the 6th, awaiting the arrival of Rosser's brigade of cavalry which was on its way from General Lee's army. In the meantime there was some skirmishing with the enemy's cavalry on the North River, at the bridge near Mount Crawford and at Bridgewater above.[1]
On the 5th, Rosser's brigade arrived and was temporarily attached to Fiiz Lee's division, of which Rosser was given the command, as Brigadier-General Wickham had resigned. The horses of Ross«r's brigade had been so much reduced by previous hard service and the long march from Richmond, that the brigade did not exceed six hundred mounted men for duty when it joined me Kershaw's division numbered 2700 muskets for duty, and he had brought with him Cutshaw's battalion of artillery. These reinforcements about made up my losses at Winchester and Fisher's Hill, and I determined to attack the enemy in his position at Harrisonburg, and for that purpose made a reconnossance on the 5th, but on the morning of the 6th, it was discovered that he had retired during the night down the Valley.[2]
- ↑ Grant says that, after the fight at Fisher's Hill, "Sheridan pursued him with great energy through Harrisonburg, Staunton, and the gaps of the Blue Ridge." With how much energy the pursuit was made, and how much truth there is in the statement that I was driven through "Harrisonburg, Staunton, and the gaps of the Blue Ridge," will be seen from the foregoing account. A portion of my cavalry passed through Harrisonburg, but none of my other troops, and none of them through Staunton, and did not leave the Valley at all. Had Sheridan moved bis infantry to Port Republic I would have been compelled to retire through Brown's Gap to get provisions and forage, and it would have been impossible for me to return to the Valley until he evacuated the upper part of it.
- ↑ While Sheridan's forces were near Harrisonburg and mine were watching them, three of our cavalry scouts, in their uniforms and with arms, got around his lines near a little town called Dayton and encountered Lieutenant Meigs, a Federal Engineer officer, with two soldiers. These parties came upon each other suddenly, and Lieutenant Meigs was ordered to surrender by one of our scouts to which he replied by shooting and wounding the scout, who in his turn fired and killed the Lieutenant. One of the men with Lieutenant Meigs was captured and the other escaped. For this act Sheridan ordered the town of Dayton to be burned, but for some reason that order was countermanded, and another substituted for burning a large number of private houses in the neighborhood, which was executed, thus inflicting on non-combatants and women and children a most wanton and cruel punishment for a justifiable act of war.
