Final Struggle

Federal troops marched up the slope, determined to retake the cannons lost moments earlier, as the bodies of slain artillerists and infantrymen littered the landscape. They recaptured Griffin's two guns and attempted to drag the two pieces to safety, but dead horses encumbered their efforts while Confederates in the distance prepared another charge. The heaviest combat of the battle, much of it hand-to-hand, raged around the disabled batteries of Captains Ricketts and Griffin. The fighting surged back and forth as Confederates overran the Federal position and recaptured the cannon, then were driven off moments later by headlong counterattacks. The widow Henry's farm became the most contested ground of the battle.

Sudley, Virginia · United States