three o'clock in the afternoon
At dawn on August 30 , the high spirited troops of the South were under arms standing with clinched muskets within a few hundred yards of the pickets of Pope . Their far flung battle line stretched for five miles from Sudley Springs on the left to the Warrenton road and on obliquely to the southwest . The artillery opened the action and for eight hours the heavens shook with its roar . At three o'clock in the afternoon Pope determined to hurl the flower of his army against Jackson 's corps and smash it . His first division pressed forward and engaged the Confederates at close quarters . A fierce and bloody conflict followed , Jackson 's troops refusing to yield an inch . The Federal Commander brought up two reserve lines to support the first but before they could be of any use , Longstreet 's artillery was planted to rake them with a murderous fire and they fell back in confusion .