Page:Journal history of the Twenty-ninth Ohio veteran volunteers, 1861-1865.djvu/43

 brave General Lander to the cars, which was accomplished on the following day. All the troops in the vicinity were present. At 9 o'clock on the morning of Saturday, March 8th, the command struck tents and marched to the railroad; at night took cars and moved in the direction of Martinsburg, en route for Winchester. Some two or three days were occupied in reaching the former place, as extreme caution was necessary. A burned bridge at Back creek stopped further steam locomotion, and on the 11th the command moved forward through Martinsburg, encamping some two miles out on the Winchester road. Here General James Shields, of some celebrity in the Mexican war, assumed command of the division, and the One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania infantry volunteers was added to the brigade. The following morning the column continued the forward movement, under orders to join General Banks, in his attack on Winchester. The rebels retreated, and Shields' division went into camp to the north of Winchester, some four miles out on the Martinsburg pike.

When the rebels first occupied Virginia General Johnston (commanding the extreme left of Beauregard's army) took possession of Winchester. Troops from here destroyed the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and constantly harrassed our forces in the direction of Harper's Ferry and Cumberland. It was of great importance that the Union arms gain and hold possession of this point, hence the concentration of Federal troops in this vicinity.

Skirmishing with the enemy was a daily occurrence, and, on the morning of March 20th, a reconnoissance in force was made up the valley to Strasburg. General Shields, with the Twenty-ninth and its brigade, numbering some six thousand men, moved direct to that point,