The movement of Breckinridge's command was observed by General Crittenden from the bluff on the opposite bank of Stones River, above the lower ford, from the moment that the advance commenced. To reach Beatty's line it was necessary to cross an open space six or seven hundred yards in width, with a gentle ascent, in full view from the opposite shore, as well as from the front line of Beatty's division. In the assault that followed a brief cannonade, Hanson's left was thrown forward close to the river bank, with guns loaded and bayonets fixed, under orders to fire once, then charge with the bayonet. This charge of General Breckinridge will live in the memories of those who witnessed it, coupled in precision of formation, in rapidity of movement, and in grandeur of execution, if not in results, with the charge of the armies of the Cumberland and Tennessee at Mission Ridge, the storming of Lookout Mountain by Geary's division of Hooker's Corps, and the no less thrilling spectacle in front of Kenesaw, when the brave and lamented Harker and McCook, with 2,000 men, were launched against a fortified position, bristling with artillery, between the two contending armies. On the right of Price's Brigade the Eighth Kentucky, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel May, received the first attack, made by Colonel Lewis' Sixth Kentucky, Confederate, followed in quick succession by a charge from Hanson's and Pillow's Brigades; then in successive strokes from right to left the blows fell all along Beatty's line. Overborne by the numerical strength of the Confederate brigades, the gallant men of this veteran division, 2,500 strong fighting bravely, were hammered back by overwhelming force. For full ten minutes they stood in line, pouring a galling fire upon the oncoming line, which, leaving its course marked by the writhing forms of its fallen braves, pressed forward, overlapping the right, where they were met by Lieutenant-Colonel Evans with the reserves of the Twenty-first Kentucky, and by Colonel Swayne, with the Ninety-ninth Ohio. These regiments, changing front to the right, held their ground firmly and administered volley after volley upon the skirmishers of the Confederate Sixth Kentucky, who pushed forward toward the ford. The front line falling back, followed rapidly by the entire Confederate line, loading as they retired, and turning to fire upon their assailants, became intermingled with the reserves, when, in a confused mass, assailants and assailed, fighting hand to hand, moved in a resistless volume toward the river. The reserve regiments, the Ninth Kentucky, Lieutenant-Colonel Cram; Nineteenth Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel Manderson, and the Eleventh Kentucky, Major Mottley, undaunted by the disaster upon the right, advanced through a thick undergrowth of wild briars, and came suddenly upon Adam's and Preston's Brigades, which, driving Fyffe's Brigade and the Seventy-ninth Indiana before them, were