[216]
twelve miles northeast of Strasburg.
General Early was notified, and also viewed the position.
Returning to camp, he assembled his major-generals, and a council of war determined upon a daylight attack—Gordon in command of the second corps, composed of Evans', Ramseur's and Pegram's divisions.
He was to turn the enemy's left at Buckton, and Kershaw, with Wharton, was to rush the front.
These movements were to be made as the first ray of the rising sun pierced the sky. Early and staff were awaiting on the hills overlooking the position.
It was a most trying moment, and General Early fully appreciated it, and turning to his chief of staff, Colonel Moore, said: ‘Colonel, this is the most trying experience of my life; if I could only pray like Stonewall Jackson, what a comfort it would be.’
He had hardly uttered the words when Gordon fired his first gun, which was immediately followed by the entire army, and in a short time the entire force was over the breastworks of the enemy, surprised and routed, in a retreat only equalled by that of Bull Run.
This text is part of:
Richmond, VA. 1906.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.