e last
desperate charges of the Confederate hosts were repelled. As though by
common consent, the firing ceased almost simultaneously on both sides, and
a period of comparative calm succeeded the storm of battle.

Never was a cessation of strife more welcome than to the two armies. The
Army of the Cumberland had been so riven and torn during the struggle as
to bear scarcely any resemblance to the compact organization of the
morning. Divisions had been swept away from the rest of their corps,
brigades had been torn away from divisions, regiments from brigades, and
even battalions and companies from regiments. It was in very truth an
improvised battle-line,--the line that had clung to the Nashville Pike
during the closing hours of the engagement. A vast number of individual
soldiers,--not by any means all skulkers, but, in many cases, men who had
become separated from their own commands and had done valiant service
wherever opportunity offered, with or without orders,--were wandering
about back of the Union lines, seeking the camp-fires of their comrades.
To restore a semblance of order and alignment was the first task of
officers,--great and small,--and it was hours before this could be
accomplished in part. It was the intention of Rosecrans to forbid fires,
for fear of drawing attacks from the enemy; but before any order could be
issued, they were lighted all along the line, and the exhausted troops got
an opportunity to boil coffee and toast bacon before sinking down to
sleep.

On the Confederate side there was less confusion. The Army of the
Tennessee,--though clearly fought out for the time being,--had preserved
far more of the autonomy of its several commands, and as the camp-fires
were kindled along its battle front, the impression was universal that the
fight would be renewed on the morrow. Bragg himself was in a state of
exultation, for though his cherished plan had not yet been carried out, he
felt that success had merely been deferred.

There was a council of the principal Federal officers during the night at
the commanding general's headquarters. Rosecrans, it is said, had in mind
a retirement of a few miles to Overall's Creek, but this was given up when
it was pointed out that the new position was scarcely as strong as the one
now held, and offered few advantages. Then somebody suggested the question
of retreat. There is a tradition to the effect that Thomas had fallen
into a doze during the talking, but th