George H. Gordon, From Brook Farm to Cedar Mountain

1 [222]

Necessary delays in burning the wagons and abandoned property, and recovering the knapsacks, had caused the head of my column to advance faster than the rear-guard; so that when I heard the single gun followed by volleys of infantry, I sent to inquire as to the force attacking, and received the reply from Colonel Andrews that he was somewhat annoyed by skirmishing cavalry. I sent back the two companies of cavalry which I had retained, and a section of Best's Battery, with instructions to give the enemy a heavy fire of grape if he closed upon the rear. This pressure did not allay my apprehension for the safety of the column; for although there were many roads through which in the darkness the enemy could pass unperceived between my command and Winchester, the most threatening, and the one from which I was most fearful, was that in which both roads, on which the enemy was marching, converged at Winchester. Either there or on a road which joined the pike east of Kernstown, my information led me to believe the enemy would make this attempt.

Feeling that Colonel Andrews had been sufficiently reinforced, I pressed on with the Twenty-seventh Indiana and Twenty-eighth New York, arriving at the outskirts of Winchester between eleven and twelve o'clock at night. The road was then clear. I had hardly selected a bivouac for the regiments of my brigade, when a messenger from the rear announced that Colonel Andrews was in want of ambulances. Sending my aid, Lieutenant Scott, in search of them, I seated myself by a few embers by the roadside, and waited impatiently for Colonel Andrews' arrival. Frequent reports from that officer had advised me since his skirmish at Bartonsville of his good progress; but that progress was slow. He was impeded by his wounded, who were being transported on gun-carriages, and by the necessity of keeping his skirmishers well out to his rear