Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1881-12-10

my way and forces me into the bab-
ling brook the light is stronger, but
SO is the feeling of loneliness. If it
was midnight / would not dare to
move a foot, and yet thousands of
men felt their way over these rocks
and twisted among these pines
when they could touch the man in
front and still not see him. One
single lantern would have betrayed
them to Sheridan. One single yell
of alright on that still night would
have been followed by disaster.
SOFTLY, SOFTLY !"
So whispered the rebel officers as
the line dragged themselves over the
rocks, through the pines and across
the creek. Men fell over banks ten
feet high, or slipped from the rocks
and brought up far below, but not a
gun was discharged, not a curse ut
tered above a whisper. Here are
grape vines cut in two and pulled
aside to let men pass. Here are
dead pines uprooted as ten thousand
hands grasped them as a support to
step up the steep bank. AS l mount
a huge boulder and peer to the right
and left to discover the way, an
evil-looking snake rises up among
the dead branches, utters a hiss of
anger at being disturbed, and slow
ly wriggles away in the direction Of
the noisy creek. Bruised by the
rocks and wounded by the limbs and
midnight darkness enshrouding one
and all, the men of Early toiled on.
A STRANGE NIGHT
it must have been to them. 1t took
me six hours of the hardest
work, each step made by daylight,
to traverse the route they passed
over in eight or nine hours by night.
When at last they emerged from the
pine jungles and debouched into the
valley, not one man from all the
thousands had been left behind. 1t
was a march of spectres across the
valley. Half a mile away were Sher-
idan's pickets. The neighing of
battery horses was waited down the
valley to the ears of the men in gray
as they extended their lines across
the Federal flank. Camp-fires could
be seen on the hillsides, and once a
whole brigade dropped to the earth
and hardly breathed as a lone horse
came galloping over the stony field
to find companionship. On, on, on,
and by and by that gray line halted
to wait for daylight. 1t was fairly
on the left of Sheridan's first line of
camps, and within musket-shot of
10000 sleeping men, whose first
awaking was to be from the crash
of musketry and the fierce yells of
assault.
THE CENTRE AND LEFT.
This was Early's right. His left
took across the fields above Stras-
burg-his center passed through the
town on the pike. Daybreak was to
be the signal for a general attack,
While the men who crept through
the Jungle to attack the Federal left
the centre and right were to be at
tackled in front. All the artillery
advanced by the pike, followed in
part by the cavalry. They had less
than three miles to go, and it was a
weary night as they stood massed
on the pike in and beyond the town,
After midnight the line moved spas
motically, sometimes advancing one
hundred yards and again halting fol-
half an hour.
THE RUMBLE OF CANNoNS
over the hard and finty pike would
have been heard by the Federal pick.
cts but for the precautions taken.
The horses moved only at the slow
est walk and on the long hill beyond
the first Stickley farm each wheel
of cannon and caisson was seized by
an infantryman, who acted as break
men. A hundred rods from the foot
of the hill the pike bends away to
the left, and is presently spanned by
a bridge. Along the creek spanned
by this bridge and even beyond it,
were federal videttes and yet three
or four complete batteries came up