By midmorning at the Battle of Mill Springs, as fighting raged across the road, Union Colonel Robert McCook ordered the 9th Ohio Infantry to charge the enemy. One of the few successful bayonet charges of the Civil War, it was instrumental in bringing the battle to a close. The 9th Ohio, a German-American regiment and the only Union regiment present with battle experience, went forward under Major Gustave Kämmerling, who urged his men on with the words, "If it gets too hot for you, shut your eyes my boys—forward!" The charge flanked the Confederate left and turned it toward the high hill in the distance. Sustained for more than a mile, much of it through woods and underbrush, the attack created panic among the Confederates. Some Tennessee troops, fearing they would be outflanked and trapped, fled, and the action began a full-scale Confederate retreat.