Page:A memoir of the last year of the War of Independence, in the Confederate States of America.djvu/82

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OPERATIONS IN THE LOWER VALLEY.


On the 18th we look position to cover Winchester, and Gen. Anderson came up with Kershaw's division of infantry, Cutshaw's battalion of Artillery, and two brigades of cavalry under Fitz Lee. General Anderson ranked me, but he declined to take command, and offered to co-operate in any movement I might suggest. We had now discovered that Torbert's and Wilson's divisions of cavalry from Grant's army had joined Sheridan's force, and that the latter was very large.

On the 19th, my main force moved to Bunker Hill and Lomax's cavalry made reconnoissances to Marlinsburg and Shepherdstown, while Anderson's whole force remained near Winchester.

On the 28th, our cavalry had some skirmishing with the enemy's on the Opequon, and on the 21st, by concert, there was a general movement towards Harper's Ferry—my command moving through Smithfield towards Charlestown, and Anderson's on the direct road by Summit Point. A body of the enemy's cavalry was driven from the Opequon, and was pursued by part of our cavalry towards Summit Point. I encountered Sheridan's main force near Cameron's depot, about three


    withstanding the fact that Mr. Chrisman had received from General Torbert, in command of the Federal cavalry, a written protection stating that for some weeks he had taken care of, and showed great kindness to, a badly-wounded Federal soldier. In passing through Middletown, I was informed that one of my soldiers had been tried and hung as a spy. The grave at the foot of the gallows was opened, and the body was recognized by his brother and the officers of his company as a private of the 54th North Carolina Regiment. This man had been found by the enemy, in Middletown, in attendance on a Confederate soldier whose leg was amputated, and he had claimed to be a citizen, but a paper was found on his person showing that he had been formerly detailed as a nurse in the hospital. On this state of facts, he was hung as a spy. He was not employed in any such capacity, and be was so illiterate, not being able to read or write, that his appearance and evident want of intelligence precluded the idea of his being so employed. I would have retaliated at once by hanging a commissioned officer, but the enquiry which I made furnished some reason for believing that the man had remained behind, and endeavoured to pass for a citizen to avoid service in our army; and I did not therefore wish to risk the lives of my officers and men who were in the enemy's hands, by making his a case for retaliation. His execution by the enemy, however, was none the less wanton and barbarous.