pt for the stragglers he could not control. In the center C.
F. Smith's division, with Hurlbut's in support, and all that was
left of Prentiss's, defended themselves so desperately that their
enemies called their position the Hornet's Nest. Here the fight
swayed back and forth for hours, with ghastly losses on both sides.
C. F. Smith himself was on his deathbed at Savannah. But he heard
the roar of battle. His excellent successor, W. H. L. Wallace,
was killed; and battalions, brigades, and even divisions, soon
became inextricably mixed together. There was now the same confusion
on the Confederate side, where Johnston was wounded by a bullet
from the Hornet's Nest. It was not in itself a mortal wound. But,
knowing how vital this point was, he went on encouraging his men
till, falling from the saddle, he was carried back to die.

Grant still felt confident; though he had seen the worst in the rear
as well as the best at the front. Two of his brand-new battalions,
the very men who afterwards fought like heroes, when they had learned
the soldier's work, now ran like hares. "During the day," says Grant,
"I rode back as far as the river and met General Buell, who had
just arrived. There probably were as many as four or five thousand
stragglers lying under cover of the river bluff, panic-stricken. As
we left the boat Buell's attention was attracted by these men. I
saw him berating them and trying to shame them into joining their
regiments. He even threatened them with shells from the gunboats
nearby. But all to no effect. Most of these men afterward proved
themselves as gallant as any of those who saved the battle from
which they had deserted."

By half-past five, after twelve hours' fighting, Grant at last
succeeded in forming a new and shorter line, a mile behind that
morning's front, but without any dangerous gaps. There were three
reorganized divisions--Sherman's, McClernand's, and Hurlbut's, one
fresh division under Nelson, and a strong land battery of over
twenty field guns helping the two ironclad gunboats in the defense
of Pittsburg Landing. The Confederate effectives, reduced by heavy
losses and by as many stragglers as the Federals, were now faced
by five thousand fresh men on guard at the Landing. Beauregard,
who had succeeded Johnston, then stopped the battle for the day,
with the idea of retiring next morning to Corinth. But, before
his orders reached it, his battle-worn right made a desperate,
fruitless, and c