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be in a position to be transported to him in case he decided to carry out a movement against the enemy in front of
Petersburg, then under consideration.
Accordingly, on the 15th September
Anderson moved off with
Kershaw's division
en route to
Culpepper.
Early was then in the vicinity of
Winchester, having moved back for convenience of supplies, after the enemy had been driven to the river.
Sheridan was between
Charlestown and
Berryville, with his advance covering the latter place.
The cavalry pickets of the two armies were only a few miles apart.
Battle of Winchester.
The month of August and the fore part of September had been consumed in desultory and apparently uncertain operations.
Notwithstanding his great superiority in force, the enemy appeared to be unwilling to risk a general engagement, the result of which might be to lay open to the
Confederates the States of
Maryland and
Pennsylvania, before another army could be interposed to check them.
But this excessive caution gradually wore off; the aggressive temper of
Sheridan asserted itself against
Grant's timidity; and the latter commander has since declared in an official paper, rather inelegantly, and with that taste for slang which seems to charactertize the military literature of the
North: “
Gen. Sheridan expressed such confidence of success, that I saw there were but two words of instruction necessary-‘
Go in.’
”
But there appear to have been especial reasons for
Sheridan's confidence.
The effective strength of
Gen. Early, reduced by the return of
Kershaw's division to the
Petersburg lines, was about eighty-five hundred muskets, three battalions of artillery and less than three thousand cavalry.
The latter were mostly armed with Enfield rifles, without pistols or sabres, and were but a poor match for the brilliant cavalry of the enemy, whose arms and equipments were complete.
The day after
Kershaw's departure,
Early disposed his army as follows:
Ramseur's division of infantry (a very small one, some fifteen hundred muskets),
Lee's division of cavalry, under
Wickham (
Gen. Fitzhugh Lee having been placed in command of all the cavalry), were at
Winchester.
Wharton's division of infantry (a small one) and
Lomax's cavalry were about Stephenson's Depot, some five miles from
Winchester on the railroad.
Rodes' and
Gordon's divisions, in charge of
Gen. Early himself, were marched to
Martinsburg, for the purpose of breaking up again the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, reported to have been repaired since the
Confederates had last visited it.
Martinsburg is about twenty-two miles from
Winchester.
From the situation of the two armies it will be seen
