In response to Stonewall Jackson's urgent request for support, General Robert E. Lee directed General James Longstreet to send reinforcements to bolster the Confederate line along the Unfinished Railroad, one-half mile ahead. With Union troops threatening to overwhelm the gray-clad defenders near the Deep Cut, Longstreet chose instead a swifter method of relieving Jackson and ordered artillery onto this knoll. Captain William Chapman's Virginia battery, the Dixie Artillery, swept forward and unlimbered, and the open ground provided a perfect line of fire into the flank and rear of the advancing Union troops. Fire from Chapman's four guns, added to that from other Confederate batteries on the Brawner Farm, effectively broke up the Union attack. As the enemy troops fled the field, Longstreet launched a massive counterattack that drove back the Federal left flank.
