In mid-afternoon, Confederate Gen. William E. Jones was preparing to launch a counterattack when he learned that Thoburn's troops were fast approaching on the right. After riding out between the lines to assess the danger, he returned to the Thomas Legion, about 500 feet ahead, promising help. He ordered the 60th Virginia to move back to its former place on the Legion's right flank, directed Gen. John Vaughn to bring up his Tennesseans from the left, and called Col. Kenton Harper's Valley Reserves forward from Middle River Church. The 60th Virginia began deploying to the right front, but Thoburn's attack hit before the movement was complete and drove the regiment into the woods on the left. Jones rallied some of the broken troops, while Vaughn formed a second line with the 39th Tennessee behind a rail fence on the left. Together with the arriving Valley Reserves, they briefly checked Thoburn's advance in fierce fighting, but Federal forces quickly regrouped and the Confederate line began to collapse under mounting pressure. Jones tried desperately to rally the fleeing men, riding into the confusion near this spot, waving his hat and urging them to stand fast, when a Union bullet struck him in the temple and killed him instantly. As Thoburn's brigade pushed toward the bluffs and Moor's brigade entered the fight, Federal forces overwhelmed the Confederates, whose defenses gave way and whose retreat split in confusion toward Staunton and Waynesboro.