eport to General
Custer who was preparing for what proved to be the final charge of the
battle. This was made upon a brigade of infantry which was still
gallantly trying to make a stand toward Winchester and in front of a
large stone house. The ground descended from Custer's position to that
occupied by this infantry. Custer formed his men in line and, at the
moment when the enemy began a movement to the rear, charged down upon
them with a yell that could be heard above the din of the battle. In a
brief time he was in their midst. They threw down their arms and
surrendered. Several hundred of them had retreated to the inside of the
stone house. The house was surrounded and they were all made prisoners.

This charge, in which the Michigan brigade captured more prisoners than
it had men engaged, was for perhaps an eighth of a mile within range of
the batteries on the heights around Winchester, and until it became
dangerous to their own men, the artillery enfiladed our line.

A fragment of one of those shells struck my horse, "Billy," in the nose,
taking out a chunk the size of my fist and he carried the scar till the
day of his death (in 1888). This last charge finished the battle. Early
retreated through Winchester up the valley and nothing was left but to
pursue. Sheridan broke Early's left flank by the movement of the cavalry
from his own right. It was the first time that proper use of this arm
had been made in a great battle during the war. He was the only general
of that war who knew how to make cavalry and infantry supplement each
other in battle. Had the tactics of the battle been reversed,--that is
to say, if Sheridan had moved against Early's right flank instead of his
left,--nothing could have prevented the capture or destruction of
Early's army, as his retreat would have been cut off. But the way to the
south was left open, and Early escaped once more to Fisher's Hill, where
he was found the next day with the remnant--a very respectable
remnant--of his army.

It may be of interest to some of my medical friends to remark here in
passing, that the battle of Winchester cured my jaundice. After crossing
the Opequon I began to be ravenously hungry, and begged and ate hardtack
until there was some danger that the supply would be exhausted. The men
soon saw the situation and when one saw me approaching he would "present
hardtack" without awaiting the order. So I went into the mounted part of
the engagement with a fu