Officers and men were falling all around him.

The numbers were not so great as at Antietam, but it seemed to him that within the contracted area of Perryville the fight was even more fierce and deadly than it had been on that famous Maryland field.
But he was conscious of one thing.

They were being borne back.

Tears of rage ran down his face.

Was it always to be this way?
Were their numbers never to be of any avail?
He heard some one shout for Buell, and he heard some one else shout in reply that he was far away, as he had been at Shiloh.
It was true.