As the battle began Breckinridge ordered Colonel Trabue to move forward in the rear of Polk’s Corps. The colonel proceeded some distance when he received a note from Breckinridge ordering him to move up on Polk’s left. Executing this order caused his brigade to run into long range fire from a Federal battery. Union gunners fired many rounds into the brigade but caused few casualties. Governor George W. Johnson of Kentucky and Colonel Robert McKee, both acting as military aides to Trabue, had their horses killed by this fire. The governor grabbed a musket and joined with the Fourth Kentucky as a simple volunteer private.

A courier from General Beauregard reached Trabue and the latter, in response to new orders, detached the Third Kentucky, Fourth Alabama, Crews’ Battalion, and Byrne’s Battery to the right to support Brigadier General Patton Anderson. The brigade was further weakened when an unidentified officer from another unit borrowed Cobb’s Battery without Trabue’s knowledge, leaving the brigade without artillery. Trabue resumed his forward movement without further incident, but about noon he observed Union troops in front of him. The Confederates frantically deployed in line of battle just as McDowell’s brigade and the Thirteenth Missouri hit them.¹⁴ Trabue’s line of battle was from left to right the Fourth Kentucky, Sixth Kentucky, and the Fifth Kentucky, with the Thirty-first Alabama in reserve, while McDowell’s arrangement from left to right was the Fortieth Illinois, Thirteenth Missouri, Sixth Iowa, and Forty-sixth Ohio.¹⁵

Worthington’s Forty-sixth Ohio poured a deadly volley of rifle bullets into the Fourth Kentucky, wounding Lieutenant Colonel Hynes. Major Thomas Monroe, Jr. took command. Cautioning the inexperienced Kentuckians to aim low, Monroe gave the order to fire.¹⁶

For over an hour, the two brigades exchanged volleys of musketry while bits and pieces of other regiments joined with both commands. The Fortieth Illinois had forty-six men killed and many wounded. Colonel Hicks rode up and down in front of his men encouraging them. One of Trabue’s men put a bullet through the colonel’s horse, spilling the rider to the ground. The Yankee colonel stumbled to his feet and was immediately hit in the left shoulder by a musket ball. His orderly and several soldiers picked him up and carried him to the rear to obtain medical aid.¹⁷

All four Union regiments were badly hurt by the heavy firing. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph St. James of the Thirteenth Missouri was carried off the battlefield mortally wounded, while several company commanders were also wounded. The regimental major was struck in the chest by a bullet, but he escaped without a scratch, thanks to his iron body armor. Badly jarred by the blow, he withdrew from the field, leaving Colonel Wright alone to manage the regiment.¹⁸ Colonel McDowell rode over to the Sixth Iowa, but his horse was killed and he was knocked sense less.¹⁹

Union artillery opened on Trabue’s men, but within a few minutes Captain Cobb returned from his unexplained excursion and took a position on Trabue’s right. His four 6-pound smoothbores and two 12-pound iron howitzers quickly began dropping projectiles on the enemy battery. Federal gunners changed their sights and began raking the Kentucky Battery. A shell exploded in the battery, killing two of the Confederate gunners. The same round tore off another cannoneer’s hands. The wounded gunner stood there with his bleeding stumps and calmly remarked, “My Lord that stops my fighting.”²⁰

The Federal battery’s next shell exploded in the Fifth Kentucky’s ranks, killing three men and ripping off the leg of a fourth. Several color bearers dropped from Union fire, including youthful John Green, who had a musket ball glance off his “hard head.” Recovering consciousness on a stretcher while being carried to the rear, Private Green insisted on returning to the firing line declaring, “There is too much work here for a man to go to the rear as long as he can shoot a gun.”²¹

Additional Confederates units, fragments of both Russell’s and Cleburne’s brigades, filtered toward Trabue. R. M. Russell brought part of the Eleventh Louisiana, the Twenty-second Tennessee, plus Venable’s Fifth Tennessee of Stewart’s Brigade. Colonel Ben Hill, of Cleburne’s Brigade, brought up what was left of his Fifth Tennessee, and another of Cleburne’s regiments, the Twenty-fourth Tennessee, also joined the fight.²²

McClernand’s counterattack on Preston Smith’s and Pat Anderson’s brigades overlapped on the Trabue-McDowell fight. The Eleventh and Twentieth Illinois approached close enough to Cobb’s Battery to hit it with musketry, killing or wounding most of the men and horses. The Illinoisans silenced the guns, but they failed to occupy the battery position.²³ The momentum of McClernand’s push carried the Union soldiers back to and be yond the First Division’s headquarters, but their losses mounted rapidly. Lieutenant Colonel Pease of the Forty-ninth Illinois and Lieutenant Colonel Richards of the Twentieth Illinois were both wounded, and casualties among all ranks ran high. Many Union soldiers ran out of ammunition and the Confederates in front of McClernand showed no sign of breaking.²⁴

Around 1:00 p.m., troops from Anderson’s Brigade moved up to support Trabue, and with these additional reinforcements, the colonel ordered an all out charge with fixed bayonets.²⁵ The regimental commanders received Trabue’s order and passed it to the company commanders. Bayonet blades were quickly attached to the men’s muskets and the Confederates moved for ward on the double-quick. After gallant resistance, Worthington’s Forty-sixth Ohio broke under the bayonet charge and it headed for the rear.²⁶ Sherman rode up and ordered the Sixth Iowa to fall back, and the rest of the brigade quickly followed. The Confederates moved out in pursuit, thus turning McClernand’s right flank.²⁷ Retracing their steps, McClernand’s men fell back to the Jones’ Field position, from where they had started.²⁸

McClernand’s counterattack delayed the Confederate advance during the early afternoon, but afterwards there were no more fresh Union troops to commit on the right. Basically McClernand’s and Sherman’s divisions and Veatch’s brigade were reduced to a confused mass of individual soldiers and pieces of regiments. Many soldiers dropped their guns and headed for the rear. In the search for safety, knapsacks, overcoats, and everything with weight was dropped to the ground as excess baggage. Some soldiers simply collapsed, to exhausted and panic-stricken to flee further. Cavalrymen rode in all directions, shouting at the top of their lungs and waving sabers at the fugitives, while officers coaxed and begged the men to stop fleeing. Stray cannon balls and shells tore through the trees, clipping limbs, which sometimes fell on the stragglers. The rear of the Union right presented a scene of disaster and defeat.²⁹