Confederate forces were gathering rapidly to confront Hancock. South of Hatcher’s Run, Hampton deployed Butler’s cavalry division, with several guns, across the White Oak Road and brought up Fitzhugh Lee’s division along the Boydton Plank Road. North of the run, Maj. Gen. Henry Heth assembled his own infantry division and that of Maj. Gen. William Mahone, the Confederate hero of the Crater battle three months before. Cannons in the earthworks above the run pounded Egan’s line.

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Grant, Meade and Hancock went forward with their staffs to take a better look. They came under heavy artillery fire. Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Lyman, one of Meade’s aides, wrote a note later that day about the calm disregard for danger shown by the assembled officers. “It don’t do to dodge with Hancock’s Staff about,” the colonel wrote. “They would never forgive you.”

Grant galloped down to the Boydton Plank Road bridge with his own aide-de-camp to see the Rebel defenses for himself. When he returned, he said that he had decided to suspend further efforts to capture the Southside Railroad that day. The Confederate entrenchments, extending farther to the west than anyone had expected, were too strong to attack with any assurance of success. With no chance for a quick and easy victory before the presidential election, Grant wanted to avoid any embarrassing reverse. The best that could be hoped for now would be a bloody and unsuccessful Confederate counterattack against the II Corps. Hancock was ordered to hold his ground that night, then withdraw the next morning. Grant and Meade left to return to their headquarters.

Hancock disposed his forces in a rough oval, the long axis lying along the Boydton Plank Road. The northern end of the oval, along Hatcher’s Run near the Burgess Tavern, was held by Egan’s division. Colonel Robert McAllister’s brigade of Mott’s 3rd Division was sent to reinforce Egan, who placed McAllister in a second line behind Smyth. Along the western edge of the oval were Brig. Gen. Regis de Trobriand’s brigade and Kerwin’s cavalry brigade. The rest of Gregg’s cavalry division straddled the Boydton Plank Road, looking south. Mott’s last brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. Byron R. Pierce, was stationed on the eastern edge of the oval, facing northward.

In the late afternoon, Hancock determined to improve his position by capturing the high ground north of the run. Smyth sent skirmishers from the 14th Connecticut across the stream east of the Boydton Plank Road to seize a foothold on the northern bank in preparation for an attack on the bridge. In the meantime, the small scouting party from the 10th New York, sent out to the east earlier by Smyth, had returned. Crawford’s division was nowhere to be seen, but a Confederate infantry column was moving through the woods to get into the rear of the Union line. Smyth immediately reported this to Egan, who ordered McAllister to change his front to the rear. McAllister wasted no time on complicated maneuvers. He ordered his men to simply about-face and then marched them to the slope at the rear of Egan’s line.

Reports of Confederate activity to the east also reached Pierce’s brigade, but Pierce dismissed them, believing that the Rebels there were merely stragglers driven by Crawford’s advance. Nonetheless, Mott directed Pierce to strengthen his picket line toward the woods. While this was being done, the sound of firing sharply increased. Pierce ordered a change of front for his main battle line, turning toward the timber where the threat was now obviously more than a few stragglers. Before this could be accomplished, however, a strong Confederate force burst through the woods, overlapping the Union skirmish line on both ends and driving it back.

The attacking column, two full brigades commanded by Mahone, struck Pierce’s main line from the right flank and rear, capturing two cannons and throwing the Union brigade into a confused retreat toward the Plank Road. At the sound of Mahone’s attack, by prearrangement the Confederate forces all around the perimeter of the Union position launched their own assaults. Heth pressed against Egan’s line along Hatcher’s Run with three brigades of infantry and cavalry. The 12th New Jersey found itself simultaneously engaged in front by Heth’s attack and in the rear by Mahone. Hampton sent Butler’s division east, while Fitzhugh Lee attacked up the Boydton Plank Road against Gregg’s cavalry. A second Reams’ Station seemed to be in the making.

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