Near Strasburg, Monday, Oct. 10.
It's just noon, and we have gone into camp for the day in a
lovely green field with plenty of forage, and lots of rails to burn, — and I've
just had a bath, soaped from head to heel. It's still cold (frost and ice this A.
M. and I had to lie out with nothing but my overcoat) and I have two or three
slight colds in the head, — but it's splendid October and very exhilarating.
Enos found Sergeant Wakefield's horse yesterday and I rode
him all day, and he didn't get hit, though his saddle did, and our Brigade
chased two Rebel brigades more than ten miles, and took a battle-flag and four
guns and caissons and wagons, &c., &c, so my disinclination for “fight”
yesterday morning was a presentiment that came to naught.1
* * * * * * * *
I've said (to the Doctor and others) again and again that,
if I was taken, I didn't want any special exchange, and wanted that understood,
and I guess that's the way you feel too, in spite of your “concluding” that you
did approve of special exchanges. It would be very hard, but I don't believe
that I should be ill there, or should suffer even my share, and you would know
just what the risk was. There's not one chance in a great many, however, that I
shall be taken, — that's consoling.
_______________
1 Sheridan, who witnessed the spectacle from a
hill, thus describes the Battle of Tom's Brook, nicknamed “Woodstock Races”: —
“Oct. 9th. About 7 in the morning,
Custer's division encountered Rosser himself with three brigades, and while the
stirring sounds of the resulting artillery duel were reverberating through the
valley, Merritt moved briskly to the front, and fell upon Generals Lomax and
Johnson on the Valley pike. . . . The two divisions moved forward together,
under Torbert's direction. . . . The engagement soon became general across the
Valley, both- sides fighting mainly mounted. For about two hours the contending
lines struggled with each other along Tom's Brook, the charges and
countercharges at many points being plainly visible from . . . Round Top, where
I had my headquarters. The open country permitting a sabre fight, both sides
seemed bent on using that arm. In the centre, the Confederates maintained their
position with much stubbornness, . . . but at last they began to give way on
both flanks, and, as these receded, Merritt and Custer went at the wavering
ranks in a charge along their whole front. The result was a general smash-up of
the entire Confederate line, the retreat quickly degenerating into a rout. . .
. For twenty-six miles this wild stampede kept up, with our troopers close to
the enemy's heels.”
In a report to General Grant next day, Sheridan wrote: —
“The number of prisoners captured will
be about 330. The enemy, after being charged by our gallant cavalry, were
broken, and ran. They were followed by our men on the jump twenty-six miles,
through Mount Jackson and across the North Fork of the Shenandoah.”
And on the 11th of October he wrote again, from Cedar Creek:
—
“I
have seen no signs of the enemy since the brilliant engagement of the 9th
instant. It was a square cavalry fight, in which the enemy was routed beyond my
power to describe. He lost everything carried on wheels, except one piece of
artillery; and when last seen, it was passing over Rude's Hill, near New
Market, on the keen run, twenty-six miles from the battlefield, to which point
the pursuit was kept up.”
General Torbert, in his report, spoke of this cavalry fight
and victory as “the most decisive the country has ever witnessed.
Brigadier-Generals Merritt and Custer, and Colonels Lowell and Pennington,
commanding brigades, particularly distinguished themselves; in fact, no men
could have rendered more valuable services and deserve higher honour from the
hands of 'the Government. My losses will not exceed 60 killed and wounded,
which is astonishing, compared with the results.”
General Early, who had not failed in courage or persistency,
reported to Lee his new defeat: —
“This is very distressing to me, and
God knows I have done all in my power to avert the disasters which have
befallen this command; but the fact is, that the enemy's cavalry is so much
superior to ours, both in numbers and equipment, and the country is so
favourable to the operations of cavalry, that it is impossible for ours to
compete with his. Lomax's cavalry is armed entirely with rifles, and has no
sabres; and the consequence is, that they cannot fight on horseback, and, in
this open country, they cannot successfully fight on foot against large bodies
of cavalry: besides, the command has been demoralized all the time. It would be
better if they could be all put in the infantry; but, if that were tried, I am
afraid they would all run off.”
The Southerners, as a rule, did not believe in the sabre.
Mosby ridicules it; and, indeed, for his kind of work, the revolver and carbine
sufficed. But in the Valley, the furious combined rush of horses ridden by men,
with three feet of bright steel, at close quarters, seems often to have been
very effective.
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell, p. 355-6, 470-2
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