Soldiers who fought there recalled an intensely close and deadly struggle in which men held their ground under severe fire, sometimes at nearly hand-to-hand range, while bullets tore up the earth and casualties mounted rapidly. Lieutenant Henry Dwight of the 20th Ohio remembered men clinging to the bank by a brook and digging in their toes so they would not be forced back, while another officer calmly smoked his pipe as he continued firing. Around the battery, the fighting was described as bloody in the extreme, with the Third losing one hundred ninety of its five hundred men killed or wounded in ten minutes, and one of Bledsoe’s guns bursting at the one hundred and thirteenth round. Sergeant Ira Blanchard of the 20th Illinois wrote that both sides stood equally firm like bulldogs in a death struggle as the battle raged with incredible fury. Sergeant Osborn Oldroyd of the 20th Ohio recalled that retreat meant near-certain death because of the slippery bank behind them, and that for two hours the contest continued until the creek ran red with blood. Captain Flavel Barber of the 3rd Tennessee remembered that after his men exhausted their ammunition and received no support, they were ordered to retreat, leaving wounded behind in the woods as the force fell back to Raymond and immediately began its retreat.
