As daylight dimmed in the early evening of October 10, 1863, Confederate defenders on the low hills opened fire as Federal infantry advanced steadily despite bullets from rifle pits and the hills and the fire of cannon. Confederate Gen. John S. Williams's men had skirmished that morning for the second time since October 3 with Union Gen. Samuel P. Carter's cavalry division, and Carter drove in Williams's pickets and forced him to stretch his lines to more than two miles, leaving a thin skirmish line whose strongest point was the center, held by two companies and four cannons. Burnside sent his chief engineer, Capt. Orlando M. Poe, to reconnoiter the Confederate position before the infantry attack, and Poe reported that the Confederates were well positioned on the high ground but thinly spread. At 5 P.M., Ferrero's division attacked Williams's line with support from six guns, including the 79th New York Infantry, and when Ferrero's men encountered Williams's cannons, Confederate fire with grape and canister cut them down, though Burnside reported that the division charged, cleared the woods gallantly, and drove the enemy in confusion until dark. The Confederates withdrew during the night, were pursued the next day, and soon retired to Virginia. Among the casualties was Pvt. Andrew Tweedy of Company I, 79th New York Infantry, who had been captured at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861, soon paroled, seriously wounded here, and died of infection on October 15, 1863, at about age thirty-two.