old the roads on
the other side we've got them, just like so many coffee grounds! Fifteen
hundred of them in blue, and two guns?--Boys, I feel better!"

Old Jack--the men began with suddenness again to call him Old Jack--Old
Jack divulged nothing. Information, if information it was, came from
scouts, couriers, Ashby's vedettes, chance-met men and women of the
region. Something electric flashed from van to rear. The line went up
the hill with rapidity. When they reached the crest the men saw the
cavalry far before and below them, charging upon the town and shouting.
After the horse came a body of skirmishers, then, pouring down the
hillside the 1st Tennessee and the 48th Virginia, yelling as they ran.
From the town burst a loud rattle of musketry, and from a height beyond
a cannon thundered. All the white sides of the cup echoed the sound.

The infantry swerved to let the artillery by. The guns, grim beneath
their ice coats, the yelling men, the drivers loudly encouraging the
horses, the horses, red-nostrilled, wide-eyed--all came somehow,
helter-skelter down the long windings of the ridge. The infantry
followed; the town was entered; the Federals retreated, firing as they
went, streaming out by two roads. One led toward Sir John's Run, the
other direct to the Potomac with Hancock on the Maryland shore, and at
Hancock General Lander with a considerable force. Carson's men, alack!
had found the winter hills no bagatelle. They were not in time to secure
the roads.

The Confederate cavalry, dividing, followed, full tilt, the retreating
foe. A courier brought back to the artillery a curt order from Jackson
to push on by the Hancock road. As he turned, his mare slipped, and the
two came crashing down upon the icy road. When they had struggled up and
out of the way the batteries passed rumbling through the town. Old men
and boys were out upon the trampled sidewalks, and at window and door
women and children waved handkerchiefs, clapped hands. At a corner, in
the middle of the street, lay a horse, just lifeless, covered with
blood. The sight maddened the battery horses. They reared and plunged,
but at last went trembling by. From the patriarchs and the eager boys
came information. The Yankees were gone, but not their baggage and
stores. Everything had been left behind. There were army blankets,
tents, oilcloths, clothing, _shoes_, cords of firewood, forage for the
horses, flour, and fresh meat, sugar, coffee, sutlers' stores