The Scouts of Stonewall: The Story of the Great Valley CampaignAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
History
The Scouts of Stonewall: The Story of the Great Valley Campaign
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Juvenile fiction
Harry was scarcely conscious of what he was doing. He was slashing with
his sword and shooting with the rest. Sometimes his eyes were filled
with dust and smoke and then again they would clear. He heard the voices
of officers shouting to both cavalry and infantry to charge, and then
there was a confused and terrible melee.
Harry never remembered much of that charge, and he was glad that he did
not. He preferred that it should remain a blur in which he could not
pick out the details. He was conscious of the shock, when horse met
horse and body met body. He saw the flash of rifle and pistol shots,
and the gleam of sabers through the smoke, and he heard a continuous
shouting kept up by friend and foe.
Then he felt the Northern army, struck with such terrific force, giving
way. Kenly had made a heroic stand, but he could no longer support the
attacks from all sides. One of his cannon was taken and then all. He
himself fell wounded terribly. His senior officers also fell, as they
tried to rally their men, who were giving way at all points.
Sherburne wheeled his troop away again and charged at the Northern
cavalry, which was still in order. Harry had seen Jackson himself give
the command to the captain. It was the redoubtable commander who saw all
and understood all, who always struck, with his sword directly at the
weak point in the enemy's armor. Harry saw that eye glittering as he had
never seen it glitter before, and the command was given in words of fire
that communicated a like fire to every man in the troop.
The Northern cavalry cut to pieces, Kenly's whole army dissolved. The
attack was so terrific, so overwhelming, and was pushed home so hard,
that panic ran through the ranks of those brave men. They fled through
the orchards and the fields, and Jackson never ceased to urge on the
pursuit, taking whole companies here and there, and seizing scattered
fugitives.
Ashby, with the chief body of the cavalry, galloped on ahead to a
railway station, where Pennsylvania infantry were on guard. They had
just got ready a telegraphic message to Banks for help, but his men
rushed the station before it could be sent, tore up the railroad tracks,
cut the telegraph wires, carried by storm a log house in which the
Pennsylvanians had taken refuge, and captured them all.
The Northern army had ceased to exist. Save for some fugitives, it had
all fallen or was in the hands of Jackson, and the triumphant cheers of
the Southerners rang over the field. Banks, at Strasburg, not far away,
did not know that Kenly's force had been destroyed. Three hours after
the attack had been made, an orderly covered with dust galloped into his
camp and told him that Kenly was pressed hard--he did not know the full
truth himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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