stance; indeed, both offered obstinate opposition for as long a time
as possible, but they could not hold out against two divisions, of four
brigades each.

Kirk lost 500 killed and wounded, and 350 captured; while Willich's loss
was more than 400 killed and wounded, and about 700 captured. They were
soon in headlong flight.

With the dispersion of these troops, but one brigade, of Johnson's
division,--the reserve under Baldwin,--was left intact; and now the next
division was threatened on the flank. With quick soldierly instinct the
commander, Jefferson C. Davis, drew back his right brigade, under Post,
and made other dispositions to cooeperate with Baldwin. He had scarcely had
time to complete these preparations, ere both Baldwin and Post were
struck. At the same moment the Confederate grand wheel having got into
full swing, two brigades of Withers's division, of Polk's corps, hurled
themselves against Davis's two remaining brigades,--Carlin's and
Woodruff's,--and against Sill's brigade of Sheridan's division, adjoining
Davis on the left.

Here the Confederates met a check. Baldwin, it is true, had to retreat
shortly, to escape being taken in right and rear; but Post repulsed an
attack upon his front, and Carlin, Woodruff, and Sill threw back their
assailants so violently that Polk ordered up his reserves. A second attack
met the same fate, though General Sill was killed between the guns of a
battery that he was directing. For the third time the gray infantry
advanced to the fight, which now involved the whole of Sheridan's
division. In frontal attack they were held, but one Union command after
another had to retire, to avoid capture under flank attacks. Thus
Sheridan's division was dislodged, as had been Johnson's and Davis's.

Up to this juncture the working out of Bragg's plan had fully equalled, if
not exceeded, the expectations of the Southern commander. The whole right
wing of the Union army had been hurled from position, and some of the
commands composing it had been driven for miles. Thousands of Union
prisoners and great stores of small arms had been captured, together with
many pieces of artillery, which could not be hauled back in the headlong
retreat over the rough ground and through the clumps of cedar in which the
battlefield abounded. In its further development, or swing, the grand
wheel was now threatening the Union centre, and the exultant Confederates
entered with confidence upon another distinct