that an engagement was in progress. Providentially, General Nelson, with the advance of General Buell's army, had arrived at Savannah Saturday night. General Buell also in person acccompanied this division of his army. Orders were immediately given to General Nelson to march up the left bank of the river to Pittsburg Landing, and to be ferried across. Couriers were also sent to divisions in the rear, urging them to press forward with the utmost speed. General Grant immediately embarked upon a transport, and hastened to the scene of action. General Buell speedily followed. General Lew. Wallace, of Indiana, who must not be confounded with Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace, of Illinois, was stationed at Crump's Landing Aroused by the sound of the cannon, he had promptly brought his whole command into a condition to move, the moment he should receive orders to that effect. General Grant presed Crump's Landing at nine o'clock, and left orrs for General Wal the hold his brigades in readiness to move, awaiting further orders.

It was nearly ten o'clock when General Grant arrived at Pittsburg Landing. It scarcely needed the few hurried words he there received, to reveal to him the extent of the disaster which had befallen the army. Beneath the river's bank, close to the water's edge, he found a vast throng, a tumultuous mob of fugitives, whose pale faces, trembling limbs, and excited ejaculations told too plainly the story of defeat and consternation. He found that the first line of the National army had been entirely abandoned to the enemy. The division of General Prentiss was, for the time being, utterly destroyed. General Sherman's Division, having lost a whole brigade, and fearfully demoralized, had been, together with the reënforcements sent to it by General McClernand, driven back nearly two miles. The position held by General Stuart's Brigade was no longer tenable, and he was retreating to avoid being surrounded and captured. General Lew. Wallace, with his division, was six miles distant, under command not to move until he should receive orders to do so.

It scarcely seemed possible, under disasters so terrible, that the utmost courage in the ranks, and the most perfect unaminity of counsel among the officers, could retrieve the failing fortunes of the day.

It was probably an advantage to the National cause that there was an unbridged and unfordable river to check the rush of the fugitives. By vigorous exertions the terror-stricken crowd was gathered up, and in hurried and very imperfect organization led back to the field. A message was promply dispatched to General Lew. Wallace. A new line of defence was formed; and here the battle raged for five hours, with fury which mortal valor and desperation could not surpass. Again, and again, the outnumbering rebels dashed upon our lines. Again, and again, baffled and routed, they were driven back. Still the advantages of the assailants in numbers and preparation was so great that it could scarcely be doubted that the final victory would be theirs. At each repulse the disordered troops were taken to the rear, and fresh ones took their places.

At length, at half-past three o'clock, General Hurlbut's Division recoiled before the incessant waves of attack, and fell back to within half a mile of the Landing. The division of General W. H. L. Wallace was thus left

a

without support. Just at this juncture this gallant officer received a mortal wound, and was borne away from the field. The division, thus bereaved of its heroic commander, sullenly retreated-the last division to yield to the disasters of that dreadful day. It was now four o'clock. The National line was everywhere broken and driven back to the edge of the river. Further retreat was impossible. One more successful rebel advance and the National army would be literally driven into the water. A host of five or six thousand fugitives was huddled beneath the river's bank. The most strenuous exertions could not induce them to rally to the assistance of their comrades, who were still, with the energies of despair, battling their foes.

The heroic and the cowardly, the noble and the ignoble, were alike looking anxiously down the river, watching for the advent of General Lew. to His fresh and well-disciplined division might possibly turn the of the day. But, yet, there were no signs of its approach. Fortunately the rebels, in their preparation for one grand last assault, granted our breathless troops the respite of half an hour. Apparently but for this, our army at the Landing would have been annihilated. The patriot officers made a wise improvement of these precious moments.

Colonel Webster, chief of General Grant's staff, hurriedly collected every gun upon which he could lay his hands. He soon had a battery of twentytwo pieces. Two of them were heavy siege-guns. He arranged them in a semicircle, and improvised a corps of volunteers to work them. While this movement was going on, suddenly an exuberant shout was heard from the thousands of panic-stricken soldiers beneath the bank. Across the river was to be seen the rapid approach of massive columns, their bayonets gleaming in the setting sun. General Nelson had arrived with his advance division of General Buell's army.

