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profit by the warning. His line was not only notwithdrawn, but it was not even pro- M( , Cook , aperly guarded. When the storm of bat- want oftie burst upon it at daybreak next morn- TlglIance ‘ing, the 31st of December, it found Johnson, thefirst division-commander on the right, a mile and ahalf in the rear at his headquarters; and with himwas Willicli, the commander of the right brigade ofhis division, so that there was literally nobody infront to give orders to the troops. Baldwin’s re-serve brigade was too far in the rear to be of anyuse. The guns were ill-guarded, and some of theirhorses had been led to a distance to be watered.
Upon this scene of gross negligence fell thesudden shock of two Confederate divisions, oneof which was led by Patrick Cleburne , the ablestdivision-commander in all the Confederate armywest of the Alleghanies. The Confederate attackwas superb and irresistible. Their men rushedforward like an overwhelming torrent, and in afew minutes Johnson’s whole division was sweptfrom the field with the loss of eleven guns, andfled in wild disorder toward the Wilkinson road. 1This catastrophe uncovered the right j> out 0 f t w0of Davis’s division, and upon this the divisions,victorious Confederates charged in heavy masses,
1 The crotchet upon which McCook placed so much reliance wasof course too thin and frail to ■withstand such an attack in mass.