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all around you, and will have every one of you, and Winchester too, if not to-night, certainly in the morning.”
“What are your numbers?”
I asked.
“From 20,000 to 40,000 men, under the command of Generals Jackson, Ewell, and Johnston, with General Jackson as commander-in-chief,” was his reply.
I could not doubt that the Confederates were making their way slowly around us,--were even so near that they could easily mistake my lines for their own. I had driven them from Newtown, and held it for nearly four hours; all our trains in advance were secure and in Winchester; General Hatch and his rear-guard, save those captured or in flight over the mountains to the west, were safe; and anple time liad been afforded General Banks to remove all the public property in Winchester or to destroy it. All that I could do was done, and I determined to withdraw.1
My dispositions were soon made.
The Second Massachusetts I ordered to cover our march; the Twenty-seventh Indiana I directed to burn the disabled wagons, distribute among the men all the clothing and material they could
1 It is pleasant to find Southern writers confirming all I have here claimed to have accomplished :--
They brought up four pieces of artillery and planted them in the outskirts of the town, opening a furious fire upon the Confederate batteries. . . Jackson hastened to the front, and when he arrived at Newtown found Poague with two guns engaged in a hot combat with the Federal artillery, which continued to check his further advance until dark.... At nightfall the Federal artillery, which had held the Confederate advance in check at Newtown, retired from the field, and Jackson determined to push on after Banks to Winchester.
The rifled guns of Poague were immediately placed in position, upon arriving near Newtown, on an opposing eminence, and replied to the Federal batteries on the right of the village with effect; but it was sundown before they were dislodged and the pursuit resumed. Dabney's Life of Jackson, p. 102.
James R. Osgood and Company, 1883.
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