kimball, believing he was up against a much larger confederate force, decided to silence the confederate guns on sandy ridge. his attack was met with strong resistance from the confederates and the battle soon became a stalemate. jackson kept sending in more confederate troops, but he could not drive the union line back. kimball still had fresh reserves he could send into the battle. by six o'clock the confederates were running low on ammunition and were nearly exhausted. when one of his brigades ran out of ammunition completely, they had to withdraw from the battle. the union army attacked through the gap they left and jackson's entire force had to quickly retreat.