The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-11-17
tlllerymen stood at their horses heads to pre-
vent them from neigbing they could hear from

vent them from neigbing they could hear frol
across the creek:
who goes there ~ '
Friend with the countersign p Us
Advance one p assn = et
Now the birds began to twltter and chirp i
the pines and oaks, the fog whirled about i
fantastic shapes, and just as the green willow
showed their, tops through the flying fog
crash of musketry down by the mountain sal
to $4,000 men that battle had begun.
DOWN ON THE LEFT.
Early had brought his infantry safe out q
the Jungle and formed them in line Of battl
with pistol shot of the first row of Fedora
tents They were heard moving through thu
tickets and across the stony hillsides, but tn,
pickets believed the nose to come from horses
which might have escaped from the line TIVE
thousand feet above their heads lowered tn,
pine-clad mountain, and what foe could break
over this defense? Horses were neighing fo
their provender, camp sentinels lazily pacet
their beats, and a few early risers were stir
ring up the slumbering camp-fres, when ou
from the morning mist, yelling and cheering
and firing, came the Confederate battle-lines
At that first volley of musketry Early's centre
and left pushed forward on the doublequick
and it wasn't ten minutes before Sheridan's
first line was rolled back on his second
THE CAMPS.
The Federal camps were supplied with
everything IN provisions and wearing apparel
The Confederates were hungry and ragged
and poorly equipped. 1t was but natural that
the men should stop to eat and plumber. A
third of the entire Confederate army halted in
the first line Of camps to plumber the tents,
catch up horses, and in many instances to
cook breakfast. Whole companies broke from
the battle-lines to riot and plumber, and men
drank coffee with shot and shell plunging over
their heads. se 4stj ~ e.lff
THE. SECOND LINE
Sheridan's second line was not surprised. It
was astonished, but there was ample time to
prepare for the shock. But no stand was
made Ten thousand panic-stricken Federals,
closely pressed by gray line of battle, car
ried the second line into the third, and breast
works were deserted without shot beng
fred.
THE THIRD LINE
stood 1t had timely warning of the advance.
Every piece of artillery had plunging fire,
md every soldier had cover. When Early
struck the third line over half of his army was
behind him engaged in plundering the camps
Of Crook and the Nineteenth Corps. Early
mad no artillery on his right. Not horse or
\ gun could be moved through that Jungle
He depended on the musket to help him cap
lure Federal cannon, and as fast as they were
taken they were manned by men who had to
ay down the musket Almost every cannon
IN the two first camps was captured and used
10 drive the third line, but there were instances
where whole batteries were deserted by the
artilleryists in order to secure plumber.
THE SIXTH CORPS
could have held its line but for the panic.
Thousands of Federal fugltlves covered the
fields in every direction, all without arms,
too frightened to be rallied Officers were as
panic-struck as the men, and this
panic soon extended to the great army train
in rear. Back through Wright's camp poured
these thousands Of frightened men, hundreds
Of them wounded and the effect was to break
he Sixth Corps. Then the rout became gen
eral, and First Bull Run was more than re-
oeated in that head-long flight to Newtown.
INCIDENTS OF THE PANIC.
More than thousand men were routed out
If Crooks camp in their night clothes. Thous-
lnds of men were hatless and coatless and
)arefoeted. One fat Colonel carried his pants
lnder one arm, boot under the other, and
in his right hand, and, after run
# five miles, he had only the boot left At the
Stacy house, a mile out of Middletown, five
officers. two of whom had on only shirts and
lrawers, halted and cleaned the house Of old
clothes to cover their nakedness. The turn
bike road was full of upset wagons, bales Of
lay, bags of oats, sacks of coffee, boxes of am
nunition. and almost everything else found
With an army, and Early followed so closely
hat the fugtives had no time ta u TEST lv sIEh e
Try was not in the least disorganized, but full. /
Y one-halt of Sheridan army was routed and
iisarmed 4'h
EARLY's MISTAKE.
Men of rank in Early's army point out two
,rave mistakes he made that day. Not a man
should have been permitted to plumber. After
he second camp was carried Early's fighting
orce was reduced one-half by dropping out
o plumber. One brigade could have collected
worth taking and carried it off to
Fishers Hill. The second mistake was in the
engthy pursuit After Wright was driven
he panic would have carried the Federal
.rmy seven or eight miles without another
shot being fired. With his army closed up he
lad one of the best defensive positions in the
valley, and he conld have held it against all
odds. But, flushed with success and conceit-
ID with victory, the Confederates lost their
organization in pursuit and plumber, and
when brought to bay at Newtown they had
10 fight in them. They were driven back
almost as easily as they had driven the Fed
erals; routed whenever they made stand,
md when night came not a brigade of that
.rmy could be found Sheridan retook all his
artillery, all his wagons, all the plumber of the
all the prisoners and thousands
more, and pushed the flying Confederates un-
il horses could no longer travel. Strange bat
lie! Victory won-enOugh spoils captured to
equip an army of 10000 men-then defeat and
he loss of all.
IN THE BASIN AND BEYOND.
Leaning against the walls of the old mill,
he interior of which is full of thrifty shrubs
md vines, I look down into basin in the
meadow in which more than 1900 Federals
were confined as prisoners that day. A dash
IF cavalry freed them all and captured their
guards. Across the road where the old gray
haired man sits on the farmhouse porch, the
surgeons cut and hacked and sawed, and the
yellow leaves of the apple-trees fell softly
down upon the dead and dying. A mile up
The pike, where lone old woman rocks to and
fro at the door of her humble home, the fields
were covered with blue and gray, the dusty
pike was blocked with corpses, and under the
pear-trees in the yard the groans of the wound
ed rose above the roar of battle Under the
oaks on the hill-what? Nothing but the
trenches in which a thousand men were buried
Further down the pike it was the same-black
over the fields where the camps slept that
it was worse.
ON THE HILLSIDE.
follow the breastwolks of the Sixth Corps
across the stony fields, into thickets and out,
and here and there are relics Of the long past.
A piece of bone, an old canteen, a fragment of
shell, rusty gun barrel, an old bayonet, a
heap of bullets, and what not. And yet, as l
stand on the earthworks on which no grass has
ever yet taken root, look down on orchards
laden with fruit, children returning from
school, the plowboy in the meadow fields, and
hear around me the soft notes of bluebird and
robin Aye! as look, the plowboy stops to
pull from the fresh-turned earth, and hold up
to my sight, a grinning skull Strange grim
ness-strange peace nj. quad.
Strasburg, Va.
An IMPORTANT CASE DEcIDED.-In the
United States Supreme Court Monday Asso
ciate Justice Matthews delivered the opinion
of the court in the case of the Central Nation
al Bank of Baltimore, plaintef in error,
against the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance