f the musketry his
voice was lifted up in vain, and when by passing along the ranks he
persuaded one wing of the regiment to recede, they rushed again to
the front while he was gone to expostulate with the other. A tall
Georgia youth expressed the spirit of his comrades when he replied
the next day to the question why they did not retreat to the shelter
of the ridge: "We did not come all this way to Virginia to run before
Yankees."* (* Dabney volume 2 page 73.) Nor was the courage of the
other troops less ardent. The 44th Virginia was placed in reserve,
thirty paces in rear of the centre. "After the battle became
animated," says the brigadier, "and my attention was otherwise
directed, a large number of the 44th quit their position, and,
rushing forward, joined the 58th and engaged in the fight, while the
balance of the regiment joined some other brigade."* (* Report of
Colonel Scott, 44th Virginia Infantry. O.R. volume 12 part 1 page
486.)

The action gradually became so fierce that Jackson sent his Third
Brigade to support the advanced guard. These nine regiments now
engaged sufficed to hold the enemy in check; the Second Brigade,
which moved towards them as darkness fell, was not engaged, and the
Stonewall regiments were still in rear. No counterstroke was
delivered. Johnson himself was wounded, and had to hand over the
command; and after four hours' fighting the Federals fell back in
perfect order under cover of the night. Nor was there any endeavour
to pursue. The Confederate troops were superior in numbers, but there
was much confusion in their ranks; the cavalry could not act on the
steep and broken ground, and there were other reasons which rendered
a night attack undesirable.

The enemy had been repulsed at every point. The tale of casualties,
nevertheless, was by no means small. 498 Confederates, including 54
officers, had fallen. The 12th Georgia paid the penalty for its
useless display of valour with the loss of 156 men and 19 officers.
The Federals, on the other hand, favoured by the ground, had no more
than 256 killed, wounded, and missing. Only three pieces of artillery
took part in the engagement. These were Federal guns; but so great
was the angle of elevation that but one man on Sitlington's Hill was
struck by a piece of shell. Jackson, in order to conceal his actual
strength, had declined to order up his artillery. The approach to the
position, a narrow steep ravine, wooded, and filled with boulders