Cleburne's Advance

Forced back from the hills above Doctor's Creek, Union soldiers retreated to this position in chaos, with regiments intermingled, wounded left behind, and some panicked troops racing for the rear, though most continued to stubbornly resist the Southern advance. With ammunition running low, Federal troops hastily reformed their lines on this ridge, continuing a battlefield strategy of using successive hilltops to establish new battle lines after being driven from the last. This helped stem the crushing Confederate advance until a Southern brigade commanded by Brigadier General Patrick Cleburne assaulted the Union troops again, its blue and white battle flags flying in the October wind. Cleburne sent his flag-bearers in front of his main line as a decoy, drawing fire from Union infantry armed with one-shot muskets, and once their guns were emptied, his main line appeared and tore apart the Federal soldiers. As gun smoke rolled along in waves, Confederate infantry shattered the Union position and broke the Union lines, sending the blue-clad soldiers back to the ridges behind this one, where they formed their third and final position as night fell, knowing another retreat would bring a crushing defeat. Wounded in the face two months before this battle, Cleburne was wounded again at Perryville when a solid cannonball struck and killed his horse, Dixie, near this spot and injured his ankle, yet he continued the advance on foot with his soldiers.

Kentucky · United States