The battle line was swinging like a gate pivoted on its center. The Rebels followed Porter, cheering and shouting. Grover's brigade of Hooker's division, which had been facing west, changed its line of march to the south, came down past Dogan's house, to the line of unfinished railroad which Lee had taken for his defense.
Milroy's brigade of Sigel's corps was lying in the road which leads from Groveton towards the south.
The Rebels were advancing upon him. Schurz, who was still farther south, was retiring before the mass of Rebel troops, who came within reach of Milroy's guns, which thinned their ranks at every discharge. But the Rebels were on Milroy's left flank, which was bending like a bruised reed before their advance. Grover came down with those men who had never failed to do their whole duty.
"We stood in three lines," said a wounded Rebel officer to me at Warrington, two months after the battle. "They fell upon us like a thunderbolt. They paid no attention to our volleys. We mowed them down, but they went right through our first line, through our second, and advanced to the railroad embankment, and there we stopped them. They did it so splendidly that we couldn't help cheering them. It made me feel bad to fire on such brave fellows."
They had charged into the thickest of the enemy's columns, but could not hold the position, and were forced back.
Lee formed his lines for the decisive onset. Making the point on the turnpike, where Longstreet's command joined Jackson's, he swung his right against McDowell, Sigel, and Porter.
Hood was on the left of the charging column, nearest the turnpike; then Pickett, Jenkins, Toombs, and Kemper. Evans and Anderson were in reserve.
It was impossible to withstand this force; yet it was a furious, obstinate, bloody fight.
"It had been a task of almost superhuman labor," writes Pollard, the Southern historian, "to drive the enemy from his strong points, defended as they were by the best artillery and infantry in the Federal army, but in less than four hours from the commencement of the battle, our indomitable energy had accomplished everything. The arrival of Anderson with his reserves, proved a timely acquisition, and the handsome manner in which he brought his troops into position showed the cool and skilful general. Our generals, Lee, Longstreet, Hood, Kemper, Evans, Jones, Jenkins, and others, all shared the dangers to which they exposed their men."[54]
Night put an end to the conflict. When darkness came on, Lee found that he was still confronted by men in line, with cannon well posted on the eminences towards Stone Bridge. He had gained the battle-ground, but had not routed the Union army.