George H. Gordon, From Brook Farm to Cedar Mountain

[117] of a good supper and sleep; but my reverie was rudely broken by the sight of batteries and brigades en route to Winchester. Berryville had been plunged into commotion by the report that a fierce battle was raging there. In vain I urged that I had just come from Winchester; had found and left no enemy in sight or sound; that marriage bells were not more peaceful than was Winchester. It was all in vain. On streamed the columns of infantry; on rolled the batteries and the caissons, while the wheels jarred and cracked against the axles, and on lumbered the baggage-wagons and the camp-followers,--still onward, tramp, tramp, for the severe fight at Winchester, though not a sound of fighting we heard. In the darkness all was quiet, save the subdued noise of our own senseless march. At about twelve o'clock at night, two or three miles from the peaceable town, I lay down in the woods again, to bivouac in cold and in hunger, with a disgust, deep and undefinable, to awake, however, on the morning of the 13th, with all discomforts vanished, and our fatigues forgotten

The feelings that agitated General Jackson, as our columns approached the town from the north and east, have, since his death, been given to the world. This noted commander was moved with doubts and perplexities. Now he was ready to hazard everything to make good his promise to the people of Winchester that the “Yankees” should not enter their town; and then, more prudent considerations prevailing, he would resolve to retire, only again to reconsider, with renewed agitation.¹

On the night of the eleventh of March Jackson entered the house of a Rev. Mr. Graham, of Winchester, with whose family he was intimate. Here he called for a Bible, read aloud, and prayed with the family. Then suddenly rising, he said, “I will never leave Winchester without a ”