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Col. Shawl, and the 15th Connecticut,
Col. Ely, on another, did most of the fighting that was done on our side; the former acting as a rear-guard; but the business in hand was not a fight, but a race — and very properly so. Four miles from
Winchester, a Rebel division barred the way; and here the fugitives were of course routed, and many of them captured.
Most of those who escaped crossed the
Potomac at
Hancock, and did not stop running till they brought up in
Bedford county, Pennsylvania; the residue headed for
Harper's Ferry, and soon distanced their pursuers.
Milroy says
1 5,000 of his men reported at the
Ferry or at
Bloody Run, Pa., and he hoped that 1,000 more would do so; which hope was of course a delusion.
Lee says
General Rhodes captured 700 prisoners and 5 guns at
Martinsburg, and proceeds to enumerate “more than 4,000 prisoners, 29 guns, 277 wagons, and 400 horses,” as the fruits of “these operations” --probably including in those totals his Martins-burg spoils.
Milroy's great mistake was holding on just one day too long — his communications with
Schenck and
Halleck having already been severed.
Halleck had suggested to
Schenck the propriety of withdrawing him so early as the 11th.
Early is credited by
Lee with the capture of
Winchester.
Ere this, the
Government had taken the alarm, as it well might.
An order
2 from the War Department had constituted of
Pennsylvania two new Military Departments — that of the
Susquehanna (eastern),under
Gen. Couch; that of the
Monongahela,
Gen. W. T. H. Brooks; and
Gov. Curtin had called
3 out the entire militia of that State--the call, though loud and shrill, awaking but few and faint responses.
Now the
President called
4 specifically on the nearest States for militia, as follows:
The Governors reechoed the call; but the response was still weak.
The uniformed and disciplined regiments of New York City generally and promptly went on; and
Gov. Seymour was publicly thanked therefore by
Secretary Stanton; but the number of Pennsylvanians, Marylanders, and West Virginians, who set their faces resolutely toward the enemy in this crisis bore but a slim proportion to that of their brethren who seemed just now to have urgent business east of the
Susquehanna or west of the
Ohio.
In other words, the country was profoundly disheartened; while the Army had already absorbed what was bravest and most patriotic of its militia.
The number who actually responded to these urgent, repeated, and most reasonable calls from the several States was (liberally estimated) as follows:
Gen. Hooker had now begun
5 to move his army northward-recrossing
Howe's division and evacuating the
valley of the Rappahannock.
Lee had just about a fair week's start of him. Moving rapidly north-westward, with his cavalry thrown well out on his left flank, watching the passes of the
Blue Ridge,
Hooker's infantry passed through
Dumfries,
6 to
Centerville, covering
Washington,