before giving the signal to fire. Then he let
the Rebels have it. Almost 60 Union can-
non blistered the disorganized Rebel mob
sweeping down the hill. Men fell in heaps.
Panic set in. The 16 Confederate cannon
north of the recently taken hill tried to
answer but were no match for the better-
sited, more numerous Federal batteries.
Breckinridge looked frantically for Cap-
tain Robertson’s six-gun battery that was
supposed to arrive on the hill shortly after
its capture, but in vain. Although Robert-
son sent his smaller battery off to the right,
he declined to advance his remaining can-
non, claiming (mistakenly) that the Con-
federate infantry failed to capture this crit-
ical elevation. Bragg’s plan to hold the
captured hill was coming apart.
In the Confederate lines, all was confu-
sion. Shells seemed to burst among them
from all directions. Soldiers who stoppedto carry off wounded comrades were
themselves cut down. It was as if “the
heavens opened and the stars of destruc-
tion were sweeping everything from the
face of the earth,” remarked one Tennessee
soldier. Another suggested that they had
just “opened the doors of Hell, and the
devil himself was there to greet them.”
Union reinforcements were now at hand.
Colonels John Miller and Timothy Stan-
ley spontaneously advanced their Federal
brigades across the river and up the hill,
supported by remnants of the original
defenders. On they charged after the flee-
ing Confederates, with more Union troops
joining in every minute. They retook the
hill and still they came.
Captain Wright’s battery attempted to
cover the retreat of Breckinridge’s right
flank, firing salvos into the lines of Grose’s
oncoming Yankees, who had now joinedthe charge. The Tennessee battery did its
best, but the Federals never wavered. As
they approached to within 75 yards,
Wright keeled over with a mortal wound.
Other men and horses went down.
Breckinridge’s chief of artillery, Major
Rice Graves, rode up to the battery and
took command. “Limber to the rear!” he
shouted. Then, thinking better of it, he
ordered a final round of double-canister.
The guns belched out death to the nearest
Yankees and then the men tried to relim-
ber. Too late! The Federals were in among
them and only two of the four guns man-
aged to escape.
The Confederates were now streaming
back through the woods from where
Breckinridge had launched his attack.
The 78th Pennsylvania overruns a Confederate
battery and its soldiers wrestle for a Confederate
battle flag.
Tennessee State Library and ArchivesCWQ-EW16 Stone's River_Layout 1 10/22/15 1:15 PM Page 54