Hooker rode forward and reconnoitered.
"That is the key to the position," he said, pointing toward the church.
"Tell Mansfield to send up a division," was the order sent to this venerable officer, who was slowly advancing from Hoffman's farm.
Williams's division went up into the strip of woods east of the cornfield, Crawford's brigade on the right, and Gordon's on the left.
"Tell Doubleday to hold them on the right. Don't let them turn our flank," was the word sent up to Doubleday, who was quietly watching the Rebels from the cornfield west of Poffenberger's.
There were signs of an advance of Jackson's line.
"Keep them well stirred up," was the message to the artillerymen. The thirty-six guns planted on the ridge reopened.
"I cannot advance, but I can hold my ground," said Ricketts.
While Crawford and Gordon were forming, General Mansfield was mortally wounded and borne to the rear, and the command of the corps devolved on General Williams. Green's division came up and formed on the right of Williams's, now commanded by Gordon, reaching south nearly to Muma's house. King's, Cothran's and Hampton's batteries, belonging to the Twelfth Corps, opened a rapid fire. The One Hundred and Twenty-third Pennsylvania was pushed across the turnpike into the woods west of Miller's, near the toll-gate.