General Bragg proposed to push his success and attempted to withdraw his two divisions, Ruggles' and Withers', from the tumult which accompanied the surrender, and ordered them to press forward and assault the position to which Hurlbut had fallen back. When Ruggles received Bragg's order for farther advance, one of his brigades, Pond's, was on the extreme Confederate left, near Owl Creek; Gibson's brigade was in confusion, caused by the fire of the gunboats; Anderson's was apart in a ravine, taking shelter from the same fire. But Ruggles began at once to assemble what force he could. Of Withers' division, the First Brigade was scattered. The brigades of Jackson and Chalmers received the order while they were resting in the field where the Third Iowa had rested and filled their cartridge-boxes, and where Jackson was about to replenish the empty boxes of his men. Withers immediately moved these two brigades forward to the deep ravine whose farther bank was crowned with the grim line of artillery, behind and to the right of which stood Hurlbut's command. While there was this activity at the front, the aspect at the rear, about Shiloh Church, where General Beauregard kept his position, was very different. As the Confederate lines advanced, men dropping out of the ranks filled the woods with a penumbra of stragglers. Hunger and fatigue, stimulated by the remembrance of abandoned camps passed through, later in the day led squads--Beauregard and some of his staff say, led regiments--to straggle back from the fighting front to the restful and attractive rear. Language cannot be stronger than that used by General Beauregard. The fire of the gunboats, many of the shells passing over the high river-bank and exploding far inland, appeared even more formidable than it really was; and Beauregard was assured by a despatch, which he received that day on the field, that Buell, instead of being near Pittsburg, was, in fact, before Florence, and could not effect a junction. It must have been about five o'clock or a little later when Beauregard sent an order to his command to retire and go into bivouac. The order was delivered by his staff not only to corps commanders, but directly to commanders of divisions and brigades. General Ruggles, while attempting to assemble a force in pursuance of Bragg's order, received the command to retire.