Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 07.djvu/25

Rh impatient to wait for his tired infantry, places himself at the head of a few companies of cavalry, and pushes after the foe. He overtakes, attacks and disperses Kenly's force, and in a few moments four-fifths of it are killed, wounded or prisoners. Exhausted nature can do no more. Weary and footsore the army lies down to rest.

General Banks, amazed at this irruption, by which his flank is turned and his communications threatened, begins during the night a precipitate retreat from Strasburg to Winchester. Jackson anticipates this, and presses on the next morning to Middletown, a village between Strasburg and Winchester, to find the road still filled with Federal trains and troops. Capturing or scattering these in every direction, he follows on after the main body, which has already passed him towards Winchester. He overhauls them in the afternoon, pushes Banks' rear guard before him all night, and having given but one hour to rest, at daylight on the 25th of May reaches Winchester, to find the Federal forces drawn up across the approaches to the town from the south and southeast. The main part of Banks' army occupies the ridge on which Kernstown had been fought, but at a point two miles further north, while another part holds the Front Royal road, on which Ewell with a part of his division is advancing. A vigorous attack is at once made by the Confederates, which for a short time is bravely resisted, but the Federal lines begin to yield, and seeing himself about to be overwhelmed, Banks retreats through Winchester. Jackson presses closely, and the Federals emerge from the town a mass of disordered fugitives, making their way with all speed towards the Potomac. The Confederate infantry follows for several miles, capturing a large number of prisoners, and had the cavalry been as efficient but few of Banks' troops would have escaped. Banks halts on the north side of the Potomac, and Jackson allows his exhausted men to rest at Winchester.

Thorough and glorious was Jackson's victory. In forty-eight hours the enemy had been driven between fifty and sixty miles, from Front Royal and Strasburg to the Potomac, with the loss of nearly one-half of his strength. His army had crossed that river a disorganized mass. Hundreds of wagons had been abandoned or burnt. Two pieces of artillery and an immense quantity