Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

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[190] thirty-five hundred strong, while two other brigades were in supporting distance. A rocket, shot up by the enemy, gave to the Confederates the first intimation of their presence. To give his wagon-train time to retreat in safety, Gen. Stuart prepared for battle. He was exposed to a very severe cannonade from the enemy; and finding his men contending at serious disadvantage with an enemy greatly outnumbering them, and almost concealed in ambush, he, after a desultory engagement, drew off his forces, and fell back two miles. The enemy did not pursue. The Confederate loss in killed and wounded was about two hundred.

The affair of Dranesville was the last conflict of arms of any note that occurred near the Potomac in the first winter of the war. But within this period, we must remark an expedition, conducted by “Stonewall” Jackson, which was a most extraordinary enterprise, and was attended by such hardships and sufferings as made it a story of terrible interest and fearful romance.

In September, Jackson had been made a Major-General, and in the early part of October he was assigned to the command of the Confederate forces in and around Winchester. About this time the famous Col. Turner Ashby, with his own regiment and other cavalry detachments, making a total of some twelve hundred horse, was watching the river-front from Harper's Ferry to Romney. In December the enemy were strongly posted at Romney and Bath southwards; and Banks, with his whole army being north of the Potomac, it was evident that some great movement was in contemplation, which prudence demanded should be watched by a strong force.

A large part of Gen. Loring's command, after a march of two hundred and sixty miles, joined Gen. Jackson at Winchester. He was now at the head of about nine thousand men; and on the first day of January, 1862, with a portion of his force he marched from Winchester.

It was the object of Jackson to surprise the Federals stationed at Bath, otherwise known as Berkeley Springs. Amid the snow, sleet, rain and ice of the most severe days of the winter he commenced his march. He had to travel over fifty miles of the roughest country in the world, and he was obliged to take unfrequented roads to keep his movement secret. Penetrating the mountains on roads winding along their sides, and through their rugged defiles, exposed to sleet and hail in mid-winter, and enduring the bitterest cold, the march was one of almost indescribable suffering and horrour. The men were without tents. The roads were covered with ice two inches thick, and glazed over by the sleet, so that neither man nor horse could keep his feet except by great care. Horses had their knees and muzzles terribly injured and streaming with blood. Occasionally, horsemen, infantry and wagons would slip over an embankment; and men crippled, or filled with bruises and pains, laid down by the wayside