with both pieces, as fast as I could load and fire." Fitch and the rest of Battery E managed to hold their ground until the last of the Federal regiments had passed, though by this time they were being fired on from front, left and rear—including the garden of a plantation house only seventy-five feet away. Incredibly, Battery E managed to limber its two guns and escape to the nearby creek, where they stormed through the water to the safety of a road on the other side. Private Rice offered this detailed account of the engagement as he witnessed it from his section: Rice further indicates that Forrest harassed the retreating Federals throughout the following day until they finally reached the safety of Memphis. He reports that some Rebel prisoners being escorted to the rear during the battle, upon being asked where they were going, answered: "the same way you'll be going, in less than an hour." A wounded Federal soldier, watching this debacle unfold around him, tried to put his best spin on things by shouting: "ole Grant will make it up, in Virginia." Rice reports that when the butcher's bill was tallied, the battery had lost fifty horses, ten mules, three wagons, forty sets of harness, and four guns with their caissons. Two men of the battery were killed, three were wounded and four were missing. Rice attributed the defeat to the "drunkenness or incompetency of Sturgis," indicating that he and several other soldiers were inclined to believe he had deliberately sold them out. Despite all of this, Rice spoke of "[aching] to get at old Forrest again," promising to "make him git, when we do." In his after-action report, Colonel Alexander Wilkin, commanding the 9th Minnesota, commended Captain Fitch of Battery E for the "judicious and gallant manner" in which he and his battery had conducted themselves during the battle. The battery returned to Memphis after the defeat, "every man for himself", with the men listed as "very much demoralized". The battery next marched on Tupelo, and July 12 it fought at Pontotoc, Mississippi. On July 13, they were ambushed, losing one man wounded. On the 14th, the battery participated in the Battle of Tupelo, which resulted in a defeat for Forrest. Actions in Missouri On July 15, 1864, Battery E returned to Memphis. The cannon lost to Forrest were replaced with four Napoleons and two steel