By 3:00 p.m. the 7th New Hampshire had deployed on the Union right flank and was battling heavy Confederate fire after earlier being ordered to exchange Spencer repeating rifles for old, defective muskets, many of which did not fire. While leading the 7th New Hampshire, Colonel Hawley either gave a wrong command or his command was misunderstood, and the resulting confusion caused the regiment to scatter and drift to the rear. On the Union left flank, the 8th U.S. Colored Troops, with no battle experience and little training, were deployed after less than one month of service and without ever having practiced firing their weapons. At a railroad crossing east of Olustee they were severely mauled, with 310 of their 575 men killed or wounded, yet they stood for two hours under terrible fire without flinching, as recalled by the regiment’s surgeon, and on the field of Olustee their courage under battlefield danger was tested and affirmed.