Cleburne sent urgent messages to Brig. Gen. Bushrod Johnson to bring up his brigade; they arrived just as Wood’s troopers came marching up from the ammunition trains. ‘We descended the slope of a hill and entered the cedars, on rocky acclivity some 200 yards to the left of the position to which Captain Terry had driven the enemy’s skirmishes,’ Johnson reported. ‘My men here opened fire, when I directed them to desist, believing that our friends were in front of our line. Riding now in advance of the right of our line, the enemy’s fire was unexpectedly drawn. After a few rounds it was found that a heavy force was flanking our right, where we were unsupported. I consequently moved my command to the rear in good order.’

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Johnson’s brigade had slipped past Polk’s brigade, missing them altogether, and stumbled into Sheridan’s right flank, under the command of the belligerent Greusel. In the meantime, Polk’s brigade charged across the rock-strewn heights toward Sheridan’s right. ‘I again moved on,’ Polk wrote, ‘but did not proceed far when the enemy’s batteries, posted across a cornfield on the right of the pike commenced playing fearfully upon my ranks.’

Meanwhile, south of Robert’s brigade, Manigault’s five Confederate regiments moved against the Federals with renewed fury. The battle-hardened Rebels came on with their usual lan, charging through the thick cedar underbrush to within a few feet of their blue-clad adversaries. The clamor of battle swept the field; Hescock’s artillery leveled to zero degrees, rammed home double loads of canister, and fired by battery. In a few minutes it was all over. Manigault’s bold charge had been bloodily repulsed.

Manigault, however, was not finished. On his right, Walthall’s 3rd Brigade, under Brig. Gen. J. Patton Anderson, came up. Anderson reported: ‘About 9 a.m., Col. Manigault came to me and informed me that he intended to charge a battery in his front; wished me to send two regiments to his support. I consented to do so, and immediately ordered the 45th Alabama and the 24th Mississippi forward to perform that duty. They became hotly engaged soon after leaving their breastworks.’

Manigault’s command, now swollen to seven regiments, burst forward to the sound of bugles and drums. ‘The enemy,’ reported Anderson, ‘being in heavy force and strongly posted, backed by many pieces of artillery, so planted as to enfilade a portion of our line. In addition to this enfilading fire, Colonel Manigault was exposed to a cross-fire from a battery in front of his left. In the unequal contest our line halted, staggered, and fell back in some confusion, but were easily rallied, reformed, and moved to the front.’

Hescock’s artillery, ably supported by several regiments of infantry, was holding firm to the Wilkinson Pike salient, but the ammunition from their caissons was quickly disappearing. Anderson ordered additional regiments — the 27th, 29th and 30th Mississippi — into the fray, determined to break the Yankee lines. The Confederates pushed forward into the open field in front of the Union position. Lieutenant Colonel James Autry, commanding the 27th Mississippi, fell dead. Colonel W.F. Brantly of the 29th Mississippi suffered a concussion. On the brigade’s left, the 30th Mississippi was caught by converging and enfilading fire; 62 officers and men were killed and 139 soldiers were wounded in that regiment alone.

Within minutes of the assault, Anderson’s soldiers were driven to ground in the bloody stubble of the cornfield before Sheridan’s guns. They became little more than cannon fodder, pinned down and nearly unable to move. Their withdrawal left the field littered with dead and dying, their frontal assault a brutal reminder of the folly of war.Sheridan’s bold stand, now an hour and a half long, had provided Rosecrans with enough time to react to the Confederate onslaught. He ordered Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau’s 1st Division to take up position on Sheridan’s right. Hastily, Rousseau rushed into line.

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