To protect the hill, now named for Confederate General Benjamin F. Cheatham, the Southerners created a protruding angle in their lines. The fiercest fighting of the battle raged here at what came to be called the “Dead Angle” and a temporary truce was called by Col. William H. Martin of the 1st Arkansas Regiment to remove the dead and injured. The battle resumed after the bodies were removed.

Along a trail to the imposing Illinois Monument are Confederate earthworks and markers where Union soldiers fell. Near the base of the monument is the entrance to a tunnel begun by Union soldiers intending to blow up the Confederate position with a mine. Nearby are Union entrenchments dug under fire and held for six days.