Dearing's battery opened a cannonade which drew a furious and somewhat mischievous fire from the enemy's batteries, which nearly enfiladed the Long Bridge road. An hour passed in this artillery duelling produced no material result, as the intervening thickets hid the contending batteries from each other's view, and the firing was mostly at random. About four P. M., nothing definite being known of Huger and Jackson, but the lateness of the hour admitting no longer delay, General Longstreet assumed the offensive. As no one can go through the details of the action which followed without surprise at the fatal want of concert of action which characterized the many gallant and bloody assaults of the Confederates, it is perhaps best to say beforehand that it was but the pestilent mishaps of almost every offensive battle field which the army of Northern Virginia ever fought, and that its causes were perhaps not peculiar to any one. The wooded character of the country is the reason assigned by Generals Lee and Longstreet in their reports, and an insufficient staff organization was doubtless another source of much difficulty.
The order to move forward and attack was first received by Kemper's brigade, which held the right flank in the dense wood before mentioned, with its right regiment (the Seventeenth Virginia) thrown back to protect the flank. In hearing of the order to charge, through some misapprehension, the brigade started before General Kemper was able to wheel the Seventeenth into line with the others, and as it was impossible to control promptly so extensive a line in such tangled undergrowth, the remaining regiments were allowed to move on, and this one was directed to follow as soon as it could change its front. After advancing several hundred yards in good order, in spite of swampy ground and a sharp shelling of the woods by the enemy, the Yankee pickets were discovered retiring, on seeing which the line immediately cheered loudly and took the double quick in pursuit. This space soon brought them to the open field, across which were seen the Federal infantry and batteries. A terrible fire was now poured upon them, but without halting to reform the line, disintegrated and much reduced by the double quick through the woods, a charge was made upon a battery (Kern's) about three hundred yards distant (near Mitlock's house) supported by Seymour's brigade, the left brigade of McCall's division. The impetuosity of the charge broke the enemy's line and for a time the battery was in Kemper's possession, but the handful of men who gained it were unable to
