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As Union soldiers crouched here behind breastworks of stone and rail, a battered advance division fled back across the river pursued by Gen. John C. Breckinridge's hard-driving Confederate brigades. Union batteries firing from the rise above McFadden's Ford halted Breckinridge's pursuit with shot, shell, and canister. Some 1,800 Confederates were killed or wounded in less than an hour in this final action of the battle.
Artillery Saves The Day, January 2, 1863. Confederate infantry started to wade the river. Could they be stopped? Captain John Mendenhall massed 57 guns here. Shot, shell and canister rained on the attackers, costing them almost 16 casualties a minute. The Confederates could not stand the fierce pounding. Union infantry pursued them across the river. The guns were still then, but they had won the day for the Union.
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