General and Brevet Major General Samuel W. Crawford's division toward White Oak Road in order to secure Ayres's position and to disperse the Confederate pickets. At 8:15 a.m., Warren advised Ayres that Sheridan had implied in correspondence to him that Merritt's force had been dislodged from White Oak Road and that Ayres should be looking for an attack from the west or the north. Due to the condition of the roads and Gravelly Run, Crawford's men did not get into formation until 10:00 a.m. Meanwhile, having seen the movement of Ayres's and Crawford's brigades toward the Confederate line, Johnson allowed Hunton's and Stansel's brigades to advance to meet the Union formations even though McGowan's brigade on the far right was not ready. The Confederates were able to approach the Union force while screened by woods north of White Oak Road. As Ayres's division, led by Winthrop's brigade, advanced across a field toward White Oak Road with the intention of seizing advanced Confederate rifle pits, the Confederates began to fire from the woods, out of sight of the Union force. Wise's brigade moved out of the works but did not join the fight because they were apparently waiting for orders. General Lee finally ordered Wise to take up a position on Hunton's left as regiments from one of Crawford's other two brigades put up stiff resistance to the advancing Confederates. As the fight developed, Wise's brigade did not engage the V Corps. Even before they received Johnson's order, all three of the Confederate brigades, including McGowan's, attacked both Ayres's division and all of Crawford's division which quickly joined the fight to support Ayres's units and their own advanced brigade. The Confederates defeated and drove off all of the brigades of these two divisions, in turn. Although outnumbered and occasionally checked by the stand of some Union brigades, the three Confederate brigades in action first drove the four Union brigades, three from Ayres's division and one from Crawford's, back across Gravelly Run. Then Stansel's brigade drove back Union Brigadier General Henry Baxter's brigade and a reformed part of Colonel James Gwyn's brigade still forward of Gravelly Run. The forward Union regiments of Baxter's brigade fell back to find the remainder of the brigade had retreated. In an effort to rally Crawford's division, since it was too late to stop Ayres's division's retreat, Warren himself also came forward, grabbed a regimental flag and