A drizzling rain fell during the night. The morning of the 17th broke gray and misty, but the skies cleared early. As rays of light outlined the fringe of trees about the Dunker Church, restless Federal skirmishers opened fire. A line of rifle fire flashed from the southern muskets far out in front of the church. Soon, powerful Federal guns on the bluffs beyond Antietam Creek poured a raking fire of shot and shell into the Confederate lines. The first stage of McClellan’s plan of crushing Lee—folding up the Confederate left flank—was about to begin. Hooker struck with tremendous force. With skirmishers still hotly engaged, 10 brigades moved out from the cover of the North Woods. Brig. Gen. Abner Doubleday’s men advanced along the Hagerstown Pike. Brig. Gen. James Ricketts’ force charged down the Smoketown road toward the Dunker Church. Part of Meade’s division in the center was held in reserve. Hooker’s artillery, massed on the ridge near the Poffenberger house, raked the Confederate lines. Heads down and bent to the side, like people breasting a hailstorm, the wave of Federals charged southward, spreading over the front from East Woods to the fringe of West Woods. From left and from right, Confederate brigades poured into the fray to buttress Jackson’s line of battle. D. H. Hill sent three brigades from the Sunken Road, dangerously weakening his own line—but then, first things first, and this is the story of the Confederate defense throughout the day. Hood’s two brigades stood in reserve in the woods adjoining the Dunker Church. Eight thousand Confederates awaited Hooker’s assault. [Illustration: _East Woods on left; Miller cornfield, where Lawton’s men were hidden, on right. This view looking south, as Hooker’s men saw it at dawn._] While most of Jackson’s men formed a line from east to west in front of the Dunker Church, Brig. Gen. A. R. Lawton had sent a strong force into the Miller cornfield, 300 yards in advance, concealed, he believed, from the enemy. [Illustration: _View from the south, as Jackson’s men saw it. Cornfield ahead; East Woods at right._]