Part Ten: All-in
Hickory Pike
McArthur’s plan to strike at the weaker western side of the Hickory Pike achieved instant success. Advancing forward at 9:20 AM, the men of Ord’s Wing and McPherson’s Wing coordinated their movements and struck Wood’s Brigade to the west of the road. The 3rd Confederate, 45th Mississippi, and the 2nd Battalion of the 16th Alabama all routed rearwards as the Federals attacked. Federals guns were unlimbered closer to the Rebel lines and every available Federal unit was moving forward to the west of the road. Soon Johnson’s entire division was being thrown backwards with no fresh units immediately available to stem the tide. Armstrong’s Cavalry Brigade, on their far left, found itself bypassed on their right flank by the Federal attack. Two mounted regiments fled the field after coming under Union artillery fire despite taking few losses. All was chaos at present along the Confederate lines.
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Federal attack west of the Hickory Pike
Buckner, riding rapidly to meet with Beauregard, admitted he could now do little to stop the Union attackers. “Luckily, I have a few regiments recovering from earlier routs and an additional regiment in reserve that could temporarily hold that line. I’m shifting a couple of Cleburne’s regiments to the left and brining one of the regiments guarding Grand Junction up to help bolster the line. Along with our artillery, I can only hope that that will keep the enemy back for the moment. Obviously, I am holding my breath and hoping our artillery makes the difference while those routed units get turned around.” The Confederates threw a line in front of the Union forces but were unable to disrupt or rout them as they advanced. Bracing for another attack the Confederate defenders watched as the Federals came forward again.
McPherson and Ord kept coming. Crashing into the reforming Confederates they put as much pressure on them as they could west of the pike. Three more Confederate regiments routed to the rear ahead of the attacked. But the skeleton line of Confederates continued to have just enough strength to keep the Federals from breaking completely through. But the Federals were now just one mile from their objective at Grand Junction.
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North Hill
Tilghman’s men had caught a glimpse of the fighting along Hickory Pike as they charged against Stanley’s left flank. Tilghman had high hopes that his attack would turn the tide and force the Federal line to become unhinged. Despite the routing of ten Federal units – the Union defensive line (barely) held. Rallying just a skeleton line the Federals were able to convince the Confederates that the effort to gain their flank and rear would be too costly and risky. Tilghman would have to call off the attack. He wrote to Van Dorn that, “My boys are frustrated... no fewer than eight (and quite possibly more) routed units from Stanley's beaten up corps & yet barely anyone available to exploit our success. It was entirely the right & sensible thing to fall back, and as a spoiling attack, I feel we've achieved our objectives, and Stanley’s boys are used up.” Van Dorn added that, “I wish you could have continued with your attack, but I am unsure on whether any gains would have offset the risks.” With that the Confederates, once more, fell back away from Stanley’s flank.
Unable to believe his luck Stanley commented to Grant that, “they are afraid to attack it seems. They had a great opportunity on my flank to cause me great problems, but they backed off twice.” The Federals regrouped and soon had reestablished their former line fronting the woods from where Tilghman had twice attacked out of this day. Meanwhile, the rest of Stanley’s Wing continued their unrelenting slugging match with Price’s Corps around North Hill.
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Beauregard's Conference
As the crisis on the Hickory Pike escalated the commanding general was meeting with his generals to discuss their next moves. Van Dorn began by stating his belief that the gap between Buckner’s left and Breckinridge’s right must be closed immediately. Armstrong’s cavalrymen were being driven back and a clear path for the Federals to take Grand Junction was now feasible. Beauregard immediately agreed and stated to Breckinridge that he must begin to move his men at once to the east to help plug the gaps in the Federal lines. LaGrange would have to be abandoned and the lines consolidated in order to save Grand Junction. To Van Dorn he stated that he must move Tilghman’s Division to link in with Maury’s right flank at North Hill. This would free up Forrest’s cavalry brigade to move to Grand Junction and join the forces being rapidly assembled there to create a final line. Van Dorn again cursed Stanley’s line in front of Tilghman. “Those men are like the zombies that just won't die! If he's hitting us again with half his units routed or disformed, we're going to get opportunities eventually - I think there's a half chance I can lure him into making a mistake.”
