They did not break through, but they maintained a long and vigorous
battle, while the centers and other wings of the two armies did not stir.
But it became evident to Dick later in the afternoon that a mighty
movement was about to begin. His glasses told him so, and the thrill
of expectation confirmed it.

Bragg was preparing to hurl his full strength upon Rosecrans.
Breckinridge, who would have been the President of the United States,
had not the Democrats divided, was to lead it. This division of five
brigades had formed under cover of a wood. On its flank was a battery of
ten guns and two thousand of the fierce riders of the South under Wharton
and Pegram. Dick felt instinctively that Colonel Kenton with his
regiment was there in the very thick of it.

Dick's regiment with Negley's strong Kentucky brigade, which had stopped
the panic and rout the day before, had now recrossed Stone River and
were posted strongly behind it. Ahead of them were two small brigades
with some cannon, and Rosecrans himself was with this force just as
Breckinridge's powerful division emerged into the open and began its
advance upon the Union lines.

"Now, lads, stand firm!" exclaimed Colonel Winchester. "This is the
crisis."

The colonel had measured the situation with a cool eye and brain.
He knew that the regiments on the other side of the river were worn down
by the day's fighting and would not stand long. But he believed that the
Kentuckians around him, and the men from beyond the Ohio would not yield
an inch. They were largely Kentuckians also coming against them.