From this ideal position, Loomis' Battery, 1st Michigan Light Artillery, with six 2.9-inch Parrott rifles, and Guenther's Battery, Company H, 5th U.S. Artillery, with six 12-pounder Napoleons, smashed Confederate attempts to capture the Nashville Pike, the only supply line open to the Union Army, on the afternoon of December 31, 1862. Repeated charges of case shot and canister from these guns saved the day for the Union Army. About 6 p.m. on the 3rd of January 1863, supporting fire from these two batteries helped two infantry regiments from Beatty's Brigade and two infantry regiments from Spears' Brigade drive the Confederates from the field, securing the battlefield of Stones River for the Union Army.