better eye for defence. They could not swoop down quicker when a flank was exposed or an opportunity given than he. They had better advantages in camp and by education, but he was a natural soldier, and had his life been spared, would have equaled Forrest in his boldest moves.
General Ewell formed the highest admiration for Ashby, and told me the day Ashby was killed, that such a man, with a good disciplined mounted regiment, and an infantry regiment attached to it, who could swing by a strap to each horse's neck, when "sharp, quick and devilish" work was wanted, would be equal to the best division in the army, and said he would rather have it. Then he said: "A man could do something without being cramped as I am, and never know what is to be done," and added: "I am thinking of asking the Department for such a command, or the privilege of raising such." In this conversation with me he was still very uneasy about Richmond, and intimated that Jackson would have his hands full before he got out of the Valley.
Ewell was deeply moved when Ashby fell, and remained on the field with me until all the prisoners and wounded men were taken back; assisted many of the wounded to mount behind the cavalry, who carried them from the field, and I saw him give what money he had to some of the Maryland troops who were too badly wounded to be carried from the field on horseback. The enemy were too near for ambulances to approach. The woods where the affair occurred was filled with outcropping lime-stone rocks, and there was no regular road. This fight has never been described fairly. I may attempt it hereafter, as I was second in command, and saw from an unbiased stand-point what was done by Ashby. I was to co-operate with him, and but for that ambuscade he fell in, he would have realized his well laid plan of success. Two hours before he was killed, he had won one of the most brilliant fights of that campaign—capturing "Sir Percy Windham," commanding the attacking brigade. His loss was deplored by our whole army.
The night after the battle of Cross Keys, I was at General Jackson's headquarters with Ewell, and heard the orders given for the next morning's work. My orders were to send and ascertain whether the road to Brown's gap was open, and to see if a bridge could be thrown across the South fork of the river. The Quartermaster ran a half-dozen wagons in the water, upon which some very long and thin plank were placed, so that, with their cadence
