Not only was it
the one road which was not yet closely threatened, but it was the one
road over which the enormous train of captured stores could be
rapidly withdrawn.* (* Jackson, although the harvest was in full
swing, had given orders that all waggons in the valley were to be
impressed and sent to Winchester and Martinsburg.)
May 29.
The next morning, therefore, the main body of the army marched back
to Winchester; Winder, with the Stonewall Brigade and two batteries,
remaining before Harper's Ferry to hold Saxton in check. Jackson
himself returned to Winchester by the railway, and on the way he was
met by untoward news. As the train neared Winchester a staff officer,
riding at a gallop across the fields, signalled it to stop, and the
general was informed that the 12th Georgia had been driven from Front
Royal, burning the stores, but not the bridges, at Front Royal, and
that Shields' division was in possession of the village.
The situation had suddenly become more than critical. Front Royal is
but twelve miles from Strasburg. Not a single Confederate battalion
was within five-and-twenty miles of that town, and Winder was just
twice as far away. The next morning might see the Valley turnpike
blocked by 10,000 Federals under Shields.
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