George H. Gordon, From Brook Farm to Cedar Mountain

[116] in the woods near Berryville. With straw from farmers' stacks, we added to the warmth of our single blanket; with rails from farmers' fences, we managed to moderate an atmosphere that was near the freezing-point. Bright and early in the morning of the 11th, our cavalry, moving forward for Winchester, encountered the enemy's cavalry, made prisoners of three, and chased the rest to within three or four miles of the town itself.

General Gorman now began to make arrangements for an armed reconnoissance, in force, towards Winchester. This he wished me to command, but somehow or other the day passed and nothing was done. We were awaiting the arrival of General Banks. I rode around the town, out on the Winchester road, and saw that ample arrangements for guards and a defence had been made. There were no alarms and no change during the day. The next morning, the twelfth of March, just after a long interview with a clergyman of Berryville,--a Union man, who had been giving me a plan of the works around Winchester, which I had committed to paper,--news came that last night (Tuesday) the enemy fled from the town, and that our force from Bunker Hill (General Williams) had entered. It was true. The Winchester that we had looked at in July of 1861, from this same Bunker Hill, had now been entered from Bunker Hill; the Winchester we had hoped to gain by Berryville, in 1861, when Patterson implored his militia to march to its attack, we were now about entering from Berryville. I galloped to the town with a staff-officer in anticipation of our march there on the morrow; found everything quiet and peaceable, and fancied perhaps there was some Union feeling. Some Northern men were there, said to be from Milford, Mass., who told me of the flight of the enemy. When I returned to Berryville it was dark; the ride had been wearisome. I was indulging in thoughts