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Captains of the Civil War; a chronicle of the blue and the gray by William (William Charles Henry) Wood
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was breaking out. Grant set spurs to his horse and galloped the
four muddy miles to his left, where that admirable soldier, C.F.
Smith, was as cool and wary as ever, harassing the enemy's new
rear by threatening an assault, but keeping his division safe for
whatever future use Grant wanted. Wallace had also done the right
thing, pressing the enemy on his own front and sending a brigade
to relieve the pressure on McClernand. These two generals were in
conversation during a lull in the battle when Grant rode up,
calmly returned their salutes, attentively listened to their
reports, and then, instead of trying the Halleckian expedient of
digging in farther back before the enemy could make a second
rush, quietly said: "Gentlemen, the position on the right must be
retaken."

Grant knew that Floyd was no soldier and that Pillow was a
stumbling-block. He read the enemy's mind like an open book and
made up his own at once by the flash of intuition which told him
that their men were mostly as much demoralized by finding their
first attempt at escape more than half a failure as even
McClernand's were by being driven back. He decided to use Smith's
fresh division for an assault in rear, while McClernand's,
stiffened by Wallace's, should re-form and hold fast. Before
leaving the excited officers and men, who were talking in groups
without thinking of their exhausted ammunition, he called out
cheerily "Fill your cartridge boxes quick, and get into line. The
enemy is trying to escape and he must not be permitted to do so."
McClernand's division, excellent men, but not yet disciplined
soldiers, responded at once to the touch of a master hand; and as
Grant rode off to Smith's he had the satisfaction of seeing the
defenseless groups melt, change, and harden into well-armed
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