The National tribune., 1894-10-25
HAS MORE TO SAY.

Gen. Powell Does Not See Why Comrade
Webster Should continue to Insinuate
Cowardice.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: Comrade
Webster, 1st N. Y. Indp't battery, seems
| quite persistent in his criticism upon the
conduct of the Army of West Virginia on
the morning of Oct. a9, 1864, in the battle
of Cedar Creek
If Webster will refer to Sheridan's Me-
moirs, Vol 2, pages rs, rs and II, he will
| fail to find such an organization as the
Eighth Corps in the Army of the Shenandoah
Valley, commanded by Gen. Sheridan in
| 1864.
In justification of his insinuations Of cow
ardce OH the part of the Army of West Vir-
ginia in the early morn of Oct. 10, he charge 6
the 18th w. Va. with intimated cowardice
in declining to obey Gen. Sigeps order to
support Carlin's battery in the battle OF
Cloyd's Mountain, in May, 1864. Whilst
the fact is as stated by Corp1 o. l.. Allison
Co. A, 18th W. Va, the 18th w. Va was not
in the battle of Cloyd Mountain then or at
any other time.
He says: Had we the Sixth Corpse been
in the position of the Army of West Vir-
ginia at Cedar Creek, You other fellows
could have finished your sleep; we should
not have waited for the enemy to wake us
up in our tents" Such an allusion, made 30
years after the event-alter many of the
important actors in that memorable sur
prise have passed away-refecting upon the
bravery and fidelity of worthy soldiers, can
not be too severely denounced.
AS stated by Comrade Turner to Webster,
there was a screw loose somewhere that per-
milted the surprise. Let US examine the
disposition of the entire force and picket
line on Oct Is confronting Cedar Creek and
its approaches, when Gen. Sheridan left the
command en- route for Washington, leaving
Gen. Wright in command, to ascertain what
change had been made in said disposition
by the ordering of the First Cavalry Division
from the left of the main infantry forces
over to the right of the main army, to REIN
force the Third Cavalry Division, which
affected seriously the picket-line between
Buckton Ford and the left of the Army OF
West Virginia.
A discovery will he made that the picket
line along the Shenandoah River, between
the left of Gen. Crooks line and Buckton
Ford had been Withdrawn by the removal
of the First Cavalry Division as above indi-
Gated, and that for some inexplicable cause
had not been replaced, leaving gap in the
picket-line between Buckton Ford and the
left of the Army of West Virginia, making
it possible for the enemy to gain admittance
las he did within the lines of the Union
camp without disturbing the picket-line of
the Army of West Virginia.
And, as Gen. Sheridan says in his Me-
moirs, Vol. 2, page SO, "The surprise might
have befallen me as well as the General on
whom it did descend; and though it is pos
sble that this could have been precluded
had Poweil's cavalry been closed in, as sug-
gested in my dispatch from Front Royal"
l desire 10 show Comrade Webster that
Crooks command, which suffered the great
est in the surprise, were not the only badly
d-moraized troops at Cedar Creek on the
morning of the 10Th. refer HIM to Sheri-
dams Memoirs, Vol. %, page So: "After
Crooks troops had Been driven from their
camps, Gen. Wright endeavored to form a
line with the Sixth Corps to hold the Valley
pike to the left of the Nineteenth Corps
but falling in this, he ordered the with
drawal of the latter troops"
There was screw loose, but it was not
loosened by Gen. Crook or the Army Of
West Virginia..-W. II. POWELL, Brigadier-
General, commanding Second Cavalry Di-
vision, Army Of West virg ina, Shenandoah
Valley, Va, 1864.