By mid to late afternoon, after the first Confederate assault on Bushong's Hill had been repulsed with heavy casualties, parts of the 51st Virginia and 30th Virginia broke and left a gap in the Confederate line. The 26th Virginia Battalion, squeezed out of the front line by the bend in the Shenandoah River, surged forward to help fill it as Colonel George Edgar waved his sword and cried, "Forward! Men Forward!" To their right, the VMI Cadets, held as Confederate General John C. Breckinridge's only reserve, moved toward the gap on the Bushong Farm under terrible artillery fire. One shell passed through the VMI flag carried by Sergeant Oliver Evans, whose face was said to be full of the joy of battle. Under withering fire, the cadets moved around the Bushong house and through an apple orchard to a fence, where they exchanged fire with Federals about 300 yards away. With the southern line, including rallied parts of the 51st and 30th, now stabilized, badly coordinated Union counterattacks were repulsed with heavy losses. A company of the 26th Virginia on the bluffs above the river began shooting down Union cannoneers, prompting Union General Franz Sigel to withdraw the guns and sharply reduce his defensive firepower, while sharpshooters from Woodson's Missourians also took a toll on the gunners. Breckinridge then ordered a general assault, dashing along the line and shouting, "Charge! Charge! Charge!" As rain poured and thunder crashed, the Confederates advanced through intense fire, with some cadets losing their shoes in the thick mud, and smoke from the Federal guns hanging so low that the Confederates could see the legs of the enemy under it. All along the line, the Confederates outflanked and overwhelmed the Union defenders, and the Federals were swept from their positions and sent tumbling north along the Valley Pike. During the Union counterattack, when the 34th Massachusetts advanced, Colonel William Lincoln recalled that the regiment's many dogs ran frolicking and barking before the men as they had on drill, but were nearly all killed by the fire of both lines.