Their general plan of attack is said by prisoners to have been to strike our centre first, (composed, as the reader will remember, of Prentiss's and McClernand's Divisions,) pierce the centre, and then pour in their troops to attack on each side the wings into which they would thus cut our army.
To accomplish this, they should have struck the left of the three brigades of Sherman's Division which lay on our right and the left of McClernand's, which came to the front on Sherman's left. By some mistake, however, they struck Sherman's left alone, and that a few moments after a portion of their right wing had swept up against Prentiss.
The troops thus attacked, by six o'clock, or before it, were as follows: The left of Sherman's Brigades, that of Colonel Hildebrand, was composed of the Fifty-ninth Ohio, Colonel Pfyffe; Seventy-seventh Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel commanding Fifty-third Ohio, Colonel Appler, and Fifty-third Illinois.
To the right of this was Colonel Buckland's Brigade, composed of the Seventy-second Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel Canfield; Forty-eighth Ohio, Colonel Sullivan, and Seventieth Ohio, Colonel Cockerell.
And on the extreme right, Colonel McDowell's Brigade, Sixth Iowa, (Colonel McDowell--Lieutenant-Colonel commanding;) Fortieth Illinois, Colonel Hicks, Forty-sixth Ohio, Colonel Thomas Worthington.
General Prentiss's Division was composed of the Twelfth Michigan, Sixteenth Wisconsin, Eighteenth Wisconsin, Eighteenth Missouri, Twenty-third Missouri, Twenty-fifth Missouri, and Sixty-first Illinois.
THE BATTLE OF SUNDAY, APRIL 6TH--THE UNION TROOPS SURPRISED--AN ARMY IN DISORDER--SHERMAN'S HEROIC EFFORT TO STEM THE TIDE-- McCLERNAND'S SHARE IN THE BATTLE--THE REBELS PRESSING THEIR ADVANTAGE--THE ASSAULT ON SHERMAN'S LEFT--MEN TOO BRAVE TO BE KILLED--DESPERATE POSITION OF THE UNION ARMY--LOOKING TO THE GUNBOATS FOR AID--THREE DESPERATE CHARGES REPULSED--DEATH OF GENERAL WALLACE.
"Agate" continues the story of the great battle of Sunday, April 6th, as follows:
Almost at dawn, Prentiss's pickets were driven in; a very little later Hildebrand's (in Sherman's Division) were; and the enemy were in the camps almost as soon as were the pickets themselves.
Here began scenes which, let us hope, will have no parallel in our remaining annals of the war. Some, particularly among our officers, were not yet out of bed. Others were dressing, others washing, others cooking, a few eating their breakfasts. Many guns were unloaded, accoutrements lying pell-mell, ammunition was ill-supplied--in short, the camps were virtually surprised--disgracefully, it might be added, unless someone can hereafter give some yet undiscovered reason to the contrary--and were taken at almost every possible disadvantage.