At 4:30 PM, Howard orders Wood to attack.  However, he directs Wood to send in only his lead brigade under Hazen.  This remains the central controversy of the battle.  Having spent all afternoon marching six brigades to a point opposite the Confederate flank, with orders to attack the enemy flank as soon as they arrive, Howard then commits only one brigade to the assault.  To be fair, Howard has only a tenuous connection to the rest of the Union army and faces what any commander in that situation fears, an assault by an aggressive opponent and defeat in detail.  However, his orders are to attack.  When you attack, you normally want to commit enough forces to win.  Howard does order McLean to advance his brigade to the edge of the wheat field and keep Govan's Brigade occupied during the attack, to keep the pressure off Hazen's right flank.

          Hazen is baffled and angry, but leads his men forward.  The rough terrain immediately disrupts his formation.   Individual regiments lose their alignment, becoming mobs of men struggling to keep up with one another in the undulating terrain and thick underbrush instead of orderly lines of battle.  The two lines of the brigade also begin to drift apart.  The front rank slowly moves to the right, while the rear rank moves to the left.