The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-11-03
Sixteen Years After.
I'M. Quad In the Detroit Free Press


$50 mr.
So said Grant to Sheridan, as he looked
over the situation in the Shenandoah Valley
in September, 1868.
| ride up the long street of Winchester
Town on this September day-ous past the
fair grounds on the Martinsburg road, and
when draw reign at the BEDFORD farm, am
on the extreme right of Sheridan and the ex-
IRENE left of Early as they faced each other
on that hazy morning of September 10. Up
this road came the blue cavalry as it mass
ed to strike and crush Early's lett and at the
first rush 1mboden's cavalry was picked up
and hurled down the pike and through the
stony streets OF the quaint old city.
SCENE OF PEACE.
landscape painter would rejoice at the
scene before him as | half face to the right to
FOLLOW the battle lines The ground is made
up of hills and dips and bits OF woodland and
orchards and wheat and cornfields. Here and
there the eye catches husbandman following
the plew-sleek cows and horses grazing in
the rich clover or half asleep under the shade
trees OF beside the stone walls, and it is hard
Ito believe that men once grappled here and
wought to the death.
s-s2 7srs r ri 10 IN pr. assa4a s=s
The little Opequan, wandering lazily in and
out of the Willows shining through the rich
m eadows kissing the roots of pine and syca-
m ore and oak down in the dark woods, sepa-
rated the armies. Sheridan had 10000 of the
best men who ever fought in the Valley-Ear
ly had less than one-third of this force. Who
ever questions this may turn to history. 1t
was SAFE therefore, to order Sheridan to at
tack, and it would have been safe to telegraph
victory even before the first bugle had sound
ed. Early tried to stretch his lines to meet
those of Sheridan, and he got them so thin
that they were broken in dozen places by the
advance of our skirmishers From where his
left chung to the Martinsburg road across to
where his right held the Berryville pike is
ride of over three miles, and when he had to
let go of the former road two divisions of IN
ion cavalry had broad highway to strike his
flank.
DEAD MEN LAY THICK
on this turnpike road that day This farm
yard behind me has its own story of tina!
bloody day. These peach and apple trees
sheltered over 500 wounded men from the
blazing sun, and the old log house was filled
to overlooking. Out behind the house the sur
geons swept the drying apples from long ia
Bile and used it rs legs and arms were ampu-
tated. Groan and shrek and prayer found
strange echo in the crack of carbne, the hiss of
shell and the wild whistle Of grape and CAMS
ter. look up and see where limbs of trees
were crushed and severed, where grapeshot
found lodgment in log and roof-where bullets
struck with angry thud and fell among the
pinks and roses, to be picked up nineteen
years after. Shell screamed over the great
stone chimney-the heap of bloody arms and
legs grew larger-men shrieked and gasped
and clutched the tulips and lilies in the last
moments of life, and this was only the ex-
IRENE r1ght-only loosening Earlys weak
grasp on the Martinsburg road In the matted
grass around the bee-hives, stumble over
grim fragment of a shell halt-buried in the
roadside ditch is solid shot. In the plowed
field across the road hundred bullets could
be picked up in ten minutes search. Early let
go his hold, but he left scars which fifth of
century has not wiped out.
ITO WOODS MILL"
So reads the guide board at the next corner,
and | turn to the right and gallop down a red
clay road which will strike the Berryville pike
nearly four miles away. This leads straight
across Early's front of that day. Oak and
sycamore bear marks wherever | find them,
but the sweet-smelling pines have thrown out
new bark and mercifully hidden the scars of
war from the new generation. Here and there
are the backened ruins ola farm house or barn.
and farmer stops from his wall building at the
road side and says
Fright through this yere was the bloodiest
part of that fight Early chung to these yere
woods and hills and rivines and afore tltey got
him out there was a dead man for every bush
and tree That was where my old house
stood, and picked ninety bullets out OF the
logs without reaching above my head. Pow
ertul skeery times that day for wmin and chill
dren, stranger"
"And for men, too"
Deed it was | was with Early, and my
regiment made stand right over thar on that
crest. You uns was coming IN from over
thar, and the way we klvered the ground with
blue made me sick Some of the Yanks got in
behind my house, and our battery histhed
shell and shot right through it. knew that
my old woman and seven children war down
in the cellar, and as each gun fired l was
ready to drap with fear More'n dozen shot
and Shell struck the house but not one o. the
family got hurt Ride straight down the
road if you want to see whar' hell broke loose
that dayp'
IN ONE GREAT BURIAL BLENT."
The pines whisper softly as ride down the
dark highway. If they could talk they would
tell how the infantry grappled in these raw
ines-how the cannon shook these knolls-
how dying men crawled by the hundreds to
lap the waters OF this tiny creek which hur-
rles down to empty its poor mite into the
treasury OF the Opequan. The pines cannot
talk, but the oaks and sycamores can. Solid
shot have torn great limbs away, bursting
shells have rent and splintered, and bullets
meant for human targets found Judgment in
the hard wood. Every ravine had regiments
Of human tigers creeping swiftly upon their
prey. Every little basin was full of dead
every knoll shook and trembled as desperate
men made desperate stands.
BACK BACK BACK!
| Between the Opequan and the nights above
Winchester Early made a dozen different
stands. While he was greatly outnumbered
| he had the advantage OF being attacked. He
could select his positions as he fell back, and
in every case he had the higher ground. But
he yielded grudgjngly and at each new stand
he fought with increased desperation. Sheri-
dan could push him in front and flank him
right and lett, and rod by rod he was forced
back. When at last, after hours of desperate
| fighting, he made his last stand to cover Win
chester, he had lost his hold on the Berryville
pike for eny distance were driven in on his
! center, ana mat center rested on what is now
called the Dinkle farm. This is hill or ridge
facing north and east There are hills to the
north, woods along the pike to the SOUTH and
open ground to the west Federal infantry
were pouring out of the woods and fields to
the lett OF the ridge, infantry was Fastening
down the pike from the south, and Federal
cavalry held Winchester at his back
| dead MANS HILL
No wonder the people of the neighbor-
hood call the ridge Dead Mans Hill. | sit
on the porch of the old farm and see shocks
OF corn where, on that day, dead men lay
TO thick to be counted. Over there VIII ere
The drag is covering fall wheat, more than
50o pounds OF bullets have been picked up
10 the left, where the cows munich the sweet
clover, was forest of fifty acres, cut down
a year or tao after the fight. Out of that
forest charged the Ohioans and New York.
ers, and the nnmberless headstones in the
National Cemetary, half mile away, tel
how they fought. Fury was let loose here
Defeat here meant rout beyond for Early
Under the canopy of smoke guns were taken
ana re-taken, regiments decmated, compa-
MES wiped out. The hill was charged by
regiments, then brigades, then divisions
The dead lay so thick along its crest that
i fD,, ~ l:x