Jackson saw that the Confederates were about to charge before his men were finished reloading. Don't load, boys; they are too close on you; let them have the bayonet, he shouted.

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To check the Confederate momentum, Jackson ordered his handful of men forward. The two forces smashed into one another, with survival depending on the individual soldier's skill with the bayonet.

Jackson continued to fire his pistol point-blank at Confederates until it was knocked from his hand with a musket, and he was thrown to the ground. Meanwhile, carrying the colors of the 2nd Texas Legion, Rogers marched forward to the parapet of Battery Robinett. As he planted the colors there, a Union drummer boy killed him with a pistol.

As the Confederates stormed the parapets of Battery Robinett, the regulars tried to drive them back using their ramrods as clubs. As more of the enemy poured into the battery, they grabbed their rifles to fire one volley before retreating to the angle of the fort. With almost half his men down, Sprague ordered the 63rd Ohio to fall back. As they did, Major Zephariah Spaulding was afraid the Confederates would turn his left, so he ordered the 27th Ohio to fall back, stopping on line with the 11th Missouri.

While the Confederates took Battery Robinett, Major Andrew Wilson had the 11th Missouri lie down. When the Confederates were 10 paces beyond it, the major ordered a bayonet charge. The regiment came to its feet and charged forward. This sudden impact of a fresh regiment broke the back of the Confederate attack, forcing them back.

Further right, Sullivan got off his sickbed to lead a counterattack by the 56th Illinois and 17th Iowa at about the same time Davies' men counterattacked. An artillery officer who had remained with the 56th Illinois organized an ad hoc artillery squad that manned a gun, throwing canister into the Confederate ranks. The Confederates gave ground slowly. When they finally ran out of ammunition, they gave three cheers before retreating.

A quarter-century later, one former Confederate remembered the battle. Officers and men behaved with a cool and brilliant daring that savored more of romance than of real war, wrote Thomas C. Deleon. Deeds of personal prowess beyond precedent were done; and the Army of the Mississippi added another noble page to its record–but written deep and crimson with its best blood.

This article was written by Robert Collins Suhr and originally appeared in the May 1999 issue of America's Civil War.

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