y army 4000 head of stock.

Said one of his officers who knew whereof he was speaking, "A crow
flying through the valley would have to carry his own rations, for he
could pick up nothing!"

At Winchester, the principal town in the Shenandoah Valley, one hundred
and fifty miles N. N. W. of Richmond, with a population of about four
thousand, the 19th of that September was a day of glory but also of
sorrow. Four thousand six hundred and eighty of the Union Army, killed
and wounded, told how dearly Sheridan's first great victory was gained.

The battle was fought over three, four, or five square miles, east and
north from Winchester, for the most part near the Opequon Creek, from
which it is sometimes called the "Battle of the Opequon." To reach the
field, the bulk of Sheridan's army, starting at three o'clock in the
morning from Berryville ten miles east, had to pass through a gorge in
which for a considerable distance the turnpike extends towards
Winchester. Sheridan's plan at first was to bring his army, except
Merritt's and Averell's Divisions of Torbert's Cavalry, through the
defile, post the Sixth Corps on the left, the Nineteenth on the right,
throw Crook's Army of West Virginia across the Staunton turnpike
(leading southwest from Winchester), and so cut off all retreat up the
valley. Meanwhile those two cavalry divisions were to make a long detour
on our right to the north from Berryville, and close in upon the
Confederate left. Sheridan felt sure of victory, for we outnumbered the
enemy nearly two to one. Had our army got into position early in the
morning, we should have captured or destroyed the whole of them.

At early dawn McIntosh's Brigade of Wilson's Division of Torbert's
Cavalry dashed through the ravine, closely followed by Chapman's Brigade
and five batteries of horse artillery. Sheridan and his staff followed.
They surprised and captured a small earthwork, and, though fiercely
assaulted, held it till the van of the Sixth Corps relieved them.

The narrow pass of the Berryville pike was so obstructed by artillery,
ambulances, ammunition wagons, etc., that it was nearly eight o'clock
before the Sixth Corps, which should have been in position with Wilson's
Cavalry at sunrise, began to arrive; and it was fully two hours later
when the Nineteenth Corps debouched and deployed. Here was
miscalculation or bad management or both.

This long delay, which the quick-moving cavalry leader Sheridan had not
forese