Minty needed help in order to cover yet another bridge, Dyer’s, on his left flank, and pleaded to Wilder to send him reinforcements. The Indianian complied, sending the 123rd Illinois, most of the 72nd Indiana and a portion of Lilly’s battery. Only 1,000 men, half of the Lightning Brigade’s strength, remained at Alexander’s Bridge to face an oncoming force eight times their number.

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Wilder’s men made the most of the surrounding terrain to help even the odds. The dense woods and steep banks of the creek near the bridge would force enemy units to make a frontal attack at the span, and the 98th Illinois deployed on the left side of the bridge and the 17th Indiana on the right, with the remaining Company A of the 72nd Indiana guarding the bridge itself.

During the midmorning hours of the 18th, Wilder ordered Company A of the 72nd Indiana to wreck the bridge by pulling up its wooden planks. At 1 p.m., three of Brig. Gen. Edward C. Walthall’s Mississippi regiments attacked the position, but the rapid-firing Spencer rifles thwarted any Confederate attempts to cross the creek.

While the infantrymen fought, the four guns of Lilly’s battery left at Alexander’s Bridge traded shots with an Alabama battery. One of the first shells fired by the Alabamians hit and bounced off the Alexander cabin, which stood north of the bridge along the Alexander’s Bridge Road, and landed among Lilly’s gunners. ‘I don’t think I will ever forget the awful, unearthly screeching that shell made….We all knew…it would strike some place close by,’ recalled a batteryman. As the projectile’s fuse sputtered, Private Sidney Speed picked up the round and heaved it past the cabin before it exploded, undoubtedly saving lives.

By midafternoon the Confederates were finding other ways to ford the creek to the South. Word also filtered down from the north that Minty had withdrawn. After hours of fighting, Wilder’s brigade was beginning to be surrounded.

Wilder’s men began to pull out in a slow and orderly fashion. Lilly’s battery fell back first, followed by the 17th Indiana, then the 98th Illinois. Company A of the 72nd Indiana was the last to leave the bridge. Wilder’s regiments had inflicted more than 100 Confederate casualties and held off two Rebel brigades in defense of the bridge, while suffering only a few casualties.

A few miles to the southeast, along the Alexander Road, a narrow trace that connected the La Fayette Road with Alexander’s Bridge Road, the Lightning Brigade set up a new defensive line facing to the northeast. The regiments sent to Minty’s aid rejoined the group. In the dim hours before sunset, some of Wilder’s skirmishers traded shots with the lead elements of Bushrod Johnson’s division. The Federals fought mounted. One soldier of the Lightning Brigade recalled that his horse bucked so hard every time he fired that he was nearly thrown off. The stiff Union resistance convinced Johnson he was up against a large force, and the Confederate general halted his troops for the night.

The night of September 18-19, however, provided little comfort for Wilder’s brigade. During the last skirmish with Johnson, most of Wilder’s men had sent their horses, blankets and tents to the rear. As the soldiers shivered during a particularly chilly night, the two massive armies began arriving and maneuvering for the morning’s fight. At about 4 a.m., the men were finally removed from the front and took up a new position on the far right of the Union line in front of the XXI Corps.

On September 19, Rosecrans sent two brigades and one battery of guns under the command of Brig. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis in front of Wilder, across La Fayette Road and into the East Viniard Field. One of Davis’ brigades, led by Colonel Hans Heg, stumbled into a Tennessee and Texas brigade of Johnson’s division, and the Battle of Chickamauga began to swing into full fury. Davis’ men were pushed back over the La Fayette Road and into a ditch in the West Viniard field.

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