Yankee force that he did not already know". The Union troops were caught by surprise, unaware that the Confederates had infantry in the area. Banks had not stationed any cavalry at Front Royal, and the lack of cavalry in the morning prevented Union forces from learning of the Confederate advance earlier. The Confederate attack quickly drove the Union forces from Front Royal and their camp, and the Union commander, Colonel John Reese Kenly, withdrew what remained of his force onto Richardson's Hill, a height between Front Royal and the South Fork, and deployed two 10-pounder Parrott rifles. Some of Kenly's men were captured within the town, and a Union supply train was captured as well. Not much organized resistance was met within the town; one Confederate soldier referred to the town stage of the battle as "more like a police riot than a fight between soldiers". In front of the new Union position was an open meadow, which would have to be crossed to frontally attack Kenly's position. Kenly had about 700 infantrymen remaining in line at this point. The two Parrott guns fired effectively on the Confederates. Union withdrawal to Richardson's and Guard Hills With the two Union cannon battering his lines, Jackson had his chief of artillery, Colonel Stapleton Crutchfield, bring up artillery to counter the Union fire, but the first battery that reported was armed only with guns of too short of range to reach the Union position. Crutchfield was eventually able to locate three cannons with long enough ranges, and a fifteen-minute artillery duel followed. Kenly tried to make his line seem stronger than it was. A small detachment of the 29th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment guarded the area between the two forks of the river, and 100 men from two companies of the 5th New York Cavalry Regiment, which Banks had sent from Strasburg that morning despite being unaware of the battle, arrived and sortied against the skirmishers of the Confederate 1st Maryland. Meanwhile, Johnson's Marylanders attacked from the center, the 6th Louisiana Infantry Regiment attacked the Union left, and more of Taylor's men fought with the Union right. Some of the Confederate cavalry to the west, the 2nd Virginia Cavalry Regiment and the 6th Virginia Cavalry Regiment under Colonel Thomas Flournoy, also raced for the bridge over the North Fork, as Confederate control of that bridge would cut off the last Union line of retreat.