Orange Plank Road. Maj. Gen. George W. Getty's brigades were ordered by Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, who was still bringing up most of his corps, to hold the road and counterattack. The Vermont Brigade took the southern flank and charged the advancing Confederates. Ordered to retreat, the 5th Vermont regiment instead launched a bayonet charge, buying time for Union troops and the rest of the Vermont Brigade to fall back to their hasty works. The Confederates continued to attack until the Union line was stabilized. Losses by the brigade totaled 1,269 killed, wounded, and missing in less than 12 hours of fighting. After the Wilderness, the Union Army moved south to Spotsylvania Court House, where Lee's army had entrenched. The 11th Vermont Infantry joined the brigade at this point. Early in the battle, elements of the Vermont brigade, defending barricades forward of the rest of the Union Army, were ordered to retreat and spike their supporting artillery field pieces before the Confederates overran them. Disobeying orders, the commander of the brigade ordered the guns to be "spiked with canister," and the brigade was able to defend the guns and works successfully until reinforcements arrived to stabilize the position. The Vermonters suffered heavily during the ensuing assault on the Confederate defenses as The Vermont Brigade led the assault on the "Mule Shoe Salient", a protruding network of trenches in the center of the Confederate lines. The final battle of the Overland Campaign was the Battle of Cold Harbor. The Vermont Brigade was one of the units selected to charge Confederate earthworks on June 1, 1864. Grant's attack failed and he suffered heavy losses. In less than 10 minutes, hundreds of soldiers from the Vermont Brigade were killed or wounded. The brigade, in less than one month of fighting, had been reduced from 2,850 men to less than 1,200. Petersburg and the Valley While the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia dug in at Petersburg, Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early was sent on a mission through the Shenandoah Valley to the outskirts of Washington, D.C. The Vermont Brigade fought in the Valley Campaign against Early, under the overall command of Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan. At the Battle of Cedar Creek, Early launched a surprise attack against Sheridan's army and the First Vermont Brigade covered the Union army's temporary retreat, prior to Sheridan's counterattack and decisive victory.