In August of that year, the 31-year-old major was in charge of General Charles S. Winder's divisional artillery. On August 9, at the Battle of Cedar Mountain in Virginia, a Federal shell exploded close by, which nearly disemboweled Andrews when fragments struck his right side. Holding in his intestines with one hand and sliding from his horse, he fell to the ground and landed on his back. He lay there for hours before being sent to hospital. When surgeons examined him, they all insisted that the wound was fatal. In one account, the hospital surgeon insisted that there would be but one chance in a hundred of his survival. Reportedly Andrews answered, "Well, I am going to hold on to my one chance." The surgeon sewed him up with needle and thread and left him his one chance. Within eight months, and after being fitted with a silver plate over his wound, he returned to his unit. But luck left him again at the Second Battle of Winchester when he was wounded once more. Around this time, Snowden received the commission of colonel. After recovery from this third wound, he was assigned as an envoy to Germany.