Eight-month-old girl Bryce had little more than a scratch on her forehead after firefighters pulled her from a drain.
The crash happened on Friday evening when an 18-wheel truck is believed to have clipped the car in Texarkana.
Bryce's mother, Jakesia Colson, was in the vehicle with a friend and her daughter.
Ms Colson said: "I got out of the vehicle, looked in the back seat, and saw my baby wasn't back there.
"So I started running up and down the highway, looking everywhere for her, calling her name.
"I didn't hear no baby crying, no baby screaming, nothing. I panicked. I thought she was gone.
"It was the worst 15 minutes of my life."
When the emergency services arrived, there was a layer of hay on the drain.
"We immediately began searching in the hay," said firefighter Josh Moore.
"A Good Samaritan was already out here searching in the hay and he claimed he heard something in this general direction."
When they found Bryce, she had somehow slipped through the grate.
Mr Moore added: "The baby at the time... was actually sitting down in the grate, sitting up and looking up at us waiting for us to pull her out.
"She wasn't screaming, she wasn't crying, was just sitting there waiting for us."
But it was not a simple rescue. Another firefighter, Captain Charlie Smith explained: "We reached down there and she more or less had her hands up for somebody to pick her up.
"It took three of us to work her around the grate and get her back up through."
Mr Moore added: "There had to be some kind of divine intervention for her to end up being okay the way she was."
The other passengers in the car were taken to hospital but were not badly injured.
The driver of the truck that is said to have clipped the car has reportedly been cited for an improper and unsafe lane change.
After Bryce was found, Ms Colson said: "I knew I was blessed. Nothing was wrong with her. She's still the same - she's still the happy baby."
She added: "I know it was a miracle. I was overwhelmed with joy. She's my miracle baby."