The Confederates gave this fatal slope the name "The Hornet's Nest." General Bragg ordered Gibson with his brigade to carry the position. The fresh column charged gallantly, but the deadly line of musketry in front, and an enfilading fire from the well-posted battery, mowed down his ranks; and Gibson's brigade fell back discomfited. Gibson asked for artillery. None was at hand. Bragg ordered him to charge again. The colonels of the four regiments thought it hopeless. The order was given. The brigade struggled up the tangled ascent; but once more met the inexorable fire that hurled them back. Four times Gibson charged, and was four times repulsed. Colonel Allen, of the Fourth Louisiana, one of Gibson's regiments, rode back to General Bragg to repeat the request for artillery. Stung by the answer, "Colonel Allen, I want no faltering now," he returned to his regiment, led it in a desperate dash up the slope, more persistent, and therefore more destructive, and returned with the fragment of his command that was not left strewn upon the hill-side. As the line of Sherman and McClernand continually contracted as they fell back, the successive reinforcements pushed in toward the left of the Confederate line gradually pressed Hindman's two brigades--first wholly against McClernand's front, then against his left, then beyond his line. These two brigades were then moved to the front of W.H.L. Wallace. Flushed with victory, they advanced with confidence. The same resistless fire wounded Hindman and drove back his command. Led by General A.P. Stewart, the brigades gallantly advanced again and rushed against the fatal fire, only to be shivered into fragments that recoiled, to remain out of the contest for the rest of the day. The commander of the Confederate Army was killed farther to the right, at half-past two o'clock in the afternoon. As the news of this loss spread, there was a feeling of uncertainty and visible relaxation of effort in parts of his command. In front of Prentiss and Wallace attack was suspended about an hour. Hickenlooper's four guns, standing at the salient where Prentiss and Wallace joined, sweeping both fronts, had all day long been reaping bloody harvests among the lines of assailants that strove to approach. So near, yet so far; in plain view, yet out of reach, the little battery exasperated the baffled brigades while it extorted their admiration. General Ruggles sent his staff officers in all directions to sweep in all the guns they could reach. He gives the names of eleven batteries and one section which he planted in a great crescent, pouring in a concentric fire. From this tornado of missiles Hickenlooper withdrew his battery complete, and, passing to the rear through Hurlbut's camp, reported to Sherman for further service.