Maryland Heights; the Maryland Heights answering
sullenly. Down came the rain in torrents, the lightning flashed, the
thunder rolled. The lightnings came jaggedly, bayonets of the storm,
stabbing downward; the artillery of the skies dwarfed all sound below.
For an hour there was desultory fighting, then it ceased. The grey
troops awaiting orders, wondered, "Aren't we going to cross the river
after them?" "Oh, let it alone. Old Jack knows."

Toward midnight, in the midst of a great access of lightning, rain, and
thunder, fighting was renewed. It was not for long. The guns fell silent
again upon Loudoun Heights; moreover the long lines of couching infantry
saw by the vivid lightning the battery horses come up, wet and shining
in the rain. From regiment to regiment, under the rolling thunder, ran
the order. _Into column! By the left flank! March!_

A small stone hut on the side of a hill had formed the shelter of the
general commanding. Here he wrote and gave to two couriers a message in
duplicate.

HARPER'S FERRY,
VIRGINIA.
May 31. Midnight.

HON. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War:

Under the guidance of God I have demonstrated toward the Potomac and
drawn off McDowell, who is sending Shields by Front Royal. Moving
now to meet him and Fremont who comes from the West.

T. J. JACKSON,
_Major-General Commanding._

CHAPTER XXIV

THE FOOT CAVALRY

Three armies had for their objective Strasburg in the Valley of
Virginia, eighteen miles below Winchester. One came from the northwest,
under Fremont, and counted ten thousand. One came from the southeast,
Shields's Division from McDowell at Fredericksburg, and numbered fifteen
thousand. These two were blue clad, moving under the stars and stripes.
The third, grey, under the stars and bars, sixteen thousand muskets, led
by a man on a sorrel nag, came from Harper's Ferry. Fremont, Indian
fighter, moved fast; Shields, Irish born, veteran of the Mexican War,
moved fast; but the man in grey, on the sorrel nag, moved infantry with
the rapidity of cavalry. Around the three converging armies rested or
advanced other bodies of blue troops, hovering, watchful of the chance
to strike. Saxton at Harper's Ferry had seven thousand; Banks at
Williamsport had seven thousand. Ord, commanding McDowell's second
division, was at Manassas Gap with nine thousand.