Advance to Battle

Advance to Battle. "Arms and accouterments glittering in the sunlight". The opposing infantry marched towards each other along the Williamsport Pike, a mile to your front. A skirmish line of McMullen's Rangers led the Union advance, followed by Col. John Starkweather's 1st Wisconsin Infantry. Nearing the Porterfield Farm, Starkweather sent Company B of his regiment to support the Rangers., Confederate Col. Kenton Harper led the 5th Virginia Infantry north from the opposite direction, followed by the four-gun Rockbridge Artillery under Capt. William Pendleton. Uncertain how many Union troops were ahead, Pendleton asked to leave three of his guns in reserve, concerned at their risk of capture. Col. Jackson agreed and ordered the 2nd Virginia and 4th Virginia regiments to stay with those guns. Pendleton continued forward with a lone cannon, a 6-pounder named "Luke". Approaching the junction with Hammonds Mill Road, Harper spotted Union troops in the woods east of the road. He sent Company L to scout the woodlot, soon followed by Companies B and E. Around 9:15 a.m., Union skirmishers fired, opening the battle., As the opposing pickets exchanged shots, Harper sent three companies west of the road and took his three remaining companies north to the Porterfield Farm, where his men forced back Union skirmishers and took up positions in and around the farm buildings., The main body of the 1st Wisconsin appeared from the north. One Confederate described it as "a grand sight... arms and accouterments glittering in the sunlight." When the two sides opened fire in earnest, Confederate Lt. James Edmondson remembered "The bullets whizz[ed] around us as thick as hail." Starkweather ordered his skirmishers to fall back to rejoin the regiment, then deployed four companies to the east of the road, and marched four more straight down the thoroughfare, just as additional Union troops came down the pike.

"There for the first time, we saw the long line of blue, with the United States flag in the center." -Confederate Daniel Burr Conrad

(captions) , Advance of the 1st Wisconsin London Illustrated News Aug 10, 1861, 18-year-old Pvt. George C. Drake of the 1st Wisconsin was killed early in the fighting. Shot near the heart, he whispered "My mother" before he died. Earlier that morning he had told a fellow solder that "I expect to be among the first to fall." (The 1st Wisconsin wore gray uniforms at the time of the battle.)