Then swiftly Gordon and Kershaw moved together against the uncovered left and rear of Emory, while at the same time Early, who after seeing Kershaw launched, had ridden back for Wharton and the artillery, was bringing them into position for a front attack. Besides the sounds that had aroused Emory and Crook, Wright, from his more remote position, had listened to the rattle of Rosser's carbines,(5) but after a moment of natural doubt had perceived that the true attack was on the left, and accordingly he had ordered Ricketts to advance with Getty and Keifer to the valley road toward the sound of the battle. If this was to be of the least advantage, the valley road must be somehow held by somebody until Ricketts should come. Emory sent Thomas across the road into the ravine and the wood beyond, and bade him stand fast at all hazards. But the time was too short. Thomas, after a desperate resistance, was forced back by the overwhelming masses of Kershaw, yet not until this tried brigade had left a third of its number on the ground to attest its valor. About the colors of the 8th Vermont the fight was furious. Again and again the colors were down; three bearers were slain; before the sun rose two men out of three had fallen, that the precious emblems might be saved.(6) Thus were many priceless minutes won. Then, as there was no longer anything to hinder the advance of Kershaw on the left, and of Gordon on the rear, while Wharton and the forty guns of Early's artillery were beginning their work in front, from the left toward the right, successively the brigades of the Nineteenth Corps began to give way; yet as they drifted toward the right and rear, in that stress the men held well to their colors, and although there may and must have been many that fell out, not a brigade or a regiment lost its organization for a moment. When the pressure reached Molineux and Davis on the reverse side of the entrenchments, both brigades began moving off, under Emory's orders, by the right flank to take position near Belle Grove on the right of Ricketts's division of the Sixth Corps, which had come up and was trying to extend its line diagonally to reach the valley road. To cover this position and to hold off the onward rush of Gordon, Emory had already posted the 114th and the 153d New York on the commanding knoll five hundred yards to the southward overlooking the road. When driven off these regiments rejoined their brigade before Belle Grove. Thither also came the detached regiments of Molineux, and there Neafie joined them with the 3d brigade, after a strong stand at their breastworks, wherein Macauley fell severely wounded, and the 156th and 176th had hard fighting hand-to-hand to keep their colors, at the cost of the staves. Birge retired along the line of works to the open ground beyond Meadow Brook, where Shunk joined him.