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the ground as they fell back; but, surrounded, their general, to save a useless sacrifice, surrendered with 2200 men. 34 This was at half past five. A last desperate effort was made by the Confederates to turn the Union left and get possession of the Landing. It was necessary to carry a hill guarded by a battery of rifled guns and by two Union gunboats which opened fire with shot and shell on the Confederate forces. “Grant sat on his horse quiet, thoughtful, almost stolid. Somebody said to him, ‘Does not the prospect begin to look gloomy?’ ‘Not at all,’ was the quiet reply. ‘They can’t force our lines around these batteries to-night—it is too late. Delay counts everything with us. Tomorrow we shall attack them with fresh troops, and drive them, of course.’” 1 Although Lew Wallace had failed to reach Pittsburg, help other than nightfall was at hand. The energetic Nelson and his division were hastening forward from Savannah. After three miles of good road they had to proceed through a black mud swamp and then through a forest where the subsiding waters left but indistinct traces of the way; they could hear the roar of cannon and, as they drew nearer, the volleys of musketry. While yet two miles away, a courier, riding at full speed, reined up at the head of the column with this word from the general, “Hurry up or all will be lost; the enemy is driving our men.” 2 On reaching the east bank of the river a brigade crossed in boats, climbed the bank a hundred feet in height and, in obedience to the orders of Grant and Buell, both “cool and calm,” 3 formed in support of the batteries. “An advance was immediately made upon the point of attack,” wrote Grant, April 10, “and

Note 1. Whitelaw Reid, who heard the conversation, I, 375. [back]

Note 2. O. R., X, Pt. I, 332. The general was probably Buell. [back]

Note 3. O. R., X, Pt. I, 333. [back]

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