Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2.

[138] fierce charges of Ashby's cavalry, and withstood the storm of bullets from a long line of infantry on Bolivar Heights, until joined, at eleven o'clock, by Lieutenant Martin, with one rifled cannon, with which he had crossed the Potomac Ferry under a galling fire of riflemen on Loudon Heights. These two companies of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania turned the Confederate left near the Potomac, and gained a portion of the Heights. At the same time, Martin opened a telling fire on the Confederate cannon in front, and Tompkins silenced two guns on Loudon Heights. The main body moved forward at this crisis, charged the foe, and in a few minutes were in possession of Bolivar Heights from river to river. It was now half-past 1 o'clock in the afternoon. The Confederates fled, and were driven up the valley in the direction of Halltown. They did not cease their flight until they reached Charlestown, on the line of the railway between Harper's Ferry and Winchester, a distance of six miles.

Major Tyndale arrived from Point of Rocks with five companies of Geary's regiment immediately after the capture of the Heights. He brought with him the standard of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania. It was immediately unfurled, “and under its folds,” wrote the victor, “we directed the fire of our artillery against the batteries and forces on Loudon Heights, and soon succeeded in silencing every gun and driving away every rebel that could be seen. The victory was now complete.” ¹ Geary's troops rested until evening, when, there being no military necessity for holding Bolivar Heights at that time, he crossed the Ferry with his whole command and resumed his position in Maryland. His loss was four killed, seven wounded, and two taken prisoners. The loss fell chiefly on the Wisconsin troops.² The loss of the Confederates is unknown.

Still more important movements were made on the line of the Potomac River as the beautiful month of October was passing away. At that time Major-General Banks was in command of troops holding the Maryland side of the river from Darnestown to Williamsport. Brigadier-General Charles P. Stone (who had been assigned to the command of a special corps of observation on the Tight flank of the Army of the Potomac), with a considerable body of troops, then had his Headquarters at Poolesville, a short distance from Conrad's and Edwards's Ferries, on the Potomac River. These ferries were not far from Leesburg, the capital of Loudon County, Virginia, where it was reported that the Confederate left, under General N. G. Evans, was strong in numbers. The troops under Stone confronted this left wing, and commanded the approaches to Leesburg, a village at the terminus of the Alexandria, Loudon, and Hampshire railway, and which was the key to the upper interior communication with the Valley of the Shenandoah. Between the two ferries just named (which were four or five miles apart) was Harrison's Island, three miles in length and very narrow and nearly equally dividing the river.