The fleeing Federals became bottled up on a bridge just north of the crossroads, where they were raked by Confederate artillery as they struggled to cross the narrow structure. The retreat degenerated into a rout, and Forrest won one of the greatest victories in his career. Battery E, which had been ordered to hold the crossroads itself at all costs, found itself stranded amidst the advancing Southern attack, deserted by all infantry support—but still firing without letup. Captain John Fitch, commanding the battery in this battle, describes the scene amid the tangled underbrush and forest: "I could not see the enemy, but judged from their firing that they were very near. I immediately gave them canister 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.