Page:Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade (1906).djvu/35

Rh and giving the Colonel warning. The consequence was the Colonel beat a hasty retreat, taking everything with him.

Talk about your first big battles of the war, that was one of them. There were about a dozen shots exchanged, no one hurt and no one captured, the Southern boys pulling out for Winchester and the Federals coming into town. They remained about an hour, and then went back to New Creek—both armies marching from each other all day. As a result, three regiments under Colonel A. P. Hill were sent there from Harper's Perry: the 10th Virginia, 13th Virginia, and 3d Tennessee.

When our companies arrived we found those regiments there. Our three companies were then formed into a battalion and put in command of Major William Lee, and called Lee's Battalion—Colonel Cummings going back to Winchester to recruit more companies.

We remained there until the 24th, expecting an attack every night, and consequently had plenty of false alarms. We then marched back to Winchester, a distance of forty-five miles, leaving some cavalry there under command of Captain Turner Ashby.

As we marched out of town the brass bands were playing, the drums beating, colors flying, and the fair ladies waving their handkerchiefs and cheering us on to "victory or death." Oh! how nice to be a soldier!

On the 27th we went into camp on Opequon creek, three miles south of Winchester, remaining several days, cleaning arms, drilling, etc. Our next move was to the Shawnee Springs, in the suburbs of Winchester, where we were temporarily attached to General Elzey's Brigade. The Hampshire Riflemen, not numbering enough (only forty-five) to be mustered in, were transferred to the cavalry and ordered back to Romney to recruit and get horses. How I wished then that I had joined that company, and could have done so only a short time before, but my name was down on the roll, and there was no chance to get it off honorably. I therefore had to remain in the infantry.

General Elzey was quite fond of a dram, as most soldiers are, and one night when he and his staff were drinking quite freely, and feeling very liberal, he called in the