Stonewall Jackson's defensive line extended nearly two miles from Sudley Church to the Brawner Farm, with many of his 24,000 troops posted behind the cuts and fills of the unfinished railroad grade. This formidable position enabled Jackson to confront an enemy twice the size of his command until Longstreet's troops could reach the battlefield. Throughout the day, the heaviest attacks fell on General Maxcy Gregg's South Carolina brigade at the left end of the Confederate line, where Gregg's 1,200 men, crowded atop a rocky knoll behind the railroad grade, withstood six separate assaults. With his brigade on the brink of collapse, Gregg brandished his grandfather's Revolutionary War sword, waved it around his head, and exhorted, "Let us die here, my men, let us die here!" His words rallied the troops, and although outnumbered, exhausted, and nearly out of ammunition, Gregg's line held. The largest threat of the day came at 5 p.m., when General Philip Kearny's Union division assailed Jackson's left flank. Lt. Col. Daniel Ledbetter of the 1st (Orr's) South Carolina Rifles was buried in Sudley Church cemetery.
