Over fifty dead horses greeted them with their putrid smell. Forsyth's command had been out of rations and forced to survive on the decaying horse flesh. Forsyth's 2nd in command, Lt. Fredrick H. Beecher, had been killed during the battle. Forsyth had been shot in the thigh, fracturing his leg, and wounded in the forehead. He was not expected to survive another day. The air around him was completely filled with a great stench and was swarming with black flies feasting on the rotting defensive line of dead horses. The square sandy hole, where Forsyth was lying was half encircled by dead mounts and would have become his grave if help had not arrived when it did. Other gun pits, interconnected, contained the living and the dead of his unit.