The Southern masses attacked once more with frightful violence, and once more Thomas withstood them.

The field was now darkening in the twilight, and, having saved the Union army from rout and wreck, Thomas, impervious to attack, fell back slowly to Chattanooga.
The greatest battle of the West, one of the most desperate ever fought, came to a close.

Thirty-five thousand men, killed or wounded, had fallen upon the field.

The South had won a great but barren victory.

She had not been able to reap the fruits of so much skill and courage, because Thomas and his men, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, had stood in the way.