Moving Uphill

At 5:30 pm during the Battle of McDowell, the second line of Confederate infantry moved through this area as they climbed to the top of Sitlington's Hill to reinforce defenders battered by the initial assaults. The Federals had begun their attack around 4:30 pm, as Union Gen. Robert H. Milroy's 2,300 men climbed the steep western slope of Sitlington's Hill and attacked the first line of Confederate defenders. Confederate commander Gen. Stonewall Jackson had not expected an assault by the outmanned Federals. As the battle grew in intensity and the Confederates were pressured along the line, he deployed his reserves on the slopes here, and men rushed uphill to reinforce threatened points. As the troops started up the hill, some passed near a field hospital and saw the ground strewn with the wounded, the dead, and the dying as surgeons did all they could to save suffering and life. Moving through here, they saw other stricken soldiers coming down the ridge from the front, wounded and red with blood, some carried on litters and others stumbling along as best they could. Ahead of them, looking up the mountain, they could see the thick smoke of battle and hear officers shouting commands, the crash of gunfire, the oaths and cries of soldiers engulfed in battle, and the shrieks of those hit by shot and shell. The sights and sounds were sobering, and Confederate Sgt. Osborn Wilson of the 31st Virginia spoke for many of his fellow soldiers as they marched toward the fighting: "God of many help and make us brave and prudent."

Virginia · United States