dividual
example that will surpass him in fiery concentration. In battle he is
the very soul of vehement action--the incarnate wrath of the storm. No
historian can ever portray the man so truly as did the remarkable
victory of Cedar Creek--a result solely of his extraordinary power. The
marvelous will-force with which he could hurl himself in the front of
battle, and infuse his own spirit of unconquerable daring into the
ranks, is phenomenal, to say the least."

* * * * *

"When Grant became Lieutenant-General, Sheridan was given the command of
the cavalry of the army of the Potomac, and all his subsequent movements
evinced wonderful daring, skill and energy. No trust committed to his
charge was ever misplaced, no matter what its magnitude or importance.

"When the Confederate Generals Ewell and Early were sent into the
Shenandoah Valley, and went so far north as to threaten Washington,
Grant consolidated the four military divisions of the Susquehanna,
Washington, Monongahela and West Virginia, into the 'army of the
Shenandoah,' and placed Sheridan in command. He defeated Early at
Opequan, September nineteenth--for which he was made brigadier-general
of the United States army; defeated him again at Fisher's Hill on the
twenty-second, and on October the nineteenth occurred the battle of
Cedar Creek.

"The position of Sheridan's army at this time was along the crest of
three hills, 'each one a little back of the other,' The army of West
Virginia, under Crook, held the first hill; the second was occupied by
the Nineteenth Corps, under Emory, and the Sixth Corps, with Torbet's
cavalry covering its right flank, held the third elevation. Early,
marching his army in five columns, crossed the mountains and forded the
north branch of the Shenandoah River, at midnight, on the eighteenth. He
knew that Sheridan had gone up to Washington, and wanted to take
advantage of his absence to surprise the unsuspecting camp. The march
was conducted so noiselessly that, though he skirted the borders of our
position for miles, nothing came to the ears of our pickets, save in a
few instances where a heavy muffled tramp was heard, but disregarded as
of no consequence.

"The gray gloom of early morning hovered over the camp, when a
reconnoitring force from Crook's army was preparing to go out. Suddenly,
a wild yell burst through the fog which hid from view the Confederate
army. A withering musketry fire and th