Nine o'clock
Buell , a man of iron courage , saw that his soldiers must fight to the uttermost , not for victory only , but even to ward off defeat . The dawn was now far advanced . The rain had ceased , and the sun again shot down sheaves of fiery rays upon a vast low cloud of fire and smoke in which thousands of men met in desperate combat . Nine o'clock came . It had been expected by Grant that Buell long before that time would have swept everything before him . But for three hours Buell had been fighting to keep himself from being swept away . The Southern troops seemed animated by that extraordinary battle fever and absolute contempt of death which distinguished them so often during this war .