At 5:30 p.m. on August 30, 1862, Kemper's Brigade of Kemper's Division in Longstreet's right wing of the Army of Northern Virginia, C.S.A., under Col. Montgomery D. Corse and including the 1st, 7th, 11th, 17th, and 24th Virginia regiments, advanced against a battery on a gentle rise whose guns were hidden by dense smoke. Pvt. Alexander Hunter of the 17th Virginia Infantry recalled the order to form, move forward, and charge the battery, then described the smoke lifting to reveal the muzzles of the guns, followed by a horrid roar, a shock that seemed to shake the earth, and cannon fire tearing through the brigade's men and leaving the ground covered with mangled dead and dying.