[191] to die, or staggered on in the terrible march. Many were bootless, hatless, and ragged. They were not allowed to kindle fires, being within a few miles of the enemy's posts; and their most comfortable sleep was under stick arbours packed with snow. Amid the sharp distresses of this march the command struggled on with patient courage, and almost superhuman spirit. On arriving at Bath, they found the Federals had retreated to the Potomac, and had waded the river on one of the coldest days of winter. Having rested two or three days in Bath, Jackson made daily demonstrations at the river to induce the belief that his command was the advance of a large force about to cross into Maryland. The demonstration succeeded even beyond his expectations. The Federal troops in and around Romney amounted to eleven thousand men, under command of Gen. Shields. This officer felt so certain that Jackson was bent on crossing the Potomac, that, though forty miles above, he transferred his whole command to the north bank to dispute the supposed passage. As soon as Jackson was informed of this, he marched up the south bank to Romney, surprised and captured many of the enemy, and destroyed what he could not carry away of Shields' immense stores, amounting to some half a million of dollars. Leaving a small force in Romney, Jackson returned with his army to Winchester. The success of his expedition was complete; but it had been terribly purchased, for hundreds of his brave men had sunk under the exposure of the march, or were long on the sick-list from its effects. With this movement closed the campaign of the winter in Virginia. The armies of Johnston and Beauregard, at Centreville and Manassas, of Huger, at Norfolk, of Magruder on the Peninsula, of Jackson at Winchester, and the bodies of troops from Evansport to Acquia on the Potomac, in the Alleghany Mountains and around Richmond, rested for a season in their winter quarters; and fields of Virginia soon to run red with blood, were now covered with mantles of snow and ice.
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[191] to die, or staggered on in the terrible march. Many were bootless, hatless, and ragged. They were not allowed to kindle fires, being within a few miles of the enemy's posts; and their most comfortable sleep was under stick arbours packed with snow. Amid the sharp distresses of this march the command struggled on with patient courage, and almost superhuman spirit. On arriving at Bath, they found the Federals had retreated to the Potomac, and had waded the river on one of the coldest days of winter. Having rested two or three days in Bath, Jackson made daily demonstrations at the river to induce the belief that his command was the advance of a large force about to cross into Maryland. The demonstration succeeded even beyond his expectations. The Federal troops in and around Romney amounted to eleven thousand men, under command of Gen. Shields. This officer felt so certain that Jackson was bent on crossing the Potomac, that, though forty miles above, he transferred his whole command to the north bank to dispute the supposed passage. As soon as Jackson was informed of this, he marched up the south bank to Romney, surprised and captured many of the enemy, and destroyed what he could not carry away of Shields' immense stores, amounting to some half a million of dollars. Leaving a small force in Romney, Jackson returned with his army to Winchester. The success of his expedition was complete; but it had been terribly purchased, for hundreds of his brave men had sunk under the exposure of the march, or were long on the sick-list from its effects. With this movement closed the campaign of the winter in Virginia. The armies of Johnston and Beauregard, at Centreville and Manassas, of Huger, at Norfolk, of Magruder on the Peninsula, of Jackson at Winchester, and the bodies of troops from Evansport to Acquia on the Potomac, in the Alleghany Mountains and around Richmond, rested for a season in their winter quarters; and fields of Virginia soon to run red with blood, were now covered with mantles of snow and ice.
1866.
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