CEDAR CREEK, Oct. 14,
1864.
Firelight, 4 A. M.
I sent such a fat-looking envelope yesterday morning, with
only one sheet after all, that I meant to have written again in the afternoon,
but at dinner the Rebs began shelling the infantry camp on our right, and then
the “general” sounded, and then we waited a while in the cold, and then we moved,
– so I had no time at all.1
_______________
1 The meaning of this attack was that the
Confederates supposed that a great part of Sheridan's force had been now
withdrawn to help Grant before Richmond, and Sheridan's troops, returning from
the pursuit of Early, found themselves, on October 13, followed up to Fisher's
Hill. Sheridan, who had been summoned to Washington to consult with Stanton on
future movements, before the latter should visit Grant, was just setting out,
when this movement made him pause and put his army in battle array along Cedar
Creek. As he was getting ready to attack, he found that Early, having
discovered that he was still in full force, had again withdrawn. Sheridan then
went to Washington, leaving General Wright in charge of the army.
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell, p. 359,473
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