The reserve artillery of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, under the command of Third Corps artillery chief, Brigadier General Lindsay Walker was parked near the station and the Lynchburg stage road. The artillery was guarded by about 500 cavalrymen commanded by Brigadier General Martin Gary, supported by artillerymen of Captain Crispin Dickenson's Ringgold Battery and Captain David Walker's Otey Battery, who had been re-armed with muskets, and some stragglers gathered up in the vicinity by Lieutenant W. F. Robinson of the Ringgold Battery. Walker began to shell the station soon after he learned of the presence of Union cavalry there. Custer's men soon discovered the source of the firing about away and attacked Walker's artillery park near the Lynchburg stage road. Walker's men were concentrated there with about 25 guns arrayed in a semi-circle to defend themselves and another 35 to 75 guns parked in reserve.