McClellan telegraphed that he was "much pleased with the vigorous
pursuit!"

It is not impossible that Banks suspected that McClellan's
commendations were ironical. In any case, praise had no more effect
upon him than a peremptory order or the promise of reinforcements. He
was instructed to push forward as far as New Market; he was told that
he would be joined by two regiments of cavalry, and that two brigades
of Blenker's division were marching to Strasburg. But Jackson,
although Ashby had been driven in, still held obstinately to his
position, and from Woodstock and Edenburg Banks refused to move.

On April 4, becoming independent of McClellan,* (* On this date
McClellan ceased to be Commander-in-Chief.) he at once reported to
the Secretary of War that he hoped "immediately to strike Jackson an
effective blow." "Immediately," however, in Banks' opinion, was
capable of a very liberal interpretation, for it was not till April
17 that he once more broke up his camps. Well might Gordon write that
life at Edenburg became monotonous!

It is but fair to mention that during the whole of this time Banks
was much troubled about supply and transport. His magazines were at
Winchester, connected with Harper's Ferry and Washington by a line of
railway which had been rapidly repaired, and on April 12 this line
had become unserviceable through the spreading of the road-bed.* (*
The bridges over the railway between Strasburg and Manassas Gap,
which would have made a second line available, had not yet been
repaired.) His waggon train, moreover, had been diverted to Manassas
before the fight at Kernstown, and was several days late in reaching
Strasburg. The country in which he was operating was rich, and
requisitions were made upon the farmers; but in the absence of the
waggons, according to his own report, it was impossible to collect
sufficient supplies for a further advance.* (* On April 3 Jackson
wrote that the country around Banks was "very much drained of
forage.") The weather, too, had been unfavourable. The first days of
April were like summer. "But hardly," says Gordon, "had we begun to
feel in harmony with sunny days and blooming peach trees and warm
showers, before a chill came over us, bitter as the hatred of the
women of Virginia: the ground covered with snow, the air thick with
hail, and the mountains hidden in the chilly atmosphere. Our
shivering sentinels on the outer lines met at times the gaze of
half-frozen horsem