Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson

[388] Shields and Fremont would attempt their junction. General Winder was ordered to recall the 2nd regiment from Loudon heights, and with the cavalry, to protect the rear of the army. On arriving at Winchester, General Jackson learned that the approach of the enemy to Strasbourg was so imminent, that it was essential his rear should reach that place by mid-day of the 31st, in order to avoid separation from the main body, and capture. He, therefore, sent back orders to the Stonewall Brigade, not to pause in its march on the 30th, until it passed Winchester. It travelled, in fact, from Hall-town, to the neighborhood of Newtown, a distance of thirty-five miles: and the 2nd Virginia regiment, which had its steps to retrace from the heights beyond the Shenandoah, accomplished a march of more than forty miles, without rations. This astonishing effort was made also over muddy roads, and amidst continual showers! The next morning the rear-guard arose from their wet bivouac, stiff and sore of limb, and completed the march to Strasbourg in the forenoon. When they arrived there, they found the army halted and awaiting them; while General Ewell, with his division, facing toward the west, was sternly confronting Fremont, and offering him gage of battle. The latter had arrived in the neighborhood of Strasbourg, by way of Wardensville, and issued from the gap of the great north mountain, as though to attack the retreating army. But when it stood thus at bay, he prudently withdrew, after a desultory skirmish, into the gorge from which he had issued. General Jackson now resumed a deliberate retreat, with his rear covered by his cavalry; seeking some position in the interior, where he could confront his foes without danger to his flanks.

During the week which embraced these brilliant events, the Quartermasters' and Ordnance departments of the army were laboriously engaged in collecting and removing the captured