At the Battle of Fisher's Hill on September 22, 1864, Battle's Brigade held the extreme left of the Confederate line. Only the dismounted cavalry of General Lomax were further left. I can offer the following regarding Battle's Brigade which included the 5th and 6th Alabama. (Both regiments had only about 150 men left in the ranks after the Battle of 3rd Winchester three days earlier.)

When the sixteen regiments under Union General Crook attacked, Lomax's cavalry pickets put up little or no resistance and took to their heels, telling their comrades in Ramseur’s (Rode's) Division as they rushed by, that they had been flanked. In fact, a cavalryman continued down the line reporting to each command that they had been flanked on the left. This started a general panic in the line. General Ramseur reacted swiftly to the assault. He shifted his closest brigade, Cullen Battle’s Alabamians, from their earthworks to a “prominent ridge” paralleling the Union advance. By the time Crook’s men reached Battle’s Brigade, the Union VI Corps on the Rebel front had connected with Crook’s left and the whole Union Army pressed forward from the left and front. The Alabamians knelt behind some stone walls and unleashed a volley. At the end of Battle’s line at the main works, the gunners of Major Thomas J. Kirkpatrick’s Amherst Battery hand wheeled their cannons to the left to support Battle’s men. As the attackers rushed forward, the Confederate Battery fired sheets of double canister into them and General Battle, wielding a cedar fence stake, urged his men to stand firm and shouted, “Close up! On your life!” General Battle continued to walk behind his roaring line, brandishing his cedar stick, clubbing anyone within reach who turned and ran. His hardened fighters could only hope to buy time for the other artillerymen to get out their pieces and for General Ramseur to redeploy his other brigades. General Ramseur sent General Cox’s Brigade to Battle’s support, but the rest of the Confederate line was giving way and in the confusion, Cox got off track and the Alabamian’s were left to fend for themselves.

The staunch resistance by the regiments of Battle’s Brigade and Kirkpatrick’s Artillery was later noted by Crook in his report. “On a prominent ridge about one mile from the base of the mountain where one of their main batteries was posted, the enemy made his most stubborn stand.” The momentum of the Federals temporarily slowed, particularly Thoburn’s Division which moved along the Rebel works. The Butternuts, Crook wrote, “were making it hot for us.” Some of the Northerners turned back towards the wooded mountain only to be met by their commander who began pelting them with rocks. Given the choice between a furious Crook and his armful of rocks or the Rebels, most of the skulkers picked the graycoats. Confederate Colonel Thomas Nelson, the battalion artillery commander, wheeled a battery into line behind the Alabamians. This added metal still couldn’t stem the flood of Crook’s surging men. Thoburn’s soldiers had closed to within sixty yards, and Hayes’ jumbled ranks were overlapping Battle’s left flank. It soon became apparent to the Confederate artillerists that the Federal troops could not be held off indefinitely, so as the battle raged, concern among the gunners grew over how they were going to prevent their guns from falling into Union hands. The horses were brought up “very quickly”, and the gunners began to hitch up the teams to safely withdraw the guns.

The men continued to fight on. Finally, when the pressure of Crook’s attack became too much to endure, the Artilleryman raised his cap and said, “I thank you, gentlemen; it is useless to stay longer.” As Kirkpatrick’s artillery fire stopped so that the guns could be removed from the field, the artillerists stood in awe at the mettle of Battle’s command, which fought desperately to buy precious moments for the artillery’s safe evacuation. One of Kirkpatrick’s artillerists noted that in the effort to evacuate the artillery, “Battle’s Brigade….behaved splendidly.” Soon the weight of the Union attack became too much to endure. Finally, the brigade had to relinquish its’ hold on the stone walls to the Federals, who were “gallantly charging with irresistible impetuosity.” With that, the guns and Battle’s Brigade withdrew from the field.

Several miles south of Fisher’s Hill, General Gordon and a few other officers attempted to “stop the mass of fugitives on the top of the hill near Mount Prospect.” This cadre of Confederate officers rallied a variety of units, including troops from Battle’s Brigade. Two artillery pieces would support their effort of resisting the Union pursuit. While this makeshift Confederate force did its best to establish a defensive position at Mount Prospect, a contingent of Confederates advanced north, ground over which Early’s army had retreated, in order to erect various obsticles to slow any pursuit, including stringing wire across the Valley Pike. As the head of the Union pursuing column neared Mount Prospect, the two Confederate cannons which “were well trained upon the road”, unleashed canister. One Confederate artillerist recalled after the war that, “Never were the iron messengers of death hurled in quicker succession from the throats of two guns.” The artillery fire, soon followed by the rattle of Confederate muskets, stymied the Federal troops. A veteran of a Union regiment recorded the following regarding the opening salvos near Mount Prospect. “Suddenly a streak of fire a quarter of a mile long flashed along the opposite hillside, and the rattle of musketry followed. The bullets flew thick about us….All was confusion….It was pitch dark, and no one could determine the strength of the demonstration.” To add to their fears, the troops in rear of them began firing into them as well. For the moment the fire stymied the Union advance, but the Federals regained their composure and renewed their advance. The Confederates continued their retreat.

Although the Confederate Army was routed, many histories have stated that not a single Division, Brigade or Regiment preserved its’ organization, however, this is not true. The Army’s Topographical Engineer, Jed Hotchkiss, would write in his journal, “...The artillery was open on the woods when the enemy was advancing and it check them for the moment, but most of our men went on, officers and all, at breakneck speed. Battle’s Brigade moved to the left and came out intact.” Major Eugene Blackford had in fact, drawn together some of his best sharpshooters along with the 5th and 6th Alabama Infantry Regiments and managed to provide enough of a rear guard to keep the Yankees at bay, allowing the rest of the Confederate Army to escape southward. The small number of men captured by the Union troops also stands as testament to the fact that the brigade came out “intact.” Sheridan’s army pursued the Confederates south towards Woodstock, but stopped at Tom’s Brook, unable to finish them off.

I have found no record of men of Battle's Brigade capturing any flags at Fisher's Hill. However, at the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, they did overrun the 5th Maine Artillery and captured their flags.