When the fighting near here ended in mid-afternoon, battle could still be heard a mile to the left as Union forces advanced toward Mill Creek Ridge, but by dusk that fighting also ended. Union commander Gen. John C. Fremont, unnerved by Confederate Gen. Isaac Trimble's aggression in this area, ordered his troops to fall back to a line along Keezletown Road, a mile in front. As darkness grew, Union and Confederate artillery briefly exchanged fire and "the heavens were aglare and hills trembled," but by sunset the last firing ceased and relative calm settled over the battlefield. Trimble, after driving the Federals back more than a mile, wanted to continue and pressed his superior, Gen. Richard S. Ewell, to launch a night attack, then rode to Port Republic to plead his case to Stonewall Jackson, but Ewell refused because "even a partial reverse would interfere with General Jackson's plan for the next day." The night passed with soldiers resting on the field, some close to men they had just fought, and a member of the 21st Georgia recalled that he "slept on the battlefield that night within 3 hundred yards of the Enemy," while others heard opposing skirmishers' voices in the dark. The next morning, as most of Ewell's force marched south to support Stonewall Jackson at Port Republic, Trimble's brigade and Col. John Patton's 42nd Virginia first remained as a rear guard to keep Fremont "in check," then by mid-morning also departed for Port Republic as the last Confederates to leave the field.