 Not long after the advance of Armistead 's regiments , John Magruder and his men arrived near the battlefield , albeit quite late because of the confusion regarding the names of local roads — by this time , it was 4 pm . Magruder was told at that morning 's war council to move to Huger 's right , but he was unaware of Huger 's position , and sent Major Joseph L. Brent to locate Huger 's right flank . Brent found Huger , who said that he had no idea where his brigades were . Huger was noticeably upset that his men had been given orders by someone other than himself ; Lee had told Huger 's two brigades under Armistead and Ambrose Wright to advance to the right part of the Confederate line . Upon hearing of this , Magruder was quite confused . He sent Capt. A. G. Dickinson to find Lee and inform him of the " successful " charge of Armistead 's men and request further orders . Contrary to this message , Armistead was in fact pinned down halfway up Malvern Hill . At the same time , Whiting sent Lee an incorrect report that Union forces were retreating . Whiting had mistaken two events for a Federal withdrawal — the movement of Edwin Sumner 's troops , who were adjusting their position to avoid the Confederate fire , and the relaxing of Union fire on his side , which was actually the Union artillery concentrating their firepower to a different front . Whiting and Magruder 's erroneous reports led Lee to send a draft of orders to Magruder via Dickinson : " General Lee expects you to advance rapidly " , wrote Dickinson . " He says it is reported that the enemy is [ retreating ] . Press forward your whole line and follow up Armistead 's success . " Before Dickinson returned with these orders , Magruder was belatedly handed the order sent out three hours previously ( at 1 : 30 pm ) by Chilton . Since no time was affixed to the text of the orders , Magruder was unaware that these orders had been rendered meaningless by the failure of the Confederate artillery during the past few hours , and believed he had received two successive orders from Lee to attack . 
