Fisher’s Hill

As George Crook’s corps encountered small-arms fire from Gen. Cullen A. Battle’s brigade and canister from the Amherst and Fluvanna batteries, a handful of Federals halted briefly or turned and tried to run. Enraged, Crook gathered rocks and threw them at their heads to make them reconsider and resume the attack. While he coaxed the men who tarried, most of his infantry kept their focus and advanced as quickly as possible toward this position. Crook’s two divisions, excluding the stragglers, moved so rapidly against the Confederate left flank that all military organization disappeared as the men clambered over undulating ground covered with thickets and other obstacles. Even so, the Federals continued toward their objective. One of Crook’s brigade commanders wrote that the field was so vast and the confusion so great that officers could do little but encourage the men and set them examples of energetic courage, and that success was due more than in any battle he knew to the splendid individual heroism of the men in the ranks. As Crook’s men charged, Ramseur ordered Gen. William R. Cox’s brigade to support Battle’s command.

Virginia · United States