When Rosecrans finally became aware of the danger to his right, he ordered Van Cleve back across the stream to support his threatened flank. Breckinridge moved forward, finding no Union troops in his front, but the delay had bought the Federals precious time.

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Rosecrans himself rode forward to supervise the patchwork formation of a new defensive line in Thomas’ area at right angles to the original one. Van Cleve came splashing back across Stones River and took up position in line of battle between the divisions of Rousseau on his left and Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Wood on his right. Rosecrans also positioned several batteries along the high ground that commanded the approaches to the new Union line. With Rousseau on the right and Maj. Gen. John Palmer’s division on the left, the apex of the angular Federal salient rested in a grove of cedars so thick that their branches hung to the ground. Straddling the acute angle formed by the intersection of the Nashville Turnpike and the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, this area of dense cedar growth, underbrush and rocky outcroppings was known locally as the Round Forest. But by the end of the day, those who fought there would always remember it as ‘Hell’s Half-Acre.’

The Rebels realized that the Round Forest salient was the key to the entire Union position. Breaching the line at this point would allow them to take their enemy in flank both to the left and right. Bragg’s soldiers hurled themselves against the Round Forest with renewed ferocity. However, in one of the most heroic and least-publicized defensive actions in the war, one of Palmer’s brigades, commanded by Colonel William B. Hazen, took the Rebels head-on and stood solid as a rock.

For more than eight hours, Hazen’s four regiments, the 9th Indiana, 6th Kentucky, 110th Illinois and 41st Ohio, stood their ground in the face of unrelenting Confederate pressure. Hazen described the action: ‘Upon this point, as a pivot, the entire army oscillated from front to rear the entire day….I dispatched word to the rear that assistance must be given, or we must be sacrificed…and gave orders to Lieutenant-Colonel Wiley to fix his bayonets and to Colonel Casey (without bayonets) to club his guns and hold the ground at all hazards.’

Using his interior lines to great advantage, Rosecrans was able to bolster threatened areas of his defensive perimeter by shifting troops only short distances. This he did without regard for command or unit organization. At various times during the day Hazen was reinforced by units from Rousseau, Palmer, Van Cleve, Negley, Wood and Sheridan.

Late in the afternoon, Bragg ordered Breckinridge to release four brigades to Polk for a final assault in the fading light. Polk, however, doomed this desperate attack to failure from the outset by sending in the brigades piecemeal. First the men of Brig. Gens. Daniel Adams and John K. Jackson were sacrificed with heavy losses. Then those of Brig. Gen. William Preston and Colonel Joseph Palmer met a similar fate.

As Hazen’s men began to waver under Confederate pressure, Rosecrans rode forward with his staff to rally them. In their gallop to the line, Rosecrans and his staff exposed themselves to Rebel fire. A cannon shot crashed through the trees and bounded along the ground like a bowling ball. The missile passed just wide of Rosecrans and struck his chief of staff, Colonel Julius P. Garesche, in the face. Rosecrans’ overcoat was splattered with his close friend’s blood. Garesche’s headless body stayed astride its mount for 20 paces before falling lifeless to the earth.

Rosecrans rode bravely into the Round Forest, unaware that several members of his staff had been killed or wounded. A number of soldiers close by urged him to take cover, but the general bravely responded: ‘Men, do you know how to be safe? Shoot low! But to be safest of all, give them a blizzard, and then charge with cold steel!’

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