If it had been true, as currently reported at the time and yet believed by thousands of people, that Prentiss and his division had been captured in their beds, there would not have been an all-day struggle, with the loss of thousands killed and wounded on the Confederate side.
With the single exception of a few minutes after the capture of Prentiss, a continuous and unbroken line was maintained all day from Snake Creek or its tributaries on the right to Lick Creek or the Tennessee on the left above Pittsburg.
There was no hour during the day when there was not heavy firing and generally hard fighting at some point on the line, but seldom at all points at the same time.

It was a case of Southern dash against Northern pluck and endurance.

Three of the five divisions engaged on Sunday were entirely raw, and many of the men had only received their arms on the way from their States to the field.

Many of them had arrived but a day or two before and were hardly able to load their muskets according to the manual.

Their officers were equally ignorant of their duties.