With the battle raging there was little time to continue the discussion and Beauregard issued his orders.
“It is apparent that the forces deployed to the north facing Lovell's Division are made up of at least two full cavalry brigades, while the infantry corps that once faced Lovell has re-deployed east and to the southeast aimed at approaching Grand Junction from that direction, putting pressure on Armstrong's embattled cavalry and General Buckner's left flank. This enemy infantry has been engaged to a fair degree with Lovell's Division already and can't be considered entirely fresh, but their weight now being thrown in on Buckner's left must be countered. The large concentration of fast-moving Union cavalry, as mentioned previously, is deployed to threaten I believe the flank of what the Yanks must see as our retreating forces moving from the LaGrange area eastward towards Grand Junction. I am sure the Yanks will invest LaGrange by using this concentrated cavalry and will work to get them around the flank of Breckinridge's forces as they retreat now towards Grand Junction. We must be alert for this and take adequate steps to thwart our being outflanked and having Grand Junction threatened from behind by the enemy troopers.” With all of that in mind, Breckinridge was ordered to abandon the fight at LaGrange and to begin moving eastwards to reinforce Buckner’s left flank and protect Grand Junction.
Meanwhile, Buckner would hold on to every inch of ground he could along Hickory Pike. Van Dorn would move Tilghman to his left and free up Forrest’s brigade for action elsewhere. Price would continue his battle with parts of Stanley’s Wing and Sherman’s Wing to his front. The officers mounted up and hurried back to their commands. Beauregard felt he had done all he could. The battle must be decided soon or his army would melt away under such heavy attacks.
Looking around him the field hospitals were already filling up. Over 7,413 men were now casualties from his army of 50,000 men (14.8% losses). Beauregard knew that he could not keep up the battle indefinitely as his army was being bled dry. He estimated in his mind that he would have to fall back and abandon the field in just three or four hours if the casualties continued at their current pace. The battle seemed to be one of attrition at this point. Would the Yankees give out first?
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Grant's Meeting
Grant called his officers together to discuss the battle as the fighting went on along the entire front. McPherson excitedly pronounced that, “I am somewhat surprised that the Rebels did not make more of a stand in front of McArthur’s men and my own. He instead bent his line at 45 degrees to face Ord and left that gap even more open than was previously the case. That plateau onto which we have now marched is good open country with much room for maneuver and attack. I cannot see him leaving that gap uncovered as he appears to have done, it nearly seems too good to be true and we all know about such things. We have committed to a plan, a good plan also, so let us continue to pursue it vigorously to a successful conclusion.”
One of the first things Grant brought up was the Iowa Brigade then defending Stanley’s far left flank and rear. These crack veteran troops were unbloodied and had largely been inactive on the flank since Tilghman’s attacks had never reached them. Confederate cavalry continued to lurk in the woods to their front but they were few in number and had shown no signs of causing any real trouble. These men must be moved to join the main battle along Hickory Pike. Grant asked Stanley if he could spare some forces to stretch his line to cover their withdrawal. Stanley answered that he was too hard-pressed to spare any units at present. But McArthur agreed that the Iowans must be moved. Ord was able to free up two of his fatigued units to relieve the Iowans and begin bringing them to the battle along Hickory Pike. He stated that, “We don't need to have a major force there - just enough to keep an eye on the Rebs moving around to the east. I still expect Rebel movements in those woods are merely intended as a distraction. Even if the Rebs do advance in force, threatening Stanley's rear and the left flank of our army, Stanley could simply move his wing to the northwest to counter their move. Again, we wouldn't need to be able to push the Rebs back - there is nothing in that direction we want, anyway. We don't even need to slow them down much. All we need is to prevent them from freely making a sweeping movement around our lines.” McArthur then went on to state that, “We demolished the Rebel center, and they are pulling back from everywhere to reinforce the break in their line.”
After some spirited conversation amongst the generals, Grant issued his orders. Each commander was given specific instructions which all boiled down to one overriding concept – attack! The Iowans would be pulled back to join the main effort and everything would hinge on this last great push by the Union army. Grant knew that if their momentum ended that it would be unlikely that they could get it going again. They must keep up the pressure or go down fighting. Attack!