Confederate Offense Stalls

After nearly six hours, the first day's battlefront had advanced to this point from where it began about two miles to the southwest. With the first Union camps captured, General Albert Sidney Johnston turned his attention to a strong Union force reported to be threatening his right. Colonel David Stuart's brigade, on the Union's left flank, was encamped here and assigned to guard the Hamburg Road. Johnston deployed two brigades under General Jones M. Withers to attack Stuart. Withers' infantry, led by General James Chalmers and Colonel John K. Jackson and supported by artillery, quickly drove Stuart from his camps and onto a new position to the east. Isolated from Union forces heavily engaged to the northwest, Stuart waged a stubborn defense that stalled Withers' advance for three long hours. Finally forced to retreat at mid-afternoon, the wounded Stuart and his surviving troops retreated north to join other Union forces near Pittsburg Landing.

Tennessee · United States