Confederate forces, yielding to the irresistible logic of
Mendenhall's guns, had considered not so much upon the order of going as
upon its rapidity, until beyond the range of the artillery, many of them
rallied behind Robinson's Battery and Anderson's Brigade in the narrow
skirt of timber, from which they emerged to the assault. The Union line
advanced and took position upon the ground from which Beatty had been
driven an hour before. The picket lines of both armies occupied opposite
sides of the open field, over which Breckinridge had advanced, and
darkness covered the battle-field. During the night General Cleburne moved
his division over to its original position on the right, in support of
Breckinridge, and General Hardee resumed command of that portion of the
line.

Apprehending the possible success of a flank attack upon his left, Bragg
had caused all the tents and baggage to be loaded on wagons and sent to
the rear. On Saturday morning, the 3d of January, the soldiers of both
armies had been in battle for four days and nights; their provisions, if
cooked at all, were scanty and unfit to eat; their clothing soaked with
rain and stiff with mud, with no fires to dry them and to warm their
chilled bodies, they had responded with a will to every command. With
death beckoning them to his clammy embrace they had advanced with
unfaltering tread, leaving their trail marked by the dead forms of their
comrades. Even now there was no word of complaint. It rested with the
generals in command of the contending armies whether another holocaust of
lives should be offered before either would acknowledge himself
vanquished. No thought of retreat had at any time entered the minds of
Rosecrans, Thomas, or Crittenden. With one exception, neither of the
division commanders in the center or on the left wings had favored it.
McCook, after his bloody repulse on the 31st, had advised falling back
upon Nashville upon purely military grounds, but had readily acquiesced in
the decision of the commanding general to "fight or die right here." The
fugitives in his command who had not pursued their shameless way to
Nashville had rallied to their standards and were anxious to restore their
tarnished laurels. The losses during the three days of battle were nearly
evenly divided. General Bragg acknowledged a loss of 9,000 in killed and
wounded, 25 per cent of his army of 38,250, while General Rosecrans'
report shows a loss of 8,778, over 20 per cen