Again the foe drove Hovey, whose battalions were worn out by an incessant fight of three hours, and were also out of ammunition. Grant had been hurrying up McClernand all day; but still he did not appear. The tide of battle seemed to have set against the national army; but this was always the hour when its heroic commander was more than himself. The delay of McClernand galled him, and deranged his plans, but could not defeat him. He ordered McPherson to move on the enemy's right flank, and the contest was renewed with redoubled vigor. Logan marched upon the enemy's left. These dispositions, and a sharp attack, broke the rebels, and they gave way the third time. Logan's movement nearly to the rear of the rebel line, had startled Pemberton, and he made haste to save his line of retreat. The Union troops pressed on, and the bloody battle of Champion's Hill was won. It had lasted six hours, and our loss was twenty-five hundred in killed, wounded, and missing. The enemy lost thirty guns, and six thousand men in killed, wounded, and prisoners. It was the severest battle of the campaign, and reflects a brilliant lustre upon the national arms. So fierce was the struggle, that the soldiers christened the bloody height, where so many had fallen, the Hill of Death. The pursuit of the fleeing rebels was continued until long after dark, Grant and his staff being at the head of the column. In their enthusiasm they outsped the advance of the army. Finding the situation unsafe, they retraced their steps, and the victorious general slept upon the porch of a house which was used as a rebel hospital, disturbed only by the groans of the wounded and the dying within. That night came to Grant the order of the general-in-chief, directing him to return to the Mississippi, and coöperate with Banks against Port Hudson. Of course it had been written without a knowledge of the facts. The government had been alarmed at his temerity, and expected to hear that he was crushed in the embrace of the rebel armies, which beset him on both sides. But the campaign had been fought and won; and to obey the letter of the order would have been to disobey its spirit. By the boldness of his conception and the rapidity of his execution, he had effectually prevented the junction of the armies of Pemberton and Johnston. Sherman left Jackson with his corps on the morning of the battle of Champion's Hill, hurried forward by an order from Grant. He reached Bolton the same day, and there heard of the victory. He was ordered to cross the Big Black at Bridgeport, either to turn the enemy's flank or to move up on Haines's Bluff, as circumstances might dictate, for by this time it was desirable to establish a base of supplies.