After routing Confederate cavalry, Union General George Crook's troops surged toward Confederate General Bryan Grimes's infantry on this height in a rapid, disorderly advance over rough ground tangled with bushes, greenbriars, and grapevines. Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes recalled the men rushing forward with "No line, no order, all yelling like madmen," while Colonel George D. Wells remembered that the field was so vast and the confusion so great that officers could do little but encourage the men and set examples of energetic courage. As they approached a prominent ridge, Wells saw a double line of strong earthworks filled with men on the crest ahead. When the Federals started up the slope, Grimes's men opened rapid and heavy fire with small arms and cannon, including double canister, and the attack was briefly checked as some Union soldiers halted or tried to run. Enraged, Crook gathered an armful of rocks and pelted the men until they moved on, then ordered a charge and sent them forward again. While Hayes's division overwhelmed Cox's and Lomax's men on the left, Joseph Thoburn's division pushed toward the heart of Grimes's defenses near this spot, and James Ricketts's division joined from the north, attacking the Confederates from the front, down the line, and in the rear.

Photo: Bradley Owen

Strasburg, Virginia · USA