Generals Grant and Meade had originally planned to conduct coordinated assaults along the whole Confederate line around 5 p.m. Meade reported that the enemy was pressed along his entire front, but he neglected to mention that the Rebels’ offensive had been utterly uncoordinated. The attacks broke down completely by midafternoon when V Corps commander Maj. Gen. Gouverneur Warren was given permission by both Grant and Meade to attack the high ground—Laurel Hill—at around 3:45 p.m.

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For Upton’s battering ram to succeed in breaking open the Muleshoe, his units needed support, and Brig. Gen. Gershom Mott’s II Corps Division was tapped for that job. Unfortunately for all concerned, communication and coordination was virtually nonexistent between Mott and Horatio Wright, who had stepped into Sedwick’s post at the head of the VI Corps. In fact, whether Mott was fully informed of his role in supporting Upton remains in doubt. Mott had the difficult job of managing a two-mile front while preparing an assault against a firmly entrenched enemy. And then there was the matter of timing. When Warren was repulsed at Laurel Hill, Upton’s attack was delayed until 6 p.m. Apparently, Upton received the orders to delay, but Mott did not. Mott was operating under earlier ambiguous orders to attack at 5 p.m. and support Upton, who by then would have breached the Confederate entrenchments. So Mott stormed across an open field some 600 yards toward the enemy works, where he was met with enfilading artillery fire. Finding neither Upton nor a breach in the line to support, Mott turned back.

Meanwhile, unaware of Mott’s confusion, the cocksure Upton remained supremely confident of success. If the Confederate works were intimidating, then the circumstances lent themselves perfectly to his approach. While 200 yards of open field was enough to give some pause, Upton perceived the distance as favorable when compared with the mile that Pickett’s troops charged at Gettysburg.

Convinced that speed and momentum were paramount if this battering ram was to punch through the west side of the Muleshoe, Upton left nothing to chance and coached the regimental officers to continuously repeat the command “Forward!” As he saw it, the combination of secrecy, speed, reduced enemy firepower and sheer force of Union numbers would allow the Union force to take the works and push enough men through to hold the position until supported.

At 6:10 p.m. Upton shook hands with Brig. Gen. David Russell and, operating under the mistaken impression that his troops would be supported by Mott, gave the signal to charge. “As soon as we began to run,” one soldier recalled, “the men, unmindful of, or forgetting orders, commenced to yell, and in a few steps farther the rifle pits were dotted with puffs of smoke and men began to fall rapidly and some began to fire at the works, thus losing the chance they had to do something when they reached the works to protect themselves.” According to Upton, the struggle at the entrenchments lasted only seconds with the sheer numbers of Union troops prevailing. The first Union men to reach and climb over the works were shot instantly; many were bayonetted by the Georgians who initially refused to give ground. The Union troops gave as good as they got: The flag bearer of the 44th Georgia was stabbed 14 times by Upton’s men.

The Union troops quickly descended on the other line of unfinished and lightly defended entrenchments about 60 to 75 yards inside the first line. Upton rode back over the field to activate the fourth line of Vermonters held in reserve only to find they had already taken the initiative to join their comrades. But the resilience and swift reaction of the Confederate II Corps surprised the Union troops. Another Rebel battery opened up on the Union troops. Upton asked for volunteers to take the battery, but no one came forward. As the sun set, Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur rallied his brigade of North Carolinians to mount a counterattack against the Union onslaught. Brigadier General Junius Daniel’s North Carolinians and Brig. Gen. Cullen Battle’s Alabamans joined the fray as well. And General Richard Ewell sent Brig. Gens. George H. Steuart and Robert D. Johnston’s brigades sprinting into the salient’s interior to shore up the gap and save the day for the Confederates.

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