west. Drained by the
Shenandoah with its numerous affluents, the surface was nowhere flat,
but a succession of graceful swells, occasionally rising into abrupt
hills. Resting on limestone, the soil was productive, especially of
wheat, and the underlying rock furnished abundant metal for the
construction of roads. Railway communication was limited to the Virginia
Central, which entered the Valley by a tunnel east of Staunton and
passed westward through that town; to the Manassas Gap, which traversed
the Blue Ridge at the pass of that name and ended at Strasburg; and to
the Winchester and Harper's Ferry, thirty miles long. The first extended
to Richmond by Charlottesville and Gordonsville, crossing at the former
place the line from Washington and Alexandria to Lynchburg; the second
connected Strasburg and Front Royal, in the Valley, with the same line
at Manassas Junction; and the last united with the Baltimore and Ohio at
Harper's Ferry. Frequent passes or gaps in the mountains, through which
wagon roads had been constructed, afforded easy access from east and
west; and pikes were excellent, though unmetaled roads became heavy
after rains.

But the glory of the Valley is Massanutten. Rising abruptly from the
plain near Harrisonburg, twenty-five miles north of Staunton, this
lovely mountain extends fifty miles, and as suddenly ends near
Strasburg. Parallel with the Blue Ridge, and of equal height, its sharp
peaks have a bolder and more picturesque aspect, while the abruptness of
its slopes gives the appearance of greater altitude. Midway of
Massanutten, a gap with good road affords communication between
Newmarket and Luray. The eastern or Luray valley, much narrower than the
one west of Massanutten, is drained by the east branch of the
Shenandoah, which is joined at Front Royal, near the northern end of the
mountain, by its western affluent, whence the united waters flow north,
at the base of the Blue Ridge, to meet the Potomac at Harper's Ferry.

The inhabitants of this favored region were worthy of their inheritance.
The north and south were peopled by scions of old colonial families, and
the proud names of the "Old Dominion" abounded. In the central counties
of Rockingham and Shenandoah were many descendants of German settlers.
These were thrifty, substantial farmers, and, like their kinsmen of
Pennsylvania, expressed their opulence in huge barns and fat cattle. The
devotion of all to the Southern cause was wonderful