Rodes began his attack on Baxter around 2:00 p.m. He ordered a concerted attack by O'Neal and Iverson on Baxter's outnumbered troops. But confusion had set in early on the brigade commanders and neither were able to coordinate their attacks properly. O'Neal only sent in three of his five regiments in against Baxter, and he himself stayed back and commanded from the rear (Coddington, 1968). Approaching Baxter's men, O'Neal's troops came under pesky fire from some XI Corps units deployed to his left (to be discussed later). "Throwing his regiments against Baxter's line, posted behind the stone wall which ran just south of and parallel with the Mummasburg Road, O'Neal was repelled with heavy loss" (Hassler, 1970, p. 90).
The quick retreat of O'Neal exposed Iverson's left flank immediately. At 2:30 Rodes quickly ordered Iverson's troops forward, but like O'Neal, Iverson did not lead his men into the fray himself (Coddington, 1968). As Iverson's men approached across the field from Oak Hill to the Union position, Baxter's men, in what seemed to be one fluid motion, rose from their concealment behind a stone wall and began to mow down the approaching Confederate line. Then receiving some aid from Cutler's men to the left and some of Stone's units near the Pike, Baxter's troops hurled Iverson's men back, capturing nearly 1,000 of Iverson's men. His brigade completely obliterated, Iverson was relieved of command and his remaining troops were placed under the command of Ramseur.
See Battle Map
So far the Confederate attacks were an abysmal failure. The piecemeal approaches by O'Neal and Iverson, the relative isolation of Doles, and the delay of Daniel on the right all contributed to the initial failure of Rodes' assault. But O'Neal was trying again and Ramseur was moving in to replace Iverson. This brought on Gabriel Paul's brigade to replace Baxter's embattled and fatigued troops and to solidify the whole Union line to the west of town. Paul's men arrived in time to assist in repulsing a second attack by O'Neal and to prepare for the larger assault to come in their front to the west from Ramseur.
At about this time the Union XI Corps was facing a strong attack by the other Confederate division arriving from the north, that of Jubal Early. Earlier in the day, Schurz deployed his troops north of town in accordance with Howard's orders to meet the threat of Early's approaching units. On the left near the Mummasburg Road was Alexander Schimmelfennig's brigade, under the command of Col. George von Amsberg. To his right was the brigade of Col. Wladimir Krzyzanowski, and Adelbert Ames continued the line. Finally on the extreme right on an eminence to be known later as Barlow's Knoll, was the brigade of Leopold von Gilsa of General Francis Barlow's division. In all the XI Corps line comprised about 5,500 men. As mentioned previously, the brigade of Brig. General Adolph von Steinwehr remained on Cemetery Hill.