These troops, stimulated by the thunder of the battle continually pealing in their ears, had pressed forward, over an almost impassable road, with the utmost eagerness, and had arrived at the point of peril just in time to rescue their comrades from utter destruction. Singular was the contrast exhibited in the rays of that setting sun. On the one side of the stream there was a crowd of five or six thousand fugitives, young and untried soldiers, who had fled from the carnage which flooded the field with blood, leaving their comrades to struggle unaided against the exultant foe, and who were now anxiously looking for some means of transportation, by which they might escape across the river. Upon the opposite shore there were about an equal number of troops, who had been toiling all day with unflagging energy to reach the very field from which the others had fled, and who were now impatiently looking for some ferriage, by which they might join their struggling and overpowered comrades, and share in their victory or their death. The needful transports were speedily at hand, and General Nelson's troops were sent across the stream.

It was just at this juncture that the last rebel assault was commenced. The air was full of shot and shell. So close had the rebels pressed to the last position of the patriots, that their shot occasionally fell into the midst of the panic-stricken group at the landing. But as the ex

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ultant foe pressed recklessly on, assailing the National left, they encountered a new, unexpected, and terrible enemy. Two gunboats, the Tyler and the Lexington, were in position, awaiting some opportunity to join in the fray. They immediately opened a swift and deadly fire upon the foe, now brought within their range. The enormous shells careering through the air, carrying death to the ranks of the rebels struggling through the oak jungles, constituted an imposing feature of the scene. This was the culminating point of the battle. The fight was now desperate beyond description. Just at this juncture General Nelson's troops reached the western banks of the river, and with loud cheers rushed upon the field. They did not arrive one moment too early. The patriot artillery, which was magnificently handled, being feebly supported by infantry, could not long maintain its position against the odds crowding upon it.

The opportune arrival of Nelson's Division decided the issues of day. The rebel advance, met by the murderous fire of these fresh troo was checked; the hour of twilight faded away into darkness; the fire of the foe slackened, and gloomy night enveloped the scene. The tempest of war had, for the time, expended all its thunders, and silence, as of the grave, ensued. The rebels, notwithstanding their signal success, had as signally failed in the accomplishment of the end at which they aimed. They had fallen upon the patriots by surprise; had driven them from their tents, which the foe had seized and rifled; they had taken several thousand prisoners; had broken the army into fragments, and driven it several miles before them. They had not, however, compelled General Grant to surrender. They had not driven his troops into the river. And they had lost the golden opportnnity for a decisive victory. The twelve hours of the night would allow General Grant to bring forward fresh forces and try the wager of battle anew. "To-morrow," said General Grant, "they will be exhausted, and we will go at them with fresh troops."

Where was General Lew. Wallace all this time? During the long day the roar of the battle fell heavily upon his impatient ear. He had a division of fresh men at his command, whose advent upon the field would, at any moment, have gone far to save the day's disaster. A messenger had been dispatched for him soon after ten o'clock. And yet he did not reach the field until after the day's fighting was over. For this apparent dilatoriness he has been very severely and very unjustly censured. A ref erence to the annexed diagram will show what are some of the inevitable casualties of war, and how the most heroic of men may be exposed to the most cruel judgment.

From Crump's Landing a road leads back into the country, through Adamsville to Purdy. From this road three others lead to Pittsburg Landing, as here indicated. The central road forks it at C, one branch leading up to the Adamsville, and the other down to the river road. General Lew. Wallace's Division was stationed in the manner indicated on the map, in three camps, one at Crump's Landing, one at Adamsville, and one midway between. The most direct road from his encampment to the main army was A B. This road he had caused to be corduroyed in anticipation of future exigencies.