General Irvin McDowell, confident that victory was near, turned after a two-hour delay to pressing the retreating Confederates and occupying Henry Hill after the Federal flanking column had marched around and behind the Confederate defenses along Bull Run, nearly 18,000 troops were at or en route to the front, and Confederate resistance on Matthews Hill had collapsed. He directed two artillery batteries, eleven guns in all, to take the high ground despite protests from their commanders that without infantry support the cannon would be vulnerable to capture. As soon as the Federal artillery unlimbered, Confederate batteries opened fire from only 300 yards away, and for the next hour the opposing guns dueled across the field. Then, through dense smoke and with the rebel yell rising from the far woods, Confederate infantry swarmed across the field. Captain James B. Ricketts of Company I, 1st U.S. Artillery was wounded in the thigh while commanding his battery, captured by the Confederates, recuperated at the nearby Portici plantation, and then was imprisoned in Richmond.