FISHER HILL.
March up the valley--Strasburgh--The army confronting Fisher
Hill--The flank movement--Flight of Early--The
pursuit--Guerrilla warfare--Southern refugees--Starting for
Washington--Return to Cedar creek.
We started very early in the morning in pursuit of Early's defeated
army, which it was supposed would halt at the strong position at
Strasburgh. On the battle-field which we left, the lifeless bodies of
many of our men were awaiting the office of the burial parties. They
lay, not in thick clusters, but here and there over a great extent of
ground, showing that they had fallen while the lines were in motion; but
in places, six or eight mangled bodies would lie in close proximity,
showing the fatal effects of some well directed shell.
In Winchester were nearly five thousand prisoners, and more were
constantly coming in, and hundreds of rebel wounded were being cared for
by sympathizing friends and confederate surgeons.
We reached the vicinity of Strasburgh, the Sixth corps in advance, at
three o'clock on the 20th, and, as we expected, found the rebels
awaiting us in a position, which the citizens of the valley assured us
could be held by Early's army against one hundred thousand men. The
position was indeed a formidable one, but nothing daunted our spirited
leader set about devising a way of taking it.
At Strasburgh the two chains of mountains, the Blue Ridge and the
Alleghanies, approach each other, making the valley quite narrow. As if
to interpose an impassable barrier to the advance of an army, a
mountain, Fisher Hill, stretches across from the Blue Ridge to the
branch of the Alleghanies called the North Mountains. At the foot of
this mountain, on the north, is the village of Strasburgh, and still
north of Strasburgh Cedar creek runs almost directly across the valley.
We took possession of the northern part of the village of Strasburgh,
the Union pickets occupying one part of the town, and the rebels the
other. The night passed with little of interest.
On the morning of the 21st squads of rebel prisoners were coming in to
army head-quarters, and as brigade after brigade of cavalry passed, each
carrying a large number of confederate flags at the head of the column,
it looked as though our cavalry had adopted the confederate banner and
had paraded in gala day splendor.
The mists and fogs melted away, and we discovered that our enemy, lately
routed and disorganized, now with confidence confronted us and awaited
our advance. During the night the mountain had been the scene of busy
labors, and now, breastworks of earth and stones, and lines of
troublesome abattis, rendered the position, so strong by nature,
apparently too formidable for any army to attempt to force. But,
notwithstanding the brilliant success at Winchester, neither the rebel
army nor our own fully appreciated the fertile resources of our gallant
leader. Starting with his staff early in the day, he rode from one end
of the picket line to the other, carefully noting the character of the
ground.
To attempt to storm those heights, now strengthened with earthworks and
bristling with cannon, would be presumptuous; but away on the right
seemed the vulnerable point of the enemy's line. Returning to his
quarters, Sheridan determined at once upon his plan of attack. The
Nineteenth corps was thrown farther to the left, and our Sixth corps
occupied the position in the center, facing now to the south. Crook's
corps was thrown well to the right, where the North Mountain formed a
precipitous wall for the valley. All day the sharp crack of the
skirmishers' rifles, and the ring of the pioneers' axes were heard as
the two lines faced each other, each watching the movements of the
other, and each actively engaged in felling trees from which breastworks
were made.
During the night Crook's corps and our Third division were toiling along
the side of the mountain unseen and unexpected by the rebels. All night
and the following morning these two commands labored to drag artillery
along the precipitous mountain side, executing every movement in silence
and with utmost secrecy. The Nineteenth corps and the First and Second
divisions of the Sixth were all this time keeping up a show of
determination to attack in front.
At length, just as the sun was sinking behind the mountain barrier, a
wild shout was heard from the hillside where Crook's corps and our Third
division were rushing down from the cover of the forest, upon the flank
and rear of the astonished confederates. The shout was taken up by the
troops in front, and at the same time the two remaining divisions of the
Sixth corps and the Nineteenth corps advanced against the rebel front.
Completely surprised by the movement on the flank, the rear of the rebel
army was quickly thrown into a panic. Still resistance was kept up along
the front. Steadily the troops of Wright and Emory pressed forward, the
rebel gunners firing their shells over the heads of our men, our line
advancing over ditches and fences, over fallen trees and stone walls,
each man his own commander and each pressing eagerly forward. In the
foremost line rode Phil Sheridan, the men cheering him lustily as they
pressed hastily forward. "Let us take the guns," shouted the men; and
forward at double-quick they rushed. The panic in the rear had by this
time reached the front, and the whole rebel army was rushing in
unutterable confusion and rout, up the valley. They left with us sixteen
guns, of which Bidwell's brigade captured six. We gathered up the
prisoners, and they numbered eleven hundred.[8] The hill was strewed
with small arms, and cannon and caissons met our view wherever we
passed.
[8] The prisoners taken thus far, at Winchester and Fisher Hill,
including the wounded, numbered more than seven thousand. The
absurdity and falsity of Early's statement, that his effective
force at Winchester amounted to only eight thousand five hundred
men, is readily seen. The rebel surgeons at Mount Jackson, and
the citizens, while claiming that we outnumbered Early's forces,
acknowledged that he retreated from Winchester with more than
twenty thousand men.
We had lost, as the cost of this brilliant victory, less than forty men
in the army; and the confederate loss in killed and wounded was scarcely
greater.
We followed the routed army through Mount Jackson, where were large
hospitals, occupied by wounded confederates, and attended by confederate
surgeons; then pressed on to New Market, keeping up a running fight with
the rear-guard of the rebel army.
On the 25th we reached Harrisonburgh, a village more than sixty miles
above Winchester.
Our march had been a grand triumphal pursuit of a routed enemy. Never
had we marched with such light hearts; and, though each day had found us
pursuing rapidly from dawn till dark, the men seemed to endure the
fatigue with wonderful patience. Our column, as it swept up the valley,
was a spectacle of rare beauty. Never had we, in all our campaigns, seen
anything to compare with the appearance of this victorious little army.
The smooth, wide turnpike was occupied by the artillery, ambulances and
baggage wagons moving in double file. The infantry marched in several
parallel columns on either side of the pike, and a line of cavalry,
followed by a skirmish line of infantry, led the way. Cavalry, too, hung
on either flank, and scouted the country. It was intensely exciting to
watch the steady progress of the advancing skirmishers. Now, as they
reached the base of some sloping eminence, the rebel skirmishers would
confront them; then, as they advanced, never halting nor slackening
their pace, the confederates would surrender the ground, to appear in
our front on the next commanding ground. So we marched up the valley--a
grand excursion--skirmishing only enough to maintain a constant state of
pleasant excitement.
At Harrisonburgh we remained until the 29th, then marched farther up the
valley to Mount Crawford, while the cavalry penetrated as far as
Staunton. The rebel army was broken up and demoralized, yet considerable
force was in the vicinity of Lynchburgh, and Early devoted himself to
reorganizing it.
Guerrilla warfare was a favorite resort of the rebels in the Shenandoah
Valley, and many of our men were murdered in cold blood by the cowardly
villains who lurked about our camps by day as harmless farmers, and
murdered our men at night dressed in confederate uniform. Among those
who lost their lives by this cowardly species of warfare, were Surgeon
Ochenslayer, Medical Inspector of our army; Colonel Tolles, Chief
Quartermaster, and Captain Meigs, son of the Quartermaster-General, U.
S. A.
We fell back from Mount Crawford to Harrisonburgh, burning barns, mills
and granaries, driving before us cattle and sheep, and bringing white
and black refugees without number. From Harrisonburgh we again fell
back, retracing our steps through New Market, Mount Jackson and
Woodstock, and encamped on the evening of the 8th of October on the
north bank of Cedar creek. Each day as we marched, dark columns of smoke
rose from numberless conflagrations in our rear and on either flank,
where the cavalry was at work carrying out the edict of destruction of
the valley. A certain number of mills with the grain contained, a
specified number of wheat-stacks and granaries, and cattle and sheep
sufficient for the wants of the people of the valley were saved; all
other mills, barns, stacks and granaries were burned, and all other
cattle and sheep driven away. Seventy mills, with the flour and grain,
and over two thousand barns filled with wheat, hay and farming
implements were thus committed to the flames, and seven thousand cattle
and sheep were either driven off or killed and issued to the men. This
destruction, cruel as it seemed, was fully justified as a matter of
military necessity. For so long as a rebel army could subsist in the
valley, so long a large force must remain to guard the frontier of
Maryland.
Hundreds of refugees accompanied us from Staunton, Mount Crawford and
Harrisonburgh: Unionists who had endured persecution until it was no
longer endurable, and who now left houses and farms to find relief in
the north from their sufferings for loyalty; and negroes who sought
freedom from their ancient bondage.
Among the latter class was a group which had followed the cavalry from
Staunton, and which now took a place in our Sixth corps hospital train,
which attracted universal attention. The party rode in one of the huge
Virginia wagons, so familiar to those who have spent much time in those
parts, and consisted of an aged colored woman, probably more than ninety
years old, one or two younger women, a black man of fifty, who was a
cripple, a boy of twelve or fifteen years, and a very large number of
small children, varying in hue from jet black to dark brunette. The load
was drawn by four broken down, spavined animals, the crippled man riding
one of the horses of the rear span, the boy one of the leaders. The
soldiers manifested great interest in this curious load of refugees, and
freely divided with them their hard tack and coffee. The writer of these
pages, reining his horse to the side of the vehicle, addressed the aged
negress, "Well, aunty, are all those your children?" "Lor, no massa,
dey's only eighteen ob 'em." Doubtless she designed to say that there
were only eighteen of the children, not that "only eighteen" were her
own.
As our army neared Fisher Hill the cavalry of the enemy became annoying
to our rear-guard. General Sheridan said to General Torbert, that the
annoyance must be stopped at once. Accordingly Custer and his horsemen
lay in wait for the rebel cavalry, attacked them, drove them away beyond
Mount Jackson, and took eleven pieces of artillery and three hundred
prisoners from them. They gave us no more trouble at that time.
Monday, October 10th, the Sixth corps, leaving the Eighth and Nineteenth
guarding the line of Cedar creek, turned toward the left and proceeded
to Front Royal. The Seventy-seventh was made provost guard of the town,
and the brigades were stationed along the mountain passes. Here, in the
enjoyment of lovely weather, pleasant associations, a bountiful supply
of lamb and honey, and untold quantities of grapes of delicious flavor,
the corps remained several days, and the men even flattered themselves
that in the enjoyment of these luxuries they were to pass the winter.
But, as usual with bright anticipations, these were suddenly dispelled
by the order to march, on the morning of the 13th, toward Ashby's Gap.
[Illustration: "GOING NORF."]
From the direction of our march it was evident that we were on the road
to Washington, and rumor had it that we were to be shipped at once for
Petersburgh. We reached the bank of the Shenandoah, where we expected to
cross to the gap; the corps was massed by the river side, and the men
looked dismally into the cold, dark waters, and shivered at the thought
of wading through the stream whose waters would reach nearly to their
necks. But while we waited to get ready for crossing, a courier came to
General Wright with a message from Sheridan to return to his army in
haste. We heard that Longstreet's corps had reinforced Early, and that
an attack had been made, but with no important result. We turned about,
encamped for the night among the hills, started again at three o'clock
in the morning, and joined the army again on Cedar creek, in the
afternoon of the 14th, where we remained in the enjoyment of undisturbed
quiet for several days.