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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[274] of houses; ordnance exploded; cavalry rode down stragglers; bands of plunderers hastily entered houses, bayonetted their occupants, and in one wild scene of unrestrained disorder, fury, and cowardice, Banks' army passed out of the ancient town, where the enemy had so long ruled ill the insolence cf power.

Banks' army had stood but a few moments before Winchester, and had broken under a distant fire of artillery. He had evidently no disposition to test the substance and strength of the foe by actual collision, and was only desirous to place the Potomac between himself and the danger of action. Never was there such a shameful retreat; such a deliberate abandonment by a commander of everything but the desire for safety. In forty-eight hours after he had got the first news of the attack on Front Royal, Banks was on the shore of the Potomac, having performed thirty-five miles of the distance on the last day of the retreat.

The fruits of Jackson's two days operations were immense. Banks had escaped with the loss of all the material and paraphernalia that constitute an army. He had abandoned at Winchester all his commissary and ordnance stores. He had resigned that town and Front Royal to the undisputed possession of the Confederates. He had left in their hands four thousand prisoners, and stores amounting to millions of dollars. It was a rapid stroke and a splendid success which Jackson had made. Tidings of his victory were communicated to the Confederate army around Richmond in general orders. “The Federal army,” wrote Gen. Johnston, “has been dispersed and ignominiously driven from the Valley of the Shenandoah, and those who have freed the loyal citizens of that district by their patriotic valour, have again earned, as they will receive, the thanks of a grateful country. In making this glorious announcement, on the eve of the memorable struggle about to ensue, the Commanding General does not deem it necessary to invoke the troops of this army to emulate the deeds of their noble comrades in the Valley.” ¹

In falling back from Winchester, Gen. Jackson had to run the danger of being enveloped by the converging columns of Fremont and Shields. He succeeded ( “through the blessing of an ever kind Providence” ) in reaching Strasburg, before the two Federal armies could effect their contemplated junction in his rear. On the 5th of June he reached Harrisonburg, and, passing beyond that town, turned towards the east in the direction of Port Republic.

On the movement from Harrisonburg occurred the melancholy incident