ght, almost to Front Royal, on the left,
following nearly the course of Cedar creek, and that part of the north
branch of the Shenandoah which crosses the valley at right angles.

The enemy had been trying our line at various points, during the last
two or three days, and in one instance had captured or dispersed a small
squad of cavalry on the right, and captured some signaling instruments.
These demonstrations were little heeded; our line had been posted by
General Sheridan, and these slight attacks seemed of little account. In
Early's army, however, they were considered of more weighty import. That
army had recently been reinforced by Longstreet's corps of sixteen
thousand men, and the immediate defeat, and, if possible, destruction,
of Sheridan's army was regarded, by both General Lee and the authorities
at Richmond, as absolutely necessary to the safety of Lee's army. Hence
every preparation had been made for a most determined attack, and these
lighter demonstrations had been made to ascertain the exact position of
our troops.

When, at two o'clock, on the morning of the nineteenth of October, we
heard rapid firing where Custer, with his horsemen, held the right, and
on the left, where Averill's cavalry was posted, we turned over in our
blankets and said, "The cavalry is having a brush," and went to sleep
again. And then, at a later hour, at four o'clock in the morning, when
we of the Sixth corps heard brisk picket firing in front of the Eighth
and Nineteenth corps, we were scarcely aroused from our slumbers, for we
thought it to be a mere picket skirmish, in which none but those
directly engaged had any particular interest. But when the firing became
general along the whole line of these two corps, and we saw hundreds of
men going with hasty steps and lengthy strides to the rear, we were at
length aroused to the truth that a battle was really in progress.

From a Sixth corps point of view, the scene was at first extremely
ludicrous, we did not know and could not have believed at that time that
the flank of our army was turned, and that the enemy was actually in
possession of the camps of one whole corps; and when we saw stragglers
filling the fields, taking rapid strides toward the rear, scarce any two
of them going together, some without hats, others destitute of coats or
boots, a few with guns, many wearing the shoulder straps of officers,
all bent on getting a good way to the rear, never stopping to answer a