South of Sheridan’s Wilkinson Pike salient, Confederate Brig. Gen. Alexander Stewart’s 2nd Brigade came up in support of Anderson’s brigade. Stewart’s division commander, Maj. Gen. J.M. Withers, wanted him to loan two regiments to Anderson for another try against Sheridan’s line. ‘Fearing this would scatter the brigade and produce confusion,’ Stewart wrote, ‘it was suggested to him that the entire brigade had better be advanced, to which he assented.’

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As Stewart’s command arrived at the jumping-off point, Houghtaling’s ever-vigilant artillerists walked 6- and 12- pound shells into his lines, knocking down a number of infantrymen. Panicked members of the 29th and 30th Mississippi regiments fell back in disorder, leaving a large number of dead and wounded on the open ground beyond Wilkinson Pike.

Across the way, the bold men of Sheridan’s division were near the end of their rope. All of his original brigade commanders lay dead on the field, along with many of his field grade officers. Casualty rates among the division were staggering, and worst of all, their ammunition was nearly depleted.

Again Stewart’s Tennesseans charged, their battle flags whipping in the gray winter sky, pressing hard on the Union salient, determined to break the blue lines. ‘By a rapid fire, commencing with Walker’s regiment [19th Tennessee] on the left and gradually extending to the right, [we] repulsed the enemy, who fled in confusion to the edge of the woods, leaving many dead and wounded behind,’ Stewart reported.

Sheridan ordered his men out of the pocket as best he could. The tattered remnants of his division were hard pressed by Stewart’s Tennesseans on the southeastern side of the salient and Polk’s brigade on its western end. Withdrawing, the division’s artillery suffered severe losses. Many of the cannoneers were dead or wounded, and the survivors could not pull the guns through the dense cedar thickets. More than 160 horses were lost to Rebel fire.

Captain Hescock, Sheridan’s artillery chief, explained almost plaintively, ‘The loss of guns, in the division, I believe to be unavoidable, and necessary to the successful resistance of the enemy’s attack, which was made in heavy masses; and I do not think the officers can be blamed, as they could not do otherwise without most disastrous results to the army.’

Sheridan’s 3rd Division had fought for four hours, established three defensive positions under direct fire, engaged nine Confederate brigades, and claimed 2,000 to 3,000 casualties while suffering 990 casualties out of 5,000 troopers engaged. In the final analysis, his hard-fighting soldiers saved the Union army at Stones River and, in effect, started Phil Sheridan on a meteoric rise to military fame.

This article was written by Robert Cheeks and originally appeared in the January 1997 issue of America’s Civil War magazine.

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