Breckinridge then returned to Kentucky, where he was promptly elected to the U.S. Senate by the legislature.
General Breckinridge's division (over six thousand strong) constituted the reserve, and was close in the rear of Polk's corps.
Unitedly, their support outnumbered that of Breckinridge by more than four to one.
At length Breckinridge and Cleburne opened the fight, and then it raged with desperate, bloody obstinacy, until late afternoon.
"I did say so; and I said it because it was just as true as Breckinridge's long letter," said Orly earnestly.
Johnson had always been a Democrat, and, when the political upheaval came in 1860, he supported Breckinridge.
