It was a strange night to Dick, alike joyous and terrible.  He believed that the army of the enemy was practically destroyed, and yet he had a great sympathy for some who were in it.  He was in constant fear lest he should find them dead, or wounded mortally.  But he had no time to look for them.  Sheridan was pressing the pursuit to the utmost.  Midnight did not stop it.  Fugitives were captured continually.  Here and there an abandoned cannon was taken.  Rifles flashed all through the darkness, and the horses of the Union cavalry were driven to the utmost.

Neither Dick nor his companions felt exhaustion.  Their excitement was too great, and the taste of triumph was too strong.  They had seen no such victory before, and eager and willing they still led the advance.  Midnight passed and the pursuit never ceased until it reached Woodstock, ten miles from Fisher’s Hill.  By that time Sheridan’s infantry was exhausted, and as Early was beginning to draw together the remains of his force he would prove too strong for the cavalry alone.

At dawn the army of Sheridan stopped, the troopers almost falling from their horses in exhaustion, while Early used the opportunity to escape with what was left of his men, leaving behind many prisoners and twenty cannon.  Yet the triumph had been great, and again, when the telegraph brought the news of it, the swell of victory passed through the North.

The Winchester regiment was drawn up near Woodstock, already dismounted, the men standing beside their horses.  The camp cooks were lighting the fires for breakfast, but many of the young cavalrymen fell asleep first.  Dick managed to keep awake long enough for his food, and then, at the order of the colonel, he slept on the ground, awaiting the command of Sheridan which might come at any moment.

CHAPTER X

AN UNBEATEN FOE

Dick’s belief that he would not be allowed to sleep long was justified.  In three or four hours the whole Winchester regiment was up, mounted and away again.  Early and his army left the great valley pike, and took a road leading toward the Blue Ridge, where he eventually entered a gap, and fortified to await supplies and fresh men from Richmond, leaving all the great Valley of Virginia, where in former years the Northern armies had suffered so many humiliations, in the possession of Sheridan.  It was the greatest and most solid triumph that the Union had yet achieved and Dick and the youths with him rejoiced.

After many days of marching and fighting they lay once more in the shadow of the mountains, within a great grove of oak and beech, hickory and maple.  The men and then the horses had drunk at a large brook flowing near by, and both were content.  The North, as always, sent forward food in abundance to its troops, and now, just as the twilight was coming, the fires were lighted and the pleasant aromas of supper were rising.  Colonel Winchester and his young staff sat by one of the fires near the edge of the creek.  They had not taken off their clothes in almost a week, and they felt as if they had been living like cave-men.  Nevertheless the satisfaction that comes from deeds well done pervaded them, and as they lay upon the leaves and awaited their food and coffee they showed great good humor.