McCown’s troops drove the Union right steadily back, yielding the forward positions to Cleburne as their ammunition ran out. As the Confederate tide surged forward, entire Union brigades became disorganized and scattered. Here or there the Federals would rally and offer some resistance, but with frightening regularity these isolated units would find themselves outflanked and absorbing casualties from Rebel fire in their rear.

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When General Kirk was wounded, command of his shattered brigade passed to Colonel J.B. Dodge of the 30th Indiana. Lieutenant Colonel Orrin D. Hurd in turn took charge of the regiment. In his report, Hurd recounted his regiment’s part in the confusing combat: ‘After the regiment on our left and we had sustained the enemy’s fire for some time, the 79th Illinois Volunteers advanced to our immediate right and supported us gallantly; but being outflanked by a superior force of the enemy, and exposed to a heavy crossfire, they fell back and we were obliged to do the same, having no support whatever, and having suffered heavy loss….In retiring the men became very scattered.’

Hurd’s command suffered horribly in the hours between 6 a.m. and noon. Of 487 officers and men in the 30th Indiana who were available for duty, 208 were officially listed as casualties–30 killed, 108 wounded and 70 missing or taken prisoner. Other regiments, though, suffered even higher numbers of casualties. Several disorganized and bloodied units virtually ceased to exist.

Colonel Philemon P. Baldwin, commander of Johnson’s 3rd Brigade, found his troops hotly engaged, almost without warning. ‘At daybreak I was informed by stragglers who were running across the open field in my front, of the attacks on Generals Willich’s and Kirk’s brigades,’ he wrote. ‘Dispositions were scarcely made when the enemy, in immense masses, appeared in my front at short range, their left extending far beyond the extreme right of my line. My infantry and artillery poured a destructive fire into their dense masses, checking them in front, but their left continued to advance against my right….The enemy came in such overwhelming numbers that, after half an hour’s stubborn resistance, my line was compelled to retire, not, however, until the enemy had flanked my right and were pouring in an enfilading fire. Had my line stood a moment longer it would have been entirely surrounded and captured.’

As the sun climbed higher, Withers’ and Cheatham’s divisions of Polk’s corps joined in the fray, pitching into Sheridan’s alert brigades and Negley’s division holding the Union center. Sheridan made a gallant stand, throwing off three successive waves of attacking Rebels. Negley’s troops, posted in a thick cedar glade, repulsed the charge of Brig. Gen. Patton Anderson’s brigade of Withers’ division, but the fresh regiments of Brig. Gen. A.P. Stewart tipped the balance in favor of the Confederates.

The second Confederate surge succeeded, and the Federals on the right retreated, abandoning a dozen cannons. All three of Sheridan’s brigade commanders, including his close friend Sill, had been killed, and Little Phil’s troops found themselves with empty cartridge boxes and heavy casualties. Rousseau’s fresh division had been ordered to Sheridan’s aid, but there was no stopping the hard-driving Confederates–the entire Union right flank swung back like a huge gate on a hinge. By 10 a.m., McCook’s whole corps had been driven back from four to five miles to the vicinity of the Nashville turnpike.

Bragg sensed that complete and final victory was close at hand, but nearly a third of Hardee’s troops had been killed or wounded in the morning’s fighting. Reinforcements would be necessary to mount a decisive push against the Union line, but the only unbloodied Confederates on the field were those of Breckinridge, across Stones River. Bragg ordered Breckinridge to send two brigades to Hardee for the final thrust, but Breckinridge was under the mistaken impression that he was about to be attacked by the division of Brig. Gen. Horatio Van Cleve, which Rosecrans had ordered across the river just after the Rebels had commenced their early-morning attack.

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