General Holmes entered Battery C in the wake of Price’s heroic troops and
proceeded to hamstring his own army by ignoring the chain of command. The
overexcited old man, carried away by visions of a Yankee rout, told one of
Parsons’ colonels to attack Fort Curtis without delay. As that lone regiment
issued from Battery C, Parsons’ other battalion commanders assumed that the
entire brigade had orders to make this assault, and they shouted to their men to
join in. The Missourians poured down the back of Graveyard Hill in full view of
thousands of Federals. Observing the scene from Battery B, Captain Redington of
the 28th Wisconsin thought: “How grand they looked, and how for a moment, our
hearts almost ceased to beat as those ranks of daring desperate men came over
the hill, and we thought all was lost.” Salomon’s reserve line of cavalry and
infantry waited for Parsons’ troops to reach the foot of the hill and gave them
a staggering volley. Then the guns of Fort Curtis weighed in with double charges
of grapeshot and canister, breaking the Rebels’ momentum and morale. “Their
officers waved their swords and tried to urge the men forward,” noted Sergeant
Carroll, “but it was no use. It was not human to stand it.”40
Unable to go forward, the Missourians turned back toward Battery C, but they
soon learned that the return journey was more risky than their charge. A man
could race downhill faster than retreat up, and every Federal in range blazed
away at those staggering, defenseless targets with rifle muskets, carbines, and
cannon. “It was here that my loss was the heaviest,” confessed General Parsons.
“Not more than half of those that went in that direction returned.” Frantic to
escape the lethal crossfire, many Missourians took refuge in the ravines located
along the lower reaches of Graveyard Hill, popping up at intervals to exchange
shots with their antagonists. “To prevent a charge upon our position we kept up
a steady fire,” explained Sergeant Bull. “A few of us battery boys got together
and would follow one after the other in firing over the top of a stump which
stood on the brow of the hill.”41
Holmes was so oblivious to the harm he had done that he commanded a
chagrinned Parsons to aid General Fagan by striking Battery D from the rear.
With his brigade getting shot to pieces in front of Fort Curtis, Parsons was
powerless to comply. Holmes next sent an aide to transmit the same order to
Price and headed for the rear without awaiting confirmation. Starting down the
western slope of Graveyard Hill, Holmes sighted General McRae and instructed him
to attack Battery D. Holmes seemed unaware that the orders he had issued to
Price and the latter’s brigade commanders would have denuded Battery C of
Confederate troops and invited its easy recapture by the enemy. As Parsons
reassembled three to four hundred of his survivors who had succeeded in climbing
Graveyard Hill for the second time, he linked up with McRae. The two brigadiers
realized the impracticability of Holmes’ orders. McRae proposed that if Parsons
agreed to hold Battery C, the former’s Arkansans would go to Fagan’s rescue.42
Price’s brigade commanders did not move quickly enough to please Holmes. He
returned to Battery C and accosted Parsons, who informed him of McRae’s offer.
“That officer was nowhere to be seen,” Holmes complained, “while General Fagan,
with greatly reduced force, was being assaulted and driven back by the enemy,
largely reinforced.” When Holmes finally found McRae, he badgered him to such an
extent that the younger man felt compelled to act before he could reorganize his
entire brigade. With only two hundred soldiers at his back, McRae set out for
Hindman Hill. He did not get far. Federal artillery and rifle fire stopped him
at the hill’s base.43
Holmes’ battered and mishandled army had now deteriorated into a fragmented
collection of exhausted men struggling for survival rather than victory. The
Union troops could tell that the initiative had passed to them, and they began
making sorties from Batteries B and D and the vicinity of Fort Curtis-pouncing
on isolated groups of Rebels. With his army disintegrating before his eyes,
Holmes bowed to the inevitable and announced a general retreat at 10:30 a.m.44
|