ia, West
Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and part of Ohio, and Sheridan
was assigned to the command.

Amusing though it may have been to Early and his followers to note
the panic and confusion into which McCausland's predatory riders
once more threw the capital and the border States, this absurd
freak produced far-reaching consequences that were not in the
thoughts of any one on either side. Its first effect was to stop
the withdrawal of the Sixth Corps, and to put Wright and Emory once
more in march toward the Shenandoah. It determined Lee to keep
Early in the valley, where his presence seemed so effective; and
this shortly led to the concentration there, under a single commander,
and that commander Sheridan, of the largest and best appointed
Union army that had ever occupied that theatre of war, and thus at
last in one short campaign worked the destruction of Early's army
and the elimination of the valley as a feature in the war.

Upon the officers and men of the Nineteenth Corps the change from
the enervating climate of Louisiana to the bracing air, the crystal
waters, the rolling wheatfields, and the beautiful blue mountains
of the Shenandoah acted like a tonic. Daily their spirits rose
and their numbers for duty increased. The excellence of the roads
and the openness of the country on either side enabled them to
achieve long marches with ease and comfort. Nor were they slow in
remarking that they had never had a commissary and quartermaster
so good as Sheridan.

(1) About three miles N.-N.-E. from the Capitol, overlooking the
Baltimore road and railway.

(2) In Major William F. Tiemann's truly admirable "History of the
159th New York," he says: "July 26th we were camped near Major-General
Birney's headquarters, not far from Hatcher's house between batteries
'five' and 'six,' one of which enjoyed the euphonious title of
'Fort Slaughter.' . . . The works were built more strongly
and with more art than at Port Hudson, but were not nearly as strong
in reality, as Port Hudson was fortified naturally and the obstructions
were much harder to overcome." (P. 87.) I think this book a model
of everything that a regimental history ought to be; above all,
for the rare gifts of modesty and accuracy.

CHAPTER XXXI.
IN THE SHENANDOAH.

The fourth year of the war was now well advanced, and the very name
of the Shenandoah valley had long since passed into a byword as
the Valley of Humiliation, so often had thos