While General Stevens’ division attacked the Confederates on one side of Ox Road, part of General Jesse Reno’s division entered the woods east of the road to protect Stevens’ flank and probe the Confederate line, with Reno’s two leading regiments ordered to find the enemy. Just before 5 p.m., the 21st Massachusetts moved through the darkened woods with its line of battle broken by fallen trees and underbrush, then halted as a thunderstorm erupted to reform its lines. Hearing firing to the right, the regiment saw a body of troops in dark uniforms twenty-five yards ahead, barely visible, and uncertainty over whether they were Confederate ended when a devastating volley struck from the right and front, leaving nearly a hundred men dead and wounded. The Confederates who fired were probably on the left of Trimble’s brigade of Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama troops, though some shots may have come from Stafford’s Louisiana brigade. Farther east, near today’s Fair Oaks Mall, the 51st New York encountered part of Starke’s division, probably the Stonewall Brigade, but suffered only minor losses, while the 2nd Maryland and 48th Pennsylvania remained in reserve near the unfinished railroad. Two of Reno’s regiments, the 6th New Hampshire and 51st Pennsylvania, joined the fighting west of Ox Road and supported Stevens’ division.
