turnpike. At this point the 19th was shifted from the left to the right
wing between the 15th and 16th, thereby equalizing the strength of the two
wings more nearly. While in this position, the line facing southwest, the
brigade, the battalions of the 18th, and the battery especially, were
exposed to an enfilading artillery fire, and Captain Denison, of the 2d
Battalion, was mortally wounded, and Sergeant White, of Co. F. 3d
Battalion, 18th infantry, was killed by a solid shot. The brigade was not
long in position when Sheridan's troops began to come out of the woods,
followed shortly after by the enemy, whose further advance was resisted by
it. At a point where a short thicket about half way between the battery
and the woods and nearly opposite the battery and right of the brigade
covered to some extent its approach, Wither's Division formed and made a
desperate charge on Guenther's Battery. The enemy advanced boldly and
bravely; Guenther turned his admirably served guns on him, and with the
fire of his supports broke the column, which made four gallant efforts to
continue the charge, but melted away under the dreadful fire; their battle
flag went down three times in succession. Portions of Scribner's Brigade
flanked the enemy's left, and, upon the repulse of his charge on the
Regular Battery, Scribner's and John Beatty's Brigades, Van Cleeve's
Division, the Pioneer Brigade and other organizations, led by Generals
Rosecrans and Rousseau in turn, charged upon the enemy, driving him well
back into the cedars. The remnants of the right wing having meanwhile been
reorganized, reformed nearly all on the right, advanced and took
positions, held by them until the close of the battle. The enemy's advance
on our right and his flanking operations had now been successfully
resisted, but Negley was still in the woods, flanked and almost
surrounded. Extraordinary efforts were then made by the enemy to crush the
centre and left; reinforcements were brought from their right and thrown
upon the left of Negley and against Cruft, Grose and Hazen. Negley, out of
ammunition, was compelled to almost cut his way out; Grose's and Cruft's
Brigades of Palmer's Division, on Negley's left, necessarily had to follow
in his wake, in a measure covering his retreat; Hazen's right, on Cruft's
left, fell back and changed front from southeast to northwest, pivoting on
his left.

To enable these troops to fall back, to afford them protection, to gain
t