As Lieutenant Loomis rode away to raise the alarm, Stuart deployed his Seventy-first Ohio, Colonel Rodney Mason, with its right resting opposite the eastern end of the camp of the Fifty-fourth Ohio. Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Malmborg was next on the left, and the Fifty-fourth Ohio, Colonel T. Kilby Smith, was just beyond facing south. Colonel Stuart sent two companies of the Fifty-fourth to slow down Withers’ advance, and it was these men who routed the Fifty-second Tennessee so effectively.⁵³

Chalmers deployed some of his Mississippians forward as skirmishers to cover his advance. The men “fought like Indians behind trees, logs, and lying down” on the ground. Private Joe Seals, Tenth Mississippi, picked off one of Stuart’s men as the fellow carelessly stuck his head from a tree. Seals shot him between the eyes and then hit two more Yanks for good measure.⁵⁴

Gage’s Battery went into position and began dropping 3-inch and 12-pound shells on the Federal soldiers. Colonel Stuart could see the advance of Chalmers and, by moving his binoculars to the right, he was able to make out Jackson’s soldiers moving toward the Hamburg Road where it divided into the Purdy and Savannah segments.⁵⁵

While swinging around to support the Mississippi brigade, Jackson’s soldiers were shelled by Ross’ Michigan Battery, losing two men killed and three wounded in the Seventeenth Alabama. Except for this brief firing, the brigade was still green as it moved toward Stuart’s camp. The Alabamans and Texans paused to redress their lines and then swarmed into the ravine across the swampy bottom, climbing up the steep side, and moving into the camps. The Southerners fanned out among the tents, looking for Federals. One daredevil Bluecoat started a sniping campaign on the Seventeenth Alabama, firing three shots without hitting anyone. The soldiers of the Alabama regiment waited, and then the Yank made a break for it. He was immediately shot down.⁵⁶

Colonel John Moore’s Second Texas ran into a little more opposition, as Stuart’s skirmishers wounded several privates and mortally wounded Captain Belvidere Brooks, who died two days later.⁵⁷ Some of the Texans fanned out to loot the Fifty-fifth Illinois camp. A large hand mirror and a silver-mounted revolver were among the prizes. One pillager found a large tin box, which when pried open proved to be filled with fresh, crisp greenbacks, ranging from one to one hundred dollars in denomination. The Southerners did not know about this new type of money, and the man who found it “gave the box a contemptuous kick and the crisp notes fluttered around as unheeded as so many autumn leaves.” Another Texan secured a half gallon jug of whiskey and was sharing it with some of his buddies when Major H. G. Runnels showed up, smashing the jug and remarking that the next man who took a drink would be shot.⁵⁸

The tempo of the fight was gradually picking up, and by 11:15 or 11:20 a.m., the first real heavy fighting commenced with a charge by the Nineteenth Alabama. After crossing the ravine, twenty-five-year old Colonel Joseph Wheeler and his Nineteenth Alabama made a determined attack on the Seventy-first Ohio. The overweight colonel of the Seventy-first, Rodney Mason, promptly defected to the rear, leaving his soldiers on their own, and many of his men naturally followed him. Wheeler’s men shot the few Ohioans who tried to make a stand, killing Lieutenant Colonel Barton S. Kyle, who attempted to rally the regiment.⁵⁹ The Alabamans captured a captain and fifty enlisted men as prisoners. The Seventy-first’s major led part of the men down to the Tennessee River, where they were picked up by a gun boat. Another part of the Seventy-first retired to the Landing, where they re joined what was left of the brigade that night.⁶⁰

Stuart reshuffled his remaining infantry to cover his now exposed right, but his raw troops began to panic. In a stentorian voice he thundered, “Halt, men, halt; halt, you cowards.” Spurring his horse forward, he galloped among his fleeing men, freely using the flat of his sword to restore order. The two regiments soon were rallied with a loss of only a few hundred yards of ground.⁶¹ Stuart stopped the rout at the price of a Rebel bullet through his shoulder, and the actual command of the brigade seems to have passed to Lieu tenant Colonel Oscar Malmborg, a graduate of Stockholm Military Academy, an eight year veteran of the Swedish Army, and a twenty-one month veteran of the Mexican War.⁶²

Chalmers’ Mississippians and the Second Texas of Jackson’s Brigade kept the pressure up on the Fifty-fourth Ohio and Fifty-fifth Illinois, but the rest of Jackson’s Brigade became entangled with Hurlbut’s left wing, General McArthur’s two regiments, and some additional newcomers, the Fiftieth Illinois of General W. H. L. Wallace’s Third Brigade.

As the battle began that morning, W. H. L. Wallace’s division was going through its usual Sunday morning routine. In the Second Iowa the men were lined up for company inspection when they heard the “long roll” for the first time in the war. Within minutes Wallace’s regiments were formed up and ready to march toward the sound of gunfire. Supply sergeants hurriedly issued two day’s rations and sixty cartridges per man. Moving out at the double-quick, the division headed for the front, meeting hundreds of stragglers from Prentiss’ division, who were heading for the rear. The scurrying stragglers passed free advice to Wallace’s men, namely for the division to turn about and to go back. One frightened young fellow stood by the road waving his hands and yelling, “For God’s sake don’t go out there! You will all be killed. Come back! Come back!”⁶³

The battle hardened veterans of the Second Division kept right on going. Meeting with Lieu tenant Colonel Wills De Hass of Sherman’s division, who acted as a guide, Wallace moved his First and Third Brigades for ward to support McClernand and Sherman; his Second Brigade he split up, the regiments being detached to various parts of the battlefield. McArthur took the Ninth and Twelfth Illinois over to help Stuart, and a little later Wallace ordered the Fiftieth Illinois, Colonel T. W. Sweeny’s Third Brigade, to follow McArthur and link up with him on the extreme Un ion left.⁶⁴ In route to the left, the Ninth Illinois picked up a number of recruits. Sword in hand, a young officer of the regiment insulted, shamed, and threatened a number of stragglers from other units into joining McArthur. The brave, young lieu tenant took each name down in a little notebook, which he placed in his coat pocket. Unfortunately he was killed as his brigade went into action. With their colorful Scots bon nets perched on their heads, McArthur’s “Highlanders” confidently moved into position on Hurlbut’s left.⁶⁵