The distance locally from where we crossed the Opequan to
Winchester is called five miles; and to where we formed line of battle three
miles, and from thence to Winchester two miles. The local distance from
Winchester to Stephenson's Station by the railroad is six miles and to Summit
Station twelve miles. There is no map in existence known to me giving the
correct position of the enemy's infantry in the ravine in front of the Third
Division, Sixth Corps; it is placed nearly a half mile too far back or west,
and nearer where the second assault of the day was. The illustrations which of
course must be correct herein place the enemy right in front of the Third
Division and I can make oath to it, in the first assault when I was twice
wounded. But I will now return a little and endeavor to describe this brilliant
battle.
We were drawn up as before stated, in two lines of battle at
the west entrance of the canyon facing west on an open field about midway
between Abraham Creek on the south and Red Bud Creek on the north just in rear
of a long narrow strip of woods which served as a great curtain to a grand,
broad, slightly rolling plain several miles in extent in every direction in our
front, which was to be the stage that day with the city of Winchester in the
background, of one of the most dashing, picturesque battles probably ever
fought in ancient or modern times at first with beautiful, silent nature about
the only witness. The Third Division, Sixth Corps, was in the left and most
important center of the line in two lines, the Tenth Vermont on the Berryville-Winchester
pike, the most important, dangerous and stubbornly contested point in the whole
line; the Nineteenth Corps was on our right in two lines; the intrepid Second
Division, Sixth Corps in which was the gallant First Vermont Brigade, was on
our left, one of the easiest places in the line; General Russell's valiant
First Division, Sixth Corps, as reserve was stationed en masse a short distance
in rear of where the right flank of the Third Division, Sixth Corps, and the
left flank of the Nineteenth Corps joined, which was within a short distance
and in plain sight of where I was, and our three Divisions of dashing,
picturesque cavalry — including Wilson on our left along Abraham Creek running
south of Winchester and Senseny Road, and Merritt and Averill on our right
along the railroad and the Martinsburg pike— was massed on either flank for
assault at the right moment on the enemy's flanks or as occasion might demand,
while Crook's Eighth Corps was about a quarter of a mile en masse about in rear
of the right flank of the Nineteenth Corps.
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No. 6 – View of the ravine occupied by the enemy's infantry
looking north from the pike where it crosses the ravine. Maj. Abbott was twice
wounded at the top of the hill looking under the long limb of the first tree
where the horizon shows so plainly. On the brow of the hill was a line of rebel
rail breast-works. The ravine was alive with the enemy, to its head confronted
by the Third Division, Sixth Corps. The enemy's artillery stationed on higher ground
in rear of its infantry, firing over it together with its rapid firing
literally swept, singed and scalped, the flat ground over which we charged: it
was practically untenable. The continuation of this ravine south is shown in
No. 7 illustration.
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SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 160-2
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