On the morning of September 14, 1862, Brig. General Samuel Garland deployed his troops along the Ridge Rd. (Lamb's Knoll Rd.). The 13th North Carolina, under Lt. Col. Thomas Ruffin, Jr., took position in an open field on the brow of a high hill, with the enemy in front and on the left under cover of a rail fence. The regiment fired to the left and drove the enemy from the field while still receiving fire from the front. As the fighting continued, Garland fell. The regiment then moved about 50 yards from the brow of the hill as the enemy advanced and fired, and heavy fire opened from the right after the enemy gained the road there and came down upon them. Ordered to charge, the regiment drove back the enemy in front, then those on the right, and when the enemy appeared on the left, it about-faced, charged, and repulsed them before moving to the Sharpsburg Road and joining Gen. Anderson's brigade for the rest of the day. Garland had been with the 13th North Carolina as it began to waver under pressure. When Thomas Ruffin, Jr., asked why he was there, Garland replied, "I may as well be here as yourself." Ruffin answered that it was his own duty but that Garland should lead his brigade from a safer position. At that moment Ruffin was hit in the hip, and Garland also fell, struck in the center of the back with the wound exiting 2" above his right breast. His last words were, "I am killed, send for the senior colonel."