In a piercing winter wind, fighting had raged for much of the sunlit morning as each side maneuvered on the hillside slopes, fields and woods to gain the advantage. On the right flank, Milroy's force found a position in a mountain clearing, among the fallen timber, stumps and brush, which proved to be too difficult for the Confederate infantry to dislodge. A Confederate artillery battery unlimbered and unleashed a "storm of round shot and canister among them, knocking their timber defences about their heads, and making their nest too hot to hold them..." The fighting on the right moved back and forth from advance to retreat, with the Union temporarily occupying the post, only to be driven off. The Confederates attempted their own flanking maneuvers which quickly failed because their force was too thin. The fighting was in such close quarters that the Confederate cannons in the fortification could not be used.