out of line and marched backward and forward without finding its position, and "did not fire a gun all day." General Hill now ordered his men forward. He had already found from an early morning observation that General McClellan’s large army was advancing on the pass, and while such an advance made his position hazardous, he was relieved to find McClellan in his front in such force, for the Confederates had feared that the Federals would cross nearer to Crampton’s and strike McLaws rear before Harper’s Ferry surrendered. While Longstreet’s brigades were reaching the top of the mountains, the Federals were steadily marching heavy columns up to push their way through. Reno’s other divisions, Willcox, Sturgis, Rodman, joined Cox and formed on the Confederate right. The First corps under Hooker, consisting of three divisions of 42 regiments of infantry, 10 batteries and cavalry, formed on the Confederate left to attack the position held by Rodes. Gibbon, of this corps, advanced on the National turnpike against Colquitt. Before the general advance in the afternoon, the Federals had, according to General McClellan, 30,000 men; according to "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," 23,778 men on the field of battle. The Confederates at no time during the day had over 9,000 men on the field, and at the time of the opening attack on Rodes position, Hill s division of less than 5,000 men had been reinforced by only the brigades of G. T. Anderson and Drayton and Hood’s two.
The general advance in the afternoon divided itself into three separate actions—that on the Confederate right, that on the extreme left, and that against Colquitt near the center. The attack on the right was made by Reno’s corps. This fell on Anderson’s and a portion of Garland s North Carolinians, Drayton’s South Carolinians and Georgians, and less heavily on G. T. Anderson’s Georgians. Drayton’s men were heavily attacked and broken. The other brigades held their own, with Hood’s
