astride of his horse, waiting in vain for the
sounds of the conflict.

"What is the matter with Polk,--why in common sense doesn't he do
something?" General Bragg is reported to have said, and started off for
the right wing personally. He found Polk absent from the field and no
preparations being made to attack Baird. As the fog lifted, he saw how
his right overlapped the Union left, and how the Rossville road was thus
left open, and Breckinridge and Cleburn were given orders to advance
without delay.

In the meantime Thomas had ordered Negley to reenforce Baird. But only
one division could be spared, which was rushed to the scene with all
possible speed, and that was all the support the left flank received.

At half past nine the battle was on, Breckinridge and Cleburn coming
swiftly onward with a ringing yell, to meet a sturdy resistance from
Baird and Beatty's division of Negley's brigade. The contest was fierce
from the very opening, and for a while it looked as if the left flank
would be completely annihilated and Baird's command made prisoners. But
regiments and divisions under Johnson, Stanley, and Vandever were
hurried to the scene, and, suffering heavily, Breckinridge was thrown
back, with two generals killed and his chief of artillery mortally
wounded.

By this time the battle had extended down the line, and now Cleburn,
Walker, Cheatham, and others became involved. The artillery on both
sides were pouring forth shot, shell, and canister at a fearful rate,
and whole lines of brave infantry were mowed down like blades of grass.

With the repulse of the Confederates' right the hopes of the Unionists
ran high, but when victory seemed almost assured, a grave blunder at
the Union centre brought fearful disaster to the Army of the Cumberland.
Receiving an order to close up to Reynolds, Wood took it to mean that he
was to fall back in support, and he left the Union centre to do this.
The gap was quickly filled by Longstreet, and thus the right and left
wings of the Army of the Cumberland became separated, and henceforth two
battles ensued instead of one, on ground from a half a mile to one mile
apart. To the east of Kelley's Farm and the Lafayette road were Baird,
Johnson, Palmer, and Reynolds, still in their old semicircle, while to
the westward of the road was a jagged, but unbroken, line composed of
nearly all the other troops. The Confederate forces lay scattered in
several directions, but principally in fro