As soon as General Banks received news of this disaster at Front Royal, and knew that General Jackson was advancing in force, he perceived his danger and ordered a retreat. And now commenced a race between the two armies, for the town of Winchester. Had Jackson reached that point first, he would have intercepted the little band of Union soldiers, cut off their supplies, and forced their surrender. But the celerity and courage of General Banks’s forces proved their salvation. They retired, indeed, in the face of superior numbers; but they retired fighting. At Newtown, at Kernstown, and at Winchester they were closely pushed by the pursuing foe; but, at every point of attack, the enemy was checked and held at bay. The severest encounter took place at Winchester. General Gordon’s brigade was here engaged, and gained great honor by its gallantry and coolness. The regiments constituting it were the Second Massachusetts, Lieut-Col. Andrews; the Third Wisconsin, Col. Ruger; the Twenty-seventh Indiana, Col. Colgrove; and the Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania, Col. Murphy. The stability with which this brigade opposed itself to overwhelming numbers undoubtedly saved General Banks’ Army. General Gordon thus describes its final retreat: “I fell back slowly, but generally in good order. The Second Massachusetts in column of companies moving by flank, the Third Wisconsin in line of battle moving to the rear. On every side above the surrounding crest surged the rebel forces. A sharp and withering fire of musketry was opened by the enemy from the crest upon our centre, left and right. The yells of a victorious and merciless foe were heard above the din of battle, but my command was not dismayed. The Second Massachusetts halted in a street of the town to reform its line, then pushed on with the column, which, with its long train of baggage-wagons, division, brigade, and regimental, was making its way in good order towards Martinsburgh. “My retreating column suffered serious loss in the streets of Winchester: males and females vied with each other in increasing the number of their victims by firing from the houses, throwing hand-grenades, hot water, and missiles of every description. The hellish spirit of murder was carried on by the enemy’s cavalry, who followed to butcher, and who struck down with sabre and pistol the helpless soldier sinking from fatigue, unheeding his cries for mercy, indifferent to his claims as a prisoner of war. “This record of infamy is preserved for the females of Winchester. But this is not all: our wounded in hospital, necessarily left to the mercies of our enemies, I am credibly informed were bayoneted by the rebel infantry. In the same town, in the same apartments, where we, when victors on the field of Winchester, so tenderly nursed the rebel wounded, we were even so more than barbarously rewarded.” THE INVESTMENT AND OCCUPATION OF CORINTH. MAY 12–30, 1862.