“We do admit it, Leonidas, and alas! we have now no Stonewall Jackson to meet him, brave and capable as General Early is!”

The two colonels looked at the setting sun, and hoped that it would go down with a rush.  The division could not hold forever against the tremendous pressure upon it that never ceased, but darkness would put an end to the battle.  The first gray of twilight was already showing on the eastern hills, and Early’s men still held the broad turnpike leading into the South.  Here, fighting with all the desperation of imminent need, they beat off every effort of the Northern cavalry to gain their ground, and when night came they still held it, withdrawing slowly and in good order, while Sheridan’s men, exhausted by tremendous marches and heavy losses, were unable to pursue.  Yet the North had gained a great and important victory.

* * * *

Darkness closed over a weary but exultant army.  It had not destroyed the forces of Early, and it had been able to pursue only three miles.  It had lost five thousand men in killed and wounded, but the results, nevertheless, were great and the soldiers knew it.  The spell of Southern invincibility in the famous valley, where Jackson had won so often, was broken, and the star of Sheridan had flashed out with brilliancy, to last until the war’s close.  They knew, too, that they now held all of the valley north of Winchester, and they were soon to know that they would continue to hold it.  They commanded also a great railway and a great canal, and the South was cut off from Maryland and Pennsylvania, neither of which it could ever invade again.

Although a far smaller battle than a dozen that had been fought, it was one of the greatest and most complete victories the North had yet won.  After a long and seemingly endless deadlock a terrible blow had been struck at the flank of Lee, and the news of the triumph filled the North with joy.  It was also given on this occasion to those who had fought in the battle itself to know what they had done.  They were not blinded by the dust and shouting of the arena.

Dick with his two young comrades sat beneath an oak and ate the warm food and drank the hot coffee the camp cook brought to them.  They had escaped without hurt, and they were very happy over the achievement of the day.  The night was crisp, filled with starshine, and the cooking fires had been built along a long line, stretching away like a series of triumphant bonfires.

“I felt this morning that we would win,” said Dick.

“I’ve felt several times that we would win, when we didn’t,” said Pennington.

“But this time I felt it right.  They say that Stonewall Jackson always communicated electricity to his men, and I think our Little Phil has the same quality.  Since we first came to him here I haven’t doubted that we would win, and when I saw him and Grant talking I knew that we’d be up and doing.”