[275] of the death of the famous cavalry commander of the Valley, Turner Ashby, whose name was connected with much of the romance of the war, and whose gentle enthusiastic courage, simple Christian faith, and royal passion for danger, constituted him one of the noblest and most beautiful types of modern chivalry. On the road from Harrisonburg to Port Republic, the 58th Virginia became engaged with the Pennsylvania Bucktails. Col. Johnson came up with the Maryland regiment, and by a dashing charge in flank drove the enemy off with heavy loss. Ashby was on the right of the 58th Virginia, and had just commanded a charge of bayonets upon the enemy, concealed in a piece of woods, when he fell dead not many yards from a fence where a concealed marksman had sped the fatal bullet. Gen. Jackson's tribute to the fallen officer, whose active and daring cavalry had so often co-operated with his arms, was an extraordinary one, considering the habitual measure of this great man's words. He wrote of Ashby: “As a partisan officer I never knew his superiour. His daring was proverbial; his powers of endurance almost incredible; his tone of character heroic, and his sagacity almost intuitive in divining the purposes and movements of the enemy.”
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[275] of the death of the famous cavalry commander of the Valley, Turner Ashby, whose name was connected with much of the romance of the war, and whose gentle enthusiastic courage, simple Christian faith, and royal passion for danger, constituted him one of the noblest and most beautiful types of modern chivalry. On the road from Harrisonburg to Port Republic, the 58th Virginia became engaged with the Pennsylvania Bucktails. Col. Johnson came up with the Maryland regiment, and by a dashing charge in flank drove the enemy off with heavy loss. Ashby was on the right of the 58th Virginia, and had just commanded a charge of bayonets upon the enemy, concealed in a piece of woods, when he fell dead not many yards from a fence where a concealed marksman had sped the fatal bullet. Gen. Jackson's tribute to the fallen officer, whose active and daring cavalry had so often co-operated with his arms, was an extraordinary one, considering the habitual measure of this great man's words. He wrote of Ashby: “As a partisan officer I never knew his superiour. His daring was proverbial; his powers of endurance almost incredible; his tone of character heroic, and his sagacity almost intuitive in divining the purposes and movements of the enemy.”
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