As General John Davidson saw flames erupting from the only bridge across Bayou Meto, he ordered Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Anderson to take his First Iowa Cavalry Regiment and save the bridge, if possible. Anderson and his men thundered down the Memphis to Little Rock Road, but were met with a savage fire of artillery and musketry, blunting their assault and causing the bulk of the day's casualties for the Union. The First Iowa Cavalry lost one man killed and thirty-six wounded in the doomed charge on Reed's Bridge. Major John Newman Edwards, C.S.A., wrote that the enemy charged down the road in splendid style as if to save the bridge, but that smoke from the burning bridge hung between them and Bledsoe's battery until shell and shot tore through their lines. Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Anderson recalled that his regiment was exposed to terrible fire from artillery and sharpshooters, reached the bridge too late to save it because it was already engulfed in flames, and then dismounted and went forward on foot. M.S. Andrews wrote in his diary that they went after them again, fighting in good earnest, and that the First Battalion got in a very hot place.