h by a bridge, and
camped on the stream, near Luray. Here, after three long marches, we
were but a short distance below Conrad's store, a point we had left
several days before. I began to think that Jackson was an unconscious
poet, and, as an ardent lover of nature, desired to give strangers an
opportunity to admire the beauties of his Valley. It seemed hard lines
to be wandering like sentimental travelers about the country, instead
of gaining "kudos" on the Peninsula.

Off the next morning, my command still in advance, and Jackson riding
with me. The road led north between the east bank of the river and the
western base of the Blue Ridge. Rain had fallen and softened it, so as
to delay the wagon trains in rear. Past midday we reached a wood
extending from the mountain to the river, when a mounted officer from
the rear called Jackson's attention, who rode back with him. A moment
later, there rushed out of the wood to meet us a young, rather
well-looking woman, afterward widely known as Belle Boyd. Breathless
with speed and agitation, some time elapsed before she found her voice.
Then, with much volubility, she said we were near Front Royal, beyond
the wood; that the town was filled with Federals, whose camp was on the
west side of the river, where they had guns in position to cover the
wagon bridge, but none bearing on the railway bridge below the former;
that they believed Jackson to be west of Massanutten, near Harrisonburg;
that General Banks, the Federal commander, was at Winchester, twenty
miles northwest of Front Royal, where he was slowly concentrating his
widely scattered forces to meet Jackson's advance, which was expected
some days later. All this she told with the precision of a staff officer
making a report, and it was true to the letter. Jackson was possessed of
these facts before he left Newmarket, and based his movements upon them;
but, as he never told anything, it was news to me, and gave me an idea
of the strategic value of Massanutten--pointed out, indeed, by
Washington before the Revolution. There also dawned on me quite another
view of our leader than the one from which I had been regarding him for
two days past.

Convinced of the correctness of the woman's statements, I hurried
forward at "a double," hoping to surprise the enemy's idlers in the
town, or swarm over the wagon bridge with them and secure it. Doubtless
this was rash, but I felt immensely "cocky" about my brigade, and
believed that it