Gibbon's Brigade, Doubleday's Division

   On the morning of the 17th, with its right on the Hagerstown Pike, Gibbon's Brigade, which three days before had earned the title of the "Iron Brigade", advanced in the direction of the Dunkard Church. When 135 yards north of this point Confederates, deployed under cover of the ledge and woods west of the pike attacked the flank, upon which the 19th Indiana and 7th Wisconsin were deployed on the plateau and in the woods west of the pike and the 2nd and 6th Wisconsin in the infamous Cornfield east of it. Battery B, 4th U. S. Artillery, went into position west of the pike and a few yards south of Miller's barn. Supported by Patrick's Brigade and the Battery on the right and Phelps' Brigade on the left, Gibbon's Brigade advanced to and south of this point but was forced back. Charge and countercharge of the most deadly character were made across the open plateau west of and in the Cornfield and ground south of it, east of the pike, and the Iron Brigade was compelled to retire to the field north of D. R. Miller's and then to the cover of the high ground north and east of Joseph Poffenberger's.