From this deep ravine, the 2nd West Virginia Mounted Infantry battled its way to the mountaintop and was actively engaged in the fighting at the Confederate center. Lieutenant J. B. Smith, the youngest officer in the regiment, was the first Federal soldier inside the breastworks, where the Confederates resisted with desperate hand-to-hand combat before being forced back toward the highway. The regiment entered the battle with 200 men, of whom nine were killed and fifteen wounded, and five of the wounded later died of their wounds.