At 3:00 p.m. on Day 3 of the campaign, a Confederate infantry regiment carrying Tennessee colors advances at the left oblique from its position on the Potomac Turnpike at Lowell's Cross Roads. It advances up the hill to its north and engages a company of cavalry.
As the cavalry and Tennessee regiment engage, half of the commissary train in Lowell's Cross Roads town departs on the Old Romney Road towards Spring Gap. The other half remains in town.
The cavalry holds surprisingly well against a larger body of infantry, but Federal flags are seen moving through the woods on the Confederate left. Federals move completely around the Confederate left and start appearing on the Jersey Mountain Road to the southwest of town.
As the lead Federal infantry regiment reaches the road, a Confederate regiment moving up from the Elliott Farm opens fire. The Confederates regiment is ascending a hill and cannot see Lowell's Cross Roads on the opposite side of the crest.
The Federals had declined to engage the Tennessee Regiment north of town, and continued to move around the flank and prepared to engage the second Confederate regiment on Jersey Mountain Road. After finally driving off the Federal cavalry, the first Confederate regiment to engage turned and moved against the Federal rear.
Union infantry outnumbers the two Confederate regiments, with one Federal regiment on the Jersey Mountain Road and the others under cover of the woods to the north. But the Federals have one enemy regiment to their front and another to their rear.
As the fighting picked up on the hill on west side of Lowell's Cross Roads, the second half of the Confederate commissary train left town and began to ascend the hill on the east side of town, heading up the Old Romney Road towards Spring Gap.
To be continued....
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