Counterattack!

By 12:30 pm, the battle had turned in favor of the Union as the Confederate troops of Gen. John B. Gordon and Stephen D. Ramseur fell back under pursuit, but Gen. Robert E. Rodes arrived with his division and launched a counterattack into the center of the Union line where a large gap had opened between the 6th and 19th Corps. The attack struck the exposed flank of both Union corps and checked the breakthrough. Gen. Phillip Cook's Georgia Brigade led the assault in this area, capturing many prisoners and three Union battle flags. Gordon and Ramseur rallied their men and joined the attack, driving Union forces back hundreds of yards before U.S. reserves blunted the Confederate counterstrike. During the action, Rodes was mortally wounded by a shell fragment to the head, was taken to a home in Winchester, and died shortly afterward. His troops did not learn of his death until much later and continued the attack. Jedidiah Hotchkiss later called Rodes the best division commander in the army after Stonewall Jackson.

Virginia · United States