Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[479] Cross-roads, and Flint Hill, crossing the Blue Ridge at Chester Gap, and, pushing beyond Front Royal, reached the banks of the Shenandoah at Cedarville on the evening of the 12th. Ewell immediately made all necessary arrangements for reaping the greatest possible benefit from the ignorance which his adversaries were still laboring under in regard to his movements. Although he had already marched fifty miles since the day previous, Rodes led his division as far as Stone Ridge, five miles farther on the direct road to Berryville. It was, in fact, a question of surprising McReynolds' Federal brigade, which Milroy had posted in this village for the purpose of connecting Winchester with Harper's Ferry. Jenkins was directed to precede Rodes in this movement. Ewell, with the rest of his corps, proposed to gain the main road from Woodstock to Winchester at the west, in order to reach that city by the front. Thoroughly informed concerning the slightest details of the enemy's positions by partisans who were constantly penetrating the Federal lines, and particularly by an officer as bold as he was intelligent—Major Harry Gilmor, whose military career was full of adventures— Ewell was enabled to form his whole plan of attack in advance.

We have already described the configuration of the neighborhood of Winchester on the occasion of the fight at Kernstown. Between this village and the town itself, south-east of the latter, stand the hills which the Federals occupied when Jackson received a check: the highest of them is called Bower's Hill. The position is covered by Abraham's Creek, which afterward turns northeastward, encircling a portion of the town. Bower's Hill is only the extremity of a range of hillocks, similar to those to be found in that country, which, under the name of Applepie Ridge, extends for a distance of about twelve miles in the direction of Martinsburg and the Potomac. North-west of Winchester, Applepie Ridge is composed of three parallel ridges, the farthest one commanding the other two, and the nearest being almost within a stone's throw of the city. It was upon this last-mentioned ridge that the Federals had erected their system of defences the preceding year. This consisted of a continuous enclosure and a fortification forming a large redoubt. The intervening ridge, called Flint Hill, had remained unoccupied during the whole