I am aware that the opinions I express in regard to Sheridan's strategy at the Battle of Winchester are not those generally entertained. But I give reasons. His own account of the battle is sadly imperfect. To capture but five guns and nine battle flags at a cost of four thousand six hundred and eighty killed and wounded, and leave almost the entire rebel army in shape to fight two great battles within a month, was not the programme he had planned. Early said "Sheridan should have been cashiered." I shall be blamed more for venturing to question Lincoln's policy of subjugation. He had proclaimed with great power and in the most unmistakable language in Congress that "any portion of any people had a perfect right to throw off their old government and establish a new one." But now, instead of standing strictly on the defensive, or attempting by diplomacy to settle the conflict which had become virtually international, he entered upon a war of conquest. I do not blame him for refusing to exchange prisoners, nor President Davis for allowing them to starve and freeze. Both were right, _if war is right_. It was expedient that thirty, fifty, or a hundred thousand of us should perish, or be rendered physically incapable of bearing arms again. The "deep damnation of the taking off" was due not to individual depravity but to military necessity. H. B. S. BRIGHTON, MASS., U. S. A., _1915_. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE v CHAPTER I The First, or Forenoon, Battle of Winchester, Indecisive--Sheridan's and Early's Mistakes--The Capture 1 CHAPTER II At Winchester--On the Road thence to Tom's Brook, New Market, and Staunton 17 CHAPTER III At Staunton--Thence to Waynesboro, Meacham's, and Richmond 32 CHAPTER IV At Libby--Thence to Clover, Danville, Greensboro, and Salisbury--Effort to Pledge us not to Attempt Escape 43 CHAPTER V At Salisbury--Great Plot to Escape--How Frustrated 60 CHAPTER VI From Salisbury to Danville--The Forlorn Situation--Effort to "Extract Sunshine from Cucumbers"--The Vermin--The Prison Commandant a Yale Man--Proposed Theatricals--Rules Adopted--Studies--Vote in Prison for Lincoln and McClellan--Killing Time 77 CHAPTER VII Exact Record of Rations in Danville--Opportunity to Cook--Daily Routine of Proceedings from Early Dawn till Late at Night 93