A. J. Bennett, private , First Massachusetts Light Battery, The story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery , attached to the Sixth Army Corps : glance at events in the armies of the Potomac and Shenandoah, from the summer of 1861 to the autumn of 1864.

Sheridan, deeming the position on Cedar Creek untenable, resolved to retire to the Clifton-Berryville position which we had occupied on the 10th. Besides, reinforcements were on their way through Snicker's Gap to join us. The subsequent glorious successes of the Federal Army of the Shenandoah justified this last retrograde movement. The enemy perceiving from Three Top that Sheridan had retired, pursued. A sharp engagement occurred on the 21st. Our cavalry pickets on the Opequon having been driven in, the divisions of Rodes and Ramseur fell upon the Sixth Corps, gaining, however, no permanent advantage, while Anderson, who had later moved from Winchester, was repulsed by Merritt and Wilson..

The next day the army was established at Halltown, with one flank on the Shenandoah and the other upon the Potomac, the best defensive position in the valley. Early now spent several days in demonstrating against the Federal position, and then moved off to the northwest, as if designing to cross the Potomac. Had he commenced such operation, an opportunity to strike his divided forces would have been eagerly embraced by Sheridan. The enemy, however remained on the south side of the river, and posted his forces west of the Opequon. On the 26th and 27th he had resumed his old position occupied by him prior to his retirement to Strasburg on the 11th and 12th; i. e. at Bunker Hill and Stephenson, with his cavalry on either flank. This was the signal for us to move forward to re-occupy the position which we left on the 11th to reach the crossings of the Opequon.

Marching early on the 28th we made a gradual advance by easy stages, and with commendable caution, the enemy's designs yet unknown, while the character of the face of the country readily betrayed our own. We gained the old line on the 3d of September, within a week after our departure from Halltown; i. e. the Sixth Corps was at Clifton on the right of the line, the Eighth at Berryville on the left, and the Nineteenth between them.

The time thenceforth until the battle of the 19th of September, was employed by Gen. Sheridan in reorganizing his army and in preparing for a campaign that was practically to end the war in northern Virginia.

A remarkable coincidence, illustrating that the thoughts of great minds flow in the same channels, here looms up to the