The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-01-07

AZ the eleventh f7ouFs
a SMALL boy hanging about in
front of the Logan House in
"a Winchester watched for Gen
.eral Sheridan to make his ap-
pearance and then asked:
please tell me, general, for my
grandma, where you are goingP'
with his mind full Of the trouble
caused by Confederate spies and IL
formers, Sheridan replied gruf1y:
'HTeH her that 1 am going to Rich
mond or Petersburg or heaven or hell
The boy ran away, but came back
half an hour later and called out from
the sidewalk:
General Sheridan, my grandma says
you can't 60 to Richmond because Gen
seFaI Lee is there. and you can't go to
Petersburg because General -Beaure
gard is there, and you can't go to heaYs
en- because General "Stonewall" Jack
son is there!'
1t was the evening of Oct.+18. Sheri-
dan, on his way back from Washington
via Martdnsburg to rejoim the Federal
army at Cedar Greek had arrived in
Winchester late that afternoon
The couF1ers who came up from the
front to meet the general reported ev-
erythtng quiet at Cedar Greek and the
adjacent Fishers Hill and, further
more, that General Haver1l1's brigade
of the Nineteenth corps was to make a
reconnaissance on the right early next
morning. This was sufficiently reas-
surfing The commander decided to
take the nights rest in Winchester and
proceed to the front next morning.
When he was called at a. m, faint
sounds of irregular firing were heard
doubtless the result of General Haver-
HIS reconnaissance. The firing did
not cease, however, and after awhile
1t was more distinctly heard, aug
mented by eannonading. Breakfast
was ordered, and Sher1dan's bold
black, Rienzi, together with the horses
of the staff officers and couriers, stood
paving and champing before the door
1t was nearly o'clock when the gen
eraI got away. Then he hit the pike
at a fairly good clip, not liking the
sounds of sudden battle ahead, and
somewhat nettled at the. jeers and
taunts of women in the doorways
along the route. 1t was plain they had
heard something by grapevine tele-
2 graph" What they heard soon be-
came apparent as the horsemen went
over the rise at Mill creek, a couple of
miles south of the town.
There, as far as the eye could reach
up the long line of the valley pike,
stretched and struggled the appalling
spectacle of an army in broken re-
treat Baggage wagons, wounded men,
riderless horses and soldiers without
guns told all too plainly a tale of panic
and rout.
Where are you going?'' shouted
Sheridan You should be facing the
other way What has happened?"
They told him the army had been
surprised, defeated and all broken up
and was in full retreat.
Sheridan did not rip about, swear
and threaten-as yet. He was the
calmest man of his party as he rode
forward, slowly at first, thinking what
he should do The signal message,
I'VE will crush Sheridan's army re-
CURED to his mind with stunning
force But would the army suffer it
self to be crushed, even in his tempo
Tary absence? He could not and would
not believe it The straggIers, being
uation as awful"
THAT means nothing from a pack of
towards who were the first to run
away from the battlefield" declared
Sheridan. "ComeI Wen soon find out
for ourselves This retreat would new
er have happened if 1 had been here,
What 1 want to find out now is where