At 4 p.m. the next day, Confederate Brigadier General Thomas J. Churchill's arriving infantry started the attack on the Union forces. Churchill thought he was sending them into the Union flank, but it was actually the center. Confederate cavalry also miscalculated positions and suffered heavily from flank fire. Churchill's men did succeed in collapsing this Union center position, but this also brought his men into the middle of a U-shaped position, with A. J. Smith's unused divisions forming the base of the "U". Though part of the advanced Union right had also collapsed, the forces of Smith and Mower next launched a counterattack and, joined by neighboring regiments, they routed Taylor's men from the vicinity of Pleasant Hill. Some cannon were recaptured.