right of Negley’s division, which up to this hour had been left almost undisturbed by the enemy in the line it had taken up the night before.  Under a heavy fire we succeeded in this manoeuvre, Schaefer’s brigade marching first, then the batteries, and Roberts’s and Sill’s brigades following.  When my division arrived on this new ground, I posted Roberts on Negley’s right, with Hescock’s and Bush’s guns, the brigade and guns occupying a low rocky ridge of limestone, which faced them toward Murfreesboro’, nearly south.  The rest of my division was aligned facing west, along the edge of a cedar thicket, the rear rank backed up on the right flank of Roberts, with Houghtaling’s battery in the angle.  This presented Sill’s and Schaefer’s brigades in an almost opposite direction to the line we had so confidently taken up the night before, and covered Negley’s rear.  The enemy, in the meantime, had continued his wheeling movement till he occupied the ground that my batteries and reserve brigade had held in the morning, and I had now so changed my position that the left brigade of my division approached his intrenchments in front of Stone River, while Sill’s and Schaeffer’s brigades, by facing nearly west, confronted the successful troops that had smashed in our extreme right.

I had hardly got straightened out in this last place when I was attacked by Cheatham’s’division, which, notwithstanding the staggering blows it had previously received from Sill and Roberts, now again moved forward in conjunction with the wheeling movement under the immediate command of Hardee.  One of the most sanguinary contests of the day now took place.  In fulfillment of Bragg’s original design no doubt, Cheatham’s division attacked on my left, while heavy masses under Hardee, covered by batteries posted on the high ground formerly occupied by my guns, assaulted my right, the whole force advancing simultaneously.  At the same time the enemy opened an artillery fire from his intrenchments in front of Murfreesboro’, and it seemed that he was present on every side.  My position was strong, however, located in the edge of a dense cedar thicket and commanding a slight depression of open ground that lay in my front.  My men were in good spirits too, notwithstanding they had been a good deal hustled around since daylight, with losses that had told considerably on their numbers.  Only a short distance now separated the contending lines, and as the batteries on each side were not much more than two hundred yards apart when the enemy made his assault, the artillery fire was fearful in its effect on the ranks of both contestants, the enemy’s heavy masses staggering under the torrent of shell and canister from our batteries, while our lines were thinned by his ricochetting projectiles, that rebounded again and again over the thinly covered limestone formation and sped on to the rear of Negley.  But all his efforts to dislodge or destroy us were futile, and for the first time since daylight General Hardee was seriously checked in the turning movement he had begun for the purpose of getting possession of the Nashville pike, and though reinforced until two-fifths of Bragg’s army was now at his command, yet he met with repulse after repulse, which created great gaps in his lines and taught him that to overwhelm us was hopeless.