On January 15, 1865, the fourth traverse was the scene of the hottest fighting within the fort. Union flags above Shepherd's Battery prompted General W.H.C. Whiting to order a counterattack to pull down the flags and drive the enemy from the works. Leading the first counterattack from the Northeast Bastion, Whiting pushed Union forces back as far as the third traverse before he was wounded and sent to a makeshift hospital inside the Pulpit Battery. Gunners at Battery Buchannan, Columbiad Battery, and Mount Battery were ordered to turn their guns to fire inside the fort, killing and wounding friend and foe alike, and the two Napoleons in the center sally port were directed to fire at advancing Union forces on the parade ground. Colonel Lamb then assembled the 800 men he had available for a second counterattack and led a bayonet charge against Ames's Division, believing the Confederates could drive Union soldiers out of the fort. Although the charge had some success and the tide briefly seemed to turn in favor of the Confederates, the Union fleet fired with deadly precision on the land face and a Federal counterattack followed. Lamb fell severely wounded and was evacuated to the Pulpit Battery, command eventually passed to Major James Reilly, and despite his efforts Union forces had seized seven traverses on the land face by 4:45 p.m. The struggle was remembered as an exceptionally long and desperate hand to hand fight, with the contestants firing into each other's faces and in some cases clubbing their guns when they were too close to load and fire.