[CHAP. XXVIII.

them appear on this hill with their artillery, would open upon them or enfilade their position, and whenever the rebel masses would show themselves in the mouth of this Doctor's Fork he would drive them back. Between 12 and 1 o'clock everything was quiet except these occasional escapades of artillery, happening about every half hour; between 1 and 2 o'clock General Rousseau put Loomis' battery into position, which soon opened, and formed his line of battle, the right of it resting on a barn, which was subsequently burned by the rebel artillery, and his left stretching off obliquely in the direction of Chaplin Fork. His line was a continuation of General Gilbert's line. With the aid of Hescock, Loomis soon silenced this battery on Bottom's Hill, part of it in Bottom's orchard, and for some time the battle seemed to be over.

About 2 o'clock General Gilbert ordered us to fall back from our position in the woods. General Gilbert's line was separated from General Rousseau's by the rocky and dry bed of what I learned to be Doctor's Fork and about 150 paces distant. About 2 o'clock we were ordered back on this hill, our troops being raw. The regiments fell back individually in good order, but the brigades became so mixed up that I halted mine and would not move a step till the other brigades passed me. We fell back, forming a circular line on Peters' Hill, and with our left flank to the woods above referred to and the original line. I pointed out to General Gilbert the danger of our left flank and requested him to permit me to fill the woods we had just left with skirmishers, which request he granted; and in order to prevent a flank movement, under the cover of the woods I put the Eighty-sixth Illinois behind a picket fence, faced it by the rear rank, and told it to open on any troops it saw coming through the woods. We had scarcely got into this new position when eighteen pieces of the enemy's artillery galloped up to Bottom's Hill and opened on General Rousseau's right. This position had been enfiladed, and no doubt by Captain Hescock's battery. Two brigades of rebels formed in front of the new line of General Sheridan and attacked us. They came within 100 yards of our batteries, when the whole line charged bayonets on them and they ran. Our whole division was laying there, about four regiments deep, not covering more than a brigade and a half in front. The rebels reformed under the crest of the hill and attacked us again. By this time some troops on our right attacked them in flank and they fell back and left us; this was about 3 o'clock. The two attacks of battle lasted an hour.

After we drove them off the excitement which attends such little affairs as this subsided. I turned around and saw the barn on General Rousseau's right in flames, and saw the rebels in three lines in line of battle, with two regiments doubled on the center, their left flank coming up Doctor's Fork. They changed direction slightly to the right; these two regiments doubled on the center made a right partial wheel. They were so near I could see the daylight through their ranks with my glass. I saw them envelop and drive back Lytle's right flank. At that time our division, with two batteries, was lying idle. I begged General Sheridan to at least allow us to open on them with artillery, for from the fierceness of the engagement on our left and the weak attacks on our right I felt satisfied that the rebels were concentrating their whole force against our left wing. The answer I received to this earnest entreaty was that it might concentrate the fire of the enemy's artillery upon our troops. This came to me from General Gilbert through General Sheridan. I suggested that the troops could be moved over on the other slope of the hill, which was a backbone, and would be perfectly safe.

The rebels, after they had pulverized Rousseau's right with their eighteen guns, moved a portion of their artillery from Bottom's Hill to the clump of trees on the left of the Mackville road as you go toward Perryville. At the time I made the request to turn our batteries on them we could see them going into battery in this new position spoken of. We at last did, by General Sheridan, get permission for these batteries to open on the rebel battery and rebel column as we saw them on our left. We then opened a concentric fire upon them, crossing our fire in the enemy's battery. At the second discharge I saw one of their caissons blow up, and in one of those regiments doubled on the center that I spoke of before I saw the standard go down three times, caused by the execution of our artillery. This seemed to check them, which check we afterward learned was assisted by the arrival of Gooding's brigade on the field. By marching my regiment 250 yards over an open-plain corn field I could have taken the rebels in rear and flank and had them between Lytle's battery and my own.

About this time or shortly afterward darkness fell upon the scene, and we bivouacked on the hill I had originally carried in the morning. There was a strong wing blowing in the direction of General McCook's army corps from the direction of General Buell's headquarters; it was so high that at times I could distinguish musketry a half mile from me. It is my impression that I was informed by one of the signal officers on our hill, about fifteen minutes after 2 o'clock, that General Rousseau sent that dispatch, but I am satisfied that such a dispatch went through the signal office, and that this conversation was extorted by a burst of indignation of mine,