Assault from the Bottom House

Outnumbered Union soldiers of the 3rd Ohio Infantry Regiment held the southern end of the Union defensive line on a hill across the road as successive Confederate brigades attacked. A brigade led by Brigadier General Bushrod Johnson charged uphill but was stopped halfway, where the Confederates took shelter behind a stone wall and fought for more than an hour until their ammunition ran out and they withdrew. Brigadier General Patrick Cleburne then sent another Confederate brigade into the fight under heavy Southern artillery fire, and although the Union troops continued to hold, an artillery shell set fire to a hay-filled barn at the end of the Federal line. As flames and smoke spread and wounded Union soldiers inside the barn died in the fire, another Confederate brigade led by Brigadier General Daniel Adams struck the right end of the Union line. The combined pressure of repeated attacks, artillery, and the burning barn finally forced the Union soldiers to fall back, though they did so in good order and reformed near their original line.

Kentucky · United States