BATTLE OF FRANKLIN.

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where two had been. Officers and men had been consciousthat with the centre broken, nothing but superhuman exer-tions could keep one wing, at least, of the little army frombeing driven into the river. They were equal to the occa-sion and they saved the day.

But though the crisis of the engagement was at thecentre, the fight was by no means all there. In other partsthe veterans of the Atlanta campaign held their lines with-out flinching, though the assaults of Stewart’s divisionsrivalled those of Cheatham in their gallantry, and theymade the most daring efforts to reach the bridges whichwere on that flank. Loring’s men came upon the hedge infront of Stiles, and attempted in vain to tear it away, or topass it. Henderson, who had been for some days ill, re-joined his brigade, and both he and Stiles directed the fir-ing, which, sweeping along the ground, mowed down allbefore it. The Confederate officers urged their men to theright, hoping to pass through the railway cut, but here theywere met by the shrapnel and canister of the guns in the fortnorth of the river. The batteries in Stiles’s line were alsoadmirably handled, and the attack here had never a chance.

On Casement’s line, Walthall’s and part of Loring’s divi-sions made the assault, and as there was here no obstruc-tion in front of the trench worth naming, the possibility ofcarrying such a line when properly held was fully tested.General John Adams led his brigade, riding straight at theditch, leaping it, and mounting the parapet, where his horsewas killed astride of it, and he himself pitched headlongamong Casement’s men, mortally wounded. Scott, com-manding another of Loring’s brigades, was wounded. InWalthall’s division not only had Quarles fallen in leadinghis brigade to the assault, but the loss of officers was sogreat that, at the close of the battle, a captain was the rank-