding, in the event of an attack at Pittsburgh Landing, Major-General Lew. Wallace was to come in on our right and flank the Rebels by marching across from Crump's Landing below. Yet strangely enough, Wallace, though with his division all drawn up and ready to march anywhere at a moment's notice, was not ordered to Pittsburgh Landing till nearly if not quite 12 o'clock. Then through misdirection as to the way to come in on the flank, four miles of marching were lost, and the circuitous route made it twelve miles more, before they could reach the scene of battle. Meantime our right was almost wholly unprotected. Fortunately, as I said, however, the Rebels do not seem to have discovered the full extent of this weakness, and their heaviest fighting was done on the centre and left, where we still preserved our line.