previous next

[335] and Fifth following, and the Thirteenth Indiana, and Eighty-fourth Pennsylvania, and Twenty-ninth Ohio a little to the rear; thus leaving the One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania and the three companies of the Eighth Ohio in reserve. During the time these arrangements were made a messenger was sent to you, General, to have your approval as to this flank movement, and I personally apprised all the commanders in the rear and flanks of our intentions, so as to keep then on the alert.

Col. Daum was enjoined to keep his artillery in lively fire, so as not to direct the attention of the enemy from him, and when the order came to move on everything was ready to respond. Gen. Tyler moved his column by the right flank as far as the Cedar Creek road, rested his right upon the same, and the left upon the before-mentioned mud road, pushing forward upon both roads some cavalry, changed direction to the left, right in front, and moved silently but steadily upon the enemy's left through the woods for almost half a mile, when, coming upon a more sparsely wooded ground, he made half a wheel to the left, and came to the face of the extreme flank of the enemy, who received him behind a stone wall at about two hundred yards' distance with a terrific volley of rifled arms; but still on went the regiments without a return fire, and then threw themselves with immense cheering and an unearthly yell upon the enemy, who, receiving at fifteen yards our first fire, fell back across the field, thus unmasking two six-pound iron-guns, which hurled, on being cleared in front, death and destruction into our ranks with their canister.

But still onward we went, taking one gun and two caissons, and making there a short stand. Again the enemy unmasked two brass pieces, which at last drove us back by their vigorous fire. But I saw that the captured gun was tipped over, so that the enemy, in regaining the ground; could not drag it away. The Fifth Ohio and Eighty-fourth Pennsylvania threw themselves forward once more with fixed bayonets, the former losing their standard-bearer four times in a few minutes. Capt. Whitcomb at last took the colors up again, and cheering on his men fell also. So, too, Col. Murray, while gallantly leading on his Eighty-fourth regiment. In fact that ground was strewn with dead and wounded. Gen. Tyler lost there his aid, Lieut. Williamson of the Twenty-ninth Ohio.

I hurried back to bring up the One Hundred and Tenth and Fourteenth Indiana, by a right oblique movement through the woods, and the enemy, receiving all the combined shock, retired and left us in possession of our dearly-bought gun and caissons.

United, onward we pressed; again the enemy's two brass pieces and musketry poured in their fire. Three companies of the Eighth Ohio reenforcing us, we gained our brass piece and its caisson, and compelled the enemy to fall back.

This was at seven P. M. I moved to the right flank, and caused the cannon to go forward on the now fast retreating enemy, when I met with six of Ashby's cavalry — who shot down my orderly and killed his horse--one of their bullets piercing my cap. I was compelled to use my sword to kill one of them.

The cavalry captured two hundred and thirty-nine prisoners, and met only with little resistance from the enemy's cavalry.

At eight P. M. the musketry ceased. A few more cannon-shots from their extreme left were fired, so as to withdraw our attention from the retreating foe, and all was over. Our men remained on the field of battle picking up the wounded, and slept upon their arms, and awoke for the pursuit of the enemy on the morning of the twenty-fourth, who fell rapidly back beyond Newton, when at nine o'clock of the morning of that day Major-Gen. Banks took command, and I reported back to you.

General, I have the honor to be ever ready to serve in so glorious a body of soldiers, under your able leading.

Your most obedient, humble servant,



Gen. Shields' account of the battle.

The following letter from Gen. Shields, to a friend in Washington, gives the General's informal account of the battle of Winchester:

headquarters General Shields' division, Winchester, Va., March 26, 1862.
I will give you a brief account of our late operations. My reconnaissance beyond Strasburg, on the eighteenth and nineteenth inst., discovered Jackson reinforced in a strong position, near New-Market, within supporting distance of the main body of the rebels under Johnston. It was necessary to decoy him from that position. Therefore I fell back rapidly to Winchester on the twentieth, as if in retreat, marching my whole command nearly thirty miles in one day. My force was placed at night in a secluded position, two miles from Winchester, on the Martinsburg road.

On the twenty-first the rebel cavalry, under Ashby, showed themselves to our pickets, within sight of Winchester. On the twenty-second all of Gen. Banks's command, with the exception of my division, evacuated Winchester, en route for Centreville. This movement and the masked position of my division made an impression upon the inhabitants, some of whom were in secret communication with the enemy, that our army had left, and that nothing remained but a few regiments to garrison this place. Jackson was signalized to this effect. I saw their signals and divined their meaning. About five o'clock on the afternoon of the twenty-second, Ashby, believing that the town was almost evacuated, attacked our pickets and drove them in. This success increased his delusion. It became necessary, however, to repulse them for the time being. I therefore ordered forward a brigade, and placed it in front between Winchester and the enemy.

I only let them see, however, two regiments of infantry, two batteries of artillery, and a small


Creative Commons License
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.

hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
James Shields (3)
Ashby (3)
E. B. Tyler (2)
W. H. Jackson (2)
N. P. Banks (2)
William P. Williamson (1)
George P. Whitcomb (1)
R. C. Shriber (1)
A. Murray (1)
Albert Sidney Johnston (1)
P. Daum (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
22nd (2)
March 26th, 1862 AD (1)
24th (1)
21st (1)
20th (1)
19th (1)
18th (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: