Far to the south, at Cedar Mountain, Ewell was determined to get Captain Joseph W. Latimer’s Virginia Battery posted on the heights. Assisted by a mixed force of cavalrymen and infantry, Latimer’s artillerists pulled the cannons up the heights and into battery, where they were joined by a section of the Bedford Artillery. They soon drew a bead on the Union batteries firing salvos from across the cornfield.

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The Southern cannonade was dramatically increased when two sections of the Light Division’s artillery under the command of Lt. Col. Reuben Walker moved into place on the left of Early’s line. The two sections, one of which belonged to the much-
esteemed Major William Pegram, came under horrific skirmish fire. Lying not 150 yards away in the tall corn, elements of the 8th and 12th U.S. Infantry battalions of Brig. Gen. Henry Prince’s brigade opened a galling and accurate rifle fire, unhorsing a number of cannoneers. Fortunately for the Confederates, Early observed the artillerists’ plight and expeditiously ordered infantry forward in close support.

Winder, reduced to shirtsleeves, was running about near the area of the gate, feverishly working with his artillery. About an hour after the artillery duel had commenced, Winder was struck by a shell and suffered a “tremendous hole torn in his side.” Not long after the splenetic Winder had fallen, Andrews also fell victim to Federal fire. A shell fragment tore across his stomach, nearly gutting him, as he prepared to advance his artillery. Miraculously, Andrews would survive his horrible wound.

The artillery contest had opened around 4 p.m. and continued unabated for over an hour and a half. By 5:45 p.m. Banks sent his infantry toward the Confederate lines. Banks, little more than a rank amateur, failed to follow the fundamental military maxim of the day, that an attacker should possess twice the number of troops as the defender.

Brigadier General Christopher C. Augur’s Union division lay opposite Early’s brigades in the tall corn 1,500 yards away. On Augur’s right was the Ohio brigade of Brig. Gen. John W. Geary. On Geary’s left, Prince’s brigade advanced on Early’s command, battle flags flying in the thick, sultry air as the punishing temperature steadily rose. The assault had just commenced when both Augur and Geary were felled by Confederate shots and forced from the field. Nevertheless, the attack continued. The Ohioans on Geary’s line advanced under a fearsome barrage of Confederate shot and ball. The 29th and 5th regiments were ordered up with the 66th and 7th, although the 29th fell behind as the result of cowardice on the part of its commanding officer. As the bluecoats cleared the cornfield some 300 yards from the Confederate line, the Rebels opened fire on the massed Yankees.

Somehow, the skirmish line held against the fusillade. “Rally on the colors, boys!” the file-closers shouted, trying to force their voices above the cacophony of battle. On the Federals came,
in good order, their ranks well-closed, until vicious and well-aimed fire struck them from the right flank. The 21st Virginia of Brig. Gen. Richard Garnett’s brigade had come into line unnoticed along Culpeper Road and hammered the Union assault into the ground.

The rattle of musketry became continuous along the entire front, joining the roar of artillery. The Confederate guns posted at the gate had succeeded in knocking down the determined Ohioans, and Pegram’s crews had been hard at work since their arrival an hour earlier. On the Confederate right, at Cedar Mountain, 18-year-old Captain Latimer’s Parrott rifles were busy dropping shells into Geary’s and Prince’s advancing blue lines. Soon the field was bathed in blue-gray smoke.

Jackson had kept close to the action himself and, in the midst of a furious barrage, penned an urgent missive to Hill calling for his hard-driving division. But Hill, or rather the van of his division, was already up. Brigadier General Edward L. Thomas’ Georgia brigade was placed to the right of Early’s line after a difficult march at the double-quick.

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