nd for a waltz. After a contemplative suck at
a lemon, 'Thoughtless fellows for serious work' came forth. I
expressed a hope that the work would not be less well done because of
the gaiety. A return to the lemon gave me the opportunity to retire.
Where Jackson got his lemons 'No fellow could find out,' but he was
rarely without one. To have lived twelve miles from that fruit would
have disturbed him as much as it did the witty dean."* (* Destruction
and Reconstruction pages 54 to 56.)

May 21.

The next day, marching in the grey of the morning, the force moved
north, the Louisianians in advance. Suddenly, after covering a short
distance, the head of the column was turned to the right; and the
troops, who had confidently expected that Strasburg would be the
scene of their next engagement, found themselves moving eastward and
crossing the Massanuttons. The men were utterly at sea as to the
intentions of their commander. Taylor's brigade had been encamped
near Conrad's Store, only a few miles distant, not many days before,
and they had now to solve the problem why they should have made three
long marches in order to return to their former position. No word
came from Jackson to enlighten them. From time to time a courier
would gallop up, report, and return to Luray, but the general,
absorbed in thought, rode silently across the mountain, perfectly
oblivious of inquiring glances.

At New Market the troops had been halted at crossroads, and they had
marched by that which they had least expected. The camp at Luray on
the 21st presented the same puzzle. One road ran east across the
mountains to Warrenton or Culpeper; a second north to Front Royal and
Winchester; and the men said that halting them in such a position was
an ingenious device of Jackson's to prevent them fathoming his
plans.* (* Compare instructions to Ewell, ante.)

May 22.

The next day, the 22nd, the army, with Ewell leading, moved quietly
down the Luray Valley, and the advanced guard, Taylor's Louisianians,
a six-pounder battery, and the 6th Virginia Cavalry, bivