The enemy made their first attack upon Gen. McArthur's Division, which was placed immediately upon our left. After a short resistance, Col. Baldwin's Brigade, placed on the right of that Division, gave way and fell back in confusion. This uncovered and exposed to the enemy our left flank. Soon the enemy came through the large gap thus made, and attacked us simultaneously in the front and rear. The 81st Ohio, placed upon the left of our Brigade, gave way and moved in confusion and disorder to the right and rear, followed very soon by the 12th Ill., and then the 9th moved in the same manner.
In attempting to check the too hasty advance of the Rebels, the 9th Ill. lost Capt. Britt, killed, and the two Captains Lowe, and Lieutenants Hughes and Uleu, together with 53 enlisted men, captured.
Gen. Hackleman's Brigade covered our retreat, and we fell back and formed a new line at the "White House." The Brigades occupied the same order in this line as in the former one. Here the advance of the enemy was checked, until darkness put a stop to the conflict for this day.
During the night our line was drawn back to Battery "Robinett." Just before daylight, on the morning of the 4th of October, the enemy cheered by their success of yesterday; opened from a four-gun battery, on the town, compelling our wounded to leave for safer quarters. A General Hospital was established one mile out on the M. & C. R. R. where all the wounded were removed. Before they could all be removed, one or two of them had been killed by the rebel shells in the Tishomingo House. At daylight, the action became general all along our lines. The Rebel columns made desperate charges, and were as often repulsed.
General Oglesby, commanding our Brigade, was wounded the day previous, and Col. Mersy assumed command of the Brigade. Major Kuhn, of our Regiment, was also disabled, and Captain Hawes assumed command of the Regiment during the fight on the 4th of October.
The slaughter of the enemy, in the efforts to capture "Battery Robinett," was terrific. A true picture of the ground, taken ere the dead were removed, shows the ground to be literally covered with the dead, often lying one upon another.
The struggle lasted until about 10 A. M., when the Rebel line was broken, and their whole army retreated in confusion and disorder. Thus ended another of those terrible conflicts which have marked the history of this war. The conflict was fierce and determined on both sides. Our forces were under the command of Gen. Rosecrans. Those of the enemy were under Generals Price and VanDorn. It was regarded a matter of vital importance, at that time, for our forces to hold that place. The importance which the Rebels attached to the work of re-taking it, and the desperate struggle they made in order to do it, will be seen from some extracts which I will here make from the journal of a Rebel prisoner, Lieut. Labruzan, of the 42d Regt. Ala. A copy of his notes, taken as the battle progressed, and after he was captured, was obtained by some of the boys in our Regiment, and I have thus secured access to it. The following extract will show the position the enemy occupied on the day before the battle commenced: