i 1 5
cavalry companies, and also the famous “Black Horse Cavalry,” a superbbody of men and horses, under Captains John Scott and Welby Carter ofFauquier. By marching across the Blue Ridge , they were to rendezvous nearHarper’s Ferry .
Ashby had sent"men on the nightof the 17th tocut the wires be-tween ManassasJunction and Al-exandria, and tokeep them cutfor several days.
Our arrival atManassas Junc-tion startled thequiet people ofthe village. Gen-eral Harman atonce “ impress-ed” the Manassas
Gap train to take the lead, and switched two or three other trains to that linein order to proceed to Strasburg. I w r as put in command of the foremosttrain. We had not gone five miles when I discovered that the engineer couldnot be trusted. He let his fire go down, and came to a dead standstill on aslight ascending grade. A cocked pistol induced him to fire up and go ahead.From there to Strasburg I rode in the engine-cab, and we made full fortymiles an hour with the aid of good dry wood and a navy revolver.
At Strasburg we left the cars, and before 10 o’clock the infantry com-panies took up the line of march for Winchester. I now had to procure horsesfor my guns. The farmers were in their corn-fields, and some of them agreedto hire us horses as far as Winchester, eighteen miles, while others refused.The situation being urgent, we took the horses by force, under threats ofbeing indicted by the next grand jury of the county. By noon we had a suffi-cient number of teams. We followed the infantry down the Valley Turnpike,reaching Winchester just at nightfall. The people generally received us verycoldly. The war spirit that bore them up through four years of trial andprivation had not yet been aroused.
General Harper was at Winchester, and had sent forward his infantry byrail to Charlestown, eight miles from Harper’s Ferry . In a short time a trainreturned for my battery. The farmers got their horses and "went home rejoic-ing, and we set out for our destination. The infantry moved out of Charles-town about midnight. We kept to our train as far as Halit own, only four milesfrom the ferry. There we set down our guns to be run forward by handto Bolivar Heights, west of the town, from which we could shell the place ifnecessary.
nW\N\A
Scaleof Prrftirs10 0 10 20 30
105 0 105 330 405 <SG0Scale of Feet
V,
£5ij/sr.
Va s-Sevb\
ROAn
LO uo o u n.
' \-':."h