After capturing the supply trains, the Union cavalry attacked the Confederate artillery batteries and their supporting dismounted cavalrymen, armed artillerymen and engineers and infantry stragglers. After making several futile charges in gathering darkness, the Union cavalry broke the Confederate defenses as the Confederates began to withdraw, taking as many guns and wagons with them as they could. After their breakthrough, Custer's men followed the fleeing Confederates in a running battle to the Lynchburg stage road, on which the Union troopers seized an important foothold.