Page:A memoir of the last year of the War of Independence, in the Confederate States of America.djvu/43

Rh part of Frederick are not in the Valley of the Shenandoah. The Opequon, rising south-west of Winchester, and crossing the Valley Pike four or five miles south of that place, turns to the north and empties into the Potomac some distance above its junction with the Shenandoah ; the greater part of Frederick and nearly the whole of Berkeley being on the western side of the Opequon.

Little North Mountain, called in the lower valley "North Mountain," runs north-east, through the western portions of Shenandoah, Frederick and Berkeley Counties, to the Potomac. At its northern end, where it is called North Mountain, it separates the waters of the Opequon from those of Back Creek.

Cedar Creek rises in Shenandoah County, west of Little North Mountain, and running north-east along its western base, passes through that mountain, four or five miles from Strasburg, and, then making a circuit, empties into the North Fork of the Shenandoah, about two miles below Strasburg.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad crosses the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, and, passing through Martinsburg in Berkeley County, crosses Back Creek near its mouth, runs up the Potomac, crossing the South Branch of that river near its mouth, and then the North Branch to Cumberland in Maryland. From this place it runs into Virginia again and, passing through North Western Virginia, strikes the Ohio River by two stems terminating at Wheeling and Parkersburg respectively.

There is a railroad from Harper's Ferry to Winchester, called "The Winchester and Potomac Railroad," and also one from Manassas Junction on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, through Manassas Gap in the Blue Ridge, by Front Royal and Strasburg, to Mount Jackson, called "The Manassas Gap Railroad;" but both of these roads were torn up and rendered unserviceable in the year 1862, under the orders of General Jackson.

From Staunton in Augusta County, there is a fine macadanaized road called "The Valley Pike," running through Mount Sydney, Mount Craw^ford, Harrisonburg, New Market,