Jackson was possessed of this
information before he left New Market, and based his movements on it;
but it was news to me."
In the second place, Banks had still the means of escape. He could
hardly prevent the Confederates from seizing Winchester, but he might
at least save his army from annihilation. Jackson's men were
exhausted and the horses jaded. Since the morning of the 19th the
whole army had marched over eighty, and Ewell's division over ninety
miles. And this average of seventeen miles a day had been maintained
on rough and muddy roads, crossed by many unbridged streams, and over
a high mountain. The day which had just passed had been especially
severe. Ewell, who was in bivouac at Cedarville, five miles north of
Front Royal on the Winchester turnpike, had marched more than twenty
miles; and Jackson's own division, which had made four-and-twenty,
was on foot from five in the morning till nine at night.
Banks' natural line of retreat led through Winchester, and the
Confederate advanced guard at Cedarville was two miles nearer that
town than were the Federals at Strasburg. But it was still possible
that Banks, warned by Kenly's overthrow, might withdraw by night; and
even if he deferred retreat until daylight he might, instead of
falling back on Winchester, strike boldly for Front Royal and escape
by Manassas Gap.
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