s, six or eight mangled bodies would lie in close proximity,
showing the fatal effects of some well directed shell.

In Winchester were nearly five thousand prisoners, and more were
constantly coming in, and hundreds of rebel wounded were being cared for
by sympathizing friends and confederate surgeons.

We reached the vicinity of Strasburgh, the Sixth corps in advance, at
three o'clock on the 20th, and, as we expected, found the rebels
awaiting us in a position, which the citizens of the valley assured us
could be held by Early's army against one hundred thousand men. The
position was indeed a formidable one, but nothing daunted our spirited
leader set about devising a way of taking it.

At Strasburgh the two chains of mountains, the Blue Ridge and the
Alleghanies, approach each other, making the valley quite narrow. As if
to interpose an impassable barrier to the advance of an army, a
mountain, Fisher Hill, stretches across from the Blue Ridge to the
branch of the Alleghanies called the North Mountains. At the foot of
this mountain, on the north, is the village of Strasburgh, and still
north of Strasburgh Cedar creek runs almost directly across the valley.
We took possession of the northern part of the village of Strasburgh,
the Union pickets occupying one part of the town, and the rebels the
other. The night passed with little of interest.

On the morning of the 21st squads of rebel prisoners were coming in to
army head-quarters, and as brigade after brigade of cavalry passed, each
carrying a large number of confederate flags at the head of the column,
it looked as though our cavalry had adopted the confederate banner and
had paraded in gala day splendor.

The mists and fogs melted away, and we discovered that our enemy, lately
routed and disorganized, now with confidence confronted us and awaited
our advance. During the night the mountain had been the scene of busy
labors, and now, breastworks of earth and stones, and lines of
troublesome abattis, rendered the position, so strong by nature,
apparently too formidable for any army to attempt to force. But,
notwithstanding the brilliant success at Winchester, neither the rebel
army nor our own fully appreciated the fertile resources of our gallant
leader. Starting with his staff early in the day, he rode from one end
of the picket line to the other, carefully noting the character of the
ground.

To attempt to storm those heights, now strengthened with earthworks