 Preceding attacks by Lee 's army had done barely anything to accomplish Confederate objectives , but this did not deter Magruder , who rode back and forth across the battlefield , calling for reinforcements and personally launching unit after unit into a charge of the Union line . At this point , men who had always been directly under Magruder 's command began to join the battle . Magruder first encountered some units of Brig. Gen. Robert Toombs . With Toombs 's brigade widely dispersed , the individual units Magruder found were not with Toombs himself . Magruder personally led the men in a short @-@ lived charge , followed by a disordered retreat . Other units nominally under Toombs 's command appeared , charged and retreated at various times throughout the next few hours , with little or no organization . The brigades of Col. George T. Anderson and Col. William Barksdale emerged from the woods to the right of Toombs , but as they did so , Anderson 's men also became separated , as the left side outpaced the right . This created an advance with two of Anderson 's regiments on the far Confederate left next to Toombs , Barksdale 's men in the middle , and three more Anderson regiments on the far right , near the remnants of Wright and Mahone . Anderson 's right flank charged , but made it no farther than the foot of the hill before breaking and retreating under a hail of antipersonnel artillery . Anderson 's left flank never charged . Barksdale 's brigade charged at roughly the same time , and made it considerably farther up the hill , engaging the Union infantry of Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield in a firefight that lasted more than an hour . 
