The Union cavalry penetrated along the main ridge beyond the road by which the enemy had advanced, and were on the point of seizing some of his wagons when a brigade of rebel cavalry and infantry attacked them. Then followed one of the most sanguinary contests that ever has been recorded between cavalry. Most of the fighting was done at close quarters. Pistols and carbines having been exhausted, sabres were brought into requisition. The rattle of steel against steel, sabres against muskets and cutlasses, was terrific. The rebels were Texas Rangers, and fought like demons. The slaughter was awful. The Missouri cavalry cleaving right and left, left winrows of dead and wounded in front of their horses. The enemy fell back in dismay, the valorous Federals pursued them along the road for a mile, when they opened a battery upon the mass of friends and foes, plowing through them with solid shot and shell. Colonel Osterhaus had succeeded in his attempt, and retired, bringing off his dead and wounded in safety. Meantime the contest was raging furiously on the extreme right on both sides of the Fayetteville road. The First and Second Iowa batteries, planted at an eminence overlooking the declivity in the road, were plying shrapnel and canister into the ranks of the enemy, who appeared in immense numbers on all sides, as if to surround the right of the Union line, and thus completely environ them. In order to defeat this object, a severe struggle took place for the occupancy of a rising knoll on the east side of the road. The enemy gained upon the Federals, and it was not until the men were half stricken down that they yielded the point. Word had been passed back to General Curtis that the enemy was pressing severely on the right flank, and the Union forces were sent back. The section of a battery had been left on the hill, and the enemy was now turning it upon the Union lines. Colonel Carr, fearing that no reinforcements would arrive, collected his strength, and mustered his entire force for a last desperate charge, resolved to retake the position or perish in the attempt. A heavy firing on the centre, and a cheer from the advancing division of General Davis favored the effort. The troops marched up to the battery amid a storm of shot from their own guns, and, after a desperate hand-to-hand struggle, finally drove the enemy down the ravine, in hopeless confusion. Colonel Carr received a wound in the arm, but remained on the field.