By noon the Confederates had taken up a defensive position at Fisher’s Hill facing north to Strasburg. Fisher’s Hill was a steep, rock-strewn bluff, creased by ravines, splotched by woodlots. Along its base, Tumbling Run, a “brawling brook”, earned its name, while coursing into the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. The Southerners boasted of it as “their Gibraltar.” If adequately manned, the heights were nearly impregnable. However, that was the problem that General Early now faced. After Winchester he had fewer than ten thousand men to hold off Sheridan’s force of about thirty-five thousand. Early needed to have enough troops to stretch over a four mile front from Little North Mountain to Massanutten or his flanks would be susceptible to attack.

General Early also had to address the devastating loss of General Robert Rodes. At the request of Major Greene Peyton, Rodes Chief of Staff, General Ramseur was transferred to command of the Division. The North Carolinian had lead a brigade under Rodes for over a year until he secured Early’s old division. The veterans of Rodes Division welcomed Ramseur back, but to them, no man could replace Rodes. The men of Battle’s Brigade took up a position west of the Valley Pike, a little to the right of where they were before in the line of breastworks, on the left flank at the end of the Confederate line. Only the dismounted Cavalry of Lomax were deployed beyond them. The position was a strong one, but there just weren’t enough men to man it. Brigade Commissary Clerk, Henry Beck, issued rations to the men, which took him nearly all day. Skirmishing on Ramseur’s line started early the next morning, but the troops of Battle’s Brigade remained quiet all day and stayed on the line of battle throughout the night.
Back on the battle field at Winchester the grisly duty of removing the corpses and neglected wounded fell to the victors. Some of the Union soldiers left descriptions of their experiences. The battlefield “was a horrid sight,” J.S. Lloyd informed his sister. “The dead were scattered in all direction.” A member of the 38th Massachusetts claimed that “the dead were horrible dead. It seemed as if the majority had received their death from shells. Most of the bodies were dismembered, and at least half were mangled beyond recognition.” Isaac D. Best, 121st New York, noted a particularly bloody spot (most likely the open ground where David Russell’s Yankees and Cullen Battle’s Alabamians, standing elbow-to-elbow, ravaged each other.) “The two lines of battle must have stood for some time, steadily firing at each other,” stated the New Yorker. “Between two thickets, probably twenty rods apart, there was a row of blue-clad dead lying close together, and fairly touching each other; and only a few yards in front of them, a similar windrow of gray-clad dead, lying as closely and straightly aligned as were their opponents.”

While the Confederates were improving their defences at Fisher’s Hill, the Federal Army moved to Strasburg. Union General Sheridan and his Corps commanders devised a plan to attack them. It was decided that the VI and XIX Corps would demonstrate on the Rebel front, as Union General Crook’s VIII Corps moved under cover of darkness and as quietly as possible to a position on the Confederate left, where the main thrust would be made. Crook’s men were well suited to attack over the mountainous terrain to the west of Fisher’s Hill, as many of those men had fought much of the war in the mountains of West Virginia. Throughout the day on September 21, 1864, Crook’s men stayed concealed in the woods north of Cedar Creek while the VI and XIX Corps marched from the area around Strasburg south to Fisher’s Hill. Troops of the VI Corps occupied a small hill in front of Fisher’s Hill that was a good platform for artillery. Meanwhile, Crooks men waited for the cover of darkness. Then, as the sun began to set, they marched southwest and occupied a position in an area of dense woods slightly north of Hupp’s Hill. Crook wore a private’s blouse just in case prying eyes from Massanutten happened to land on him, and he ordered his color bearers to trail their flags, fearing that the bright colors of the Stars and Stripes would attract attention. After taking their position near Hupp’s Hill, Crook’s regiments rested for several hours. The next morning, they marched to the eastern face of North Mountain, from which they would launch their assault.

The 5th Alabama Infantry Regiment entered the Battle of Fisher Hill with the following officers in command:

Major: Eugene Blackford
Adjutant: Charles I. Pegues
Sergeant Major: Shelby W. Chadwick
Regimental Color Sergeant: Basil M. Hanks

Company A Barbour Grays (1st Lieutenant George A. Thomas)
Company B Talladega Artillery (1st Sergeant Pinkney L. McCall)
Company C Monroe Guards (4th Sergeant John W. Butler)
Company D Greensboro Guards (2nd Sergeant William Alexander McCall)
Company E Sumter Rifle Guard (2nd Lieutenant Thomas C. Flowers)
Company F Cahaba Rifles (Sergeant Thomas J. Ellis)
Company G Livingston Rifles (1st Sergeant Robert Hatton)
Company H Pickensville Blues (Sergeant C. H. Burgin)
Company I Grove Hill Guards (Sergeant Alfred Y. Bettis)
Company K Hayneville Guards (Captain Girard Cook)

September 22, 1864, began as a quiet day in the Confederate lines, especially for the men of Battle’s Brigade on the extreme left flank. Most of the skirmishing had been taking place far to the right and although it had intensified as the afternoon wore on, there was little of note on the left until about three o’clock. At that time, General Grimes summoned General Ramseur to point out that there had been some Federal activity to the left of their line and implore him to strengthen the left, as there was only a weak brigade of dismounted Confederate cavalry under General Lomax, beyond them. Initially, General Ramseur discounted the concerns of General Grimes as an optical illusion, but after peering through his binoculars, he finally saw Crook’s sixteen infantry regiments bearing down on the left. Despite all he saw, General Ramseur declined to bolster the left until he first discussed it with General Early. A Confederate private observed in his diary that he and his companions could see Crook’s men “moving in heavy columns of infantry to their right all day. We can see them plainly climbing up the side of North Mountain.” At about 4:00 – 4:30 P.M., as the sun began to set behind Little North Mountain, Union General Crook’s two divisions, about 5500 strong, struck the Confederate left. The cavalry pickets put up no resistance and took to their heels, telling their comrades in Ramseur’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.

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!” This 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 followed 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 Confederates, most of the skulkers picked the graycoats. Battle’s hardened fighters could only hope to buy time for the artillerymen to get out their pieces and for Ramseur to redeploy his other brigades. 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. Finally, the brigade had to relinquish its’ hold on the stone walls to the Federals, who were “gallantly charging with irresistible impetuosity.” 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 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.” With that the guns and Battle’s Brigade withdrew from the field. An hour earlier, at about 5:00 P.M., Commissary Clerk, Henry Beck had been about to start forward to the Brigade with rations when he suddenly met the whole army running back, a stampede he compared to that of Winchester. “The Yankees flanked us by the mountain & got in our rear, which caused our cavalry to give away & cause confusion among the troops, when everybody put out the best way they could. We made a hasty retreat to Mt. Jackson, after traveling all night. Our loss here in men was not severe, we lost some 10 or 20 pcs. of artillery however.

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 5th Alabama Infantry came out “intact.” Sheridan’s army pursued the Confederates south towards Woodstock, but stopped at Tom’s Brook, unable to finish them off.