gue and Carpenter came into
position and began with grape and canister. The blue Parrott, full
before the bridge mouth, menacing the lane within, answered with a
shriek of shells. The 37th and Jackson left the road, plunged down the
ragged slope of grass and vines, and came obliquely toward the dark
tunnel. Jackson and Little Sorrel had slipped into their battle aspect.
You would have said that every auburn hair of the general's head and
beard was a vital thing. His eyes glowed as though there were lamps
behind, and his voice rose like a trumpet of promise and doom.
"Halt!--Aim at the gunners!--Fire! Fix bayonets! Charge!"

The 37th rushed in column through the bridge. The blue cavalry fired one
volley. The unwounded among the blue artillerymen strove to plant a
shell within the dusky lane. But most of the gunners were down, or the
fuse was wrong. The grey torrent leaped out of the tunnel and upon the
gun. They took it and turned it against the horsemen. The blue cavalry
fled. On the bluff heads above the river three grey batteries came into
action. The 37th Virginia began to sweep the streets of Port Republic.

The blue cavalry, leaving the guns, leaving prisoners they had taken and
their wounded, turned alike from the upper end of the village and rode,
pell-mell, for the South Fork. One and all they splashed through, not
now in covering mist, but in hot sunshine, the 37th volleying at their
heels and from the bluffs above the Shenandoah, Poague and Carpenter and
Wooding strewing their path with grape and canister.

A mile or two in the deep woods they met Shields's infantry advance.
There followed a movement toward the town--futile enough, for as the
vanguard approached, the Confederate batteries across the river limbered
up, trotted or galloped to other positions on the green bluff heads, and
trained the guns on the ground between Port Republic and the head of the
Federal column. Winder's brigade came also and took position on the
heights commanding Lewiston, and Taliaferro's swung across the bridge
and formed upon the townward side of South Fork. Shields halted. All
day he halted, listening to the guns at Cross Keys.

Sitting Little Sorrel at the northern end of the bridge, Stonewall
Jackson watched Taliaferro's men break step and cross. A staff officer
ventured to inquire what the general thought General Shields would do.

"I think, sir, that he will stay where he is."

"All day, sir?"

"All day."

"He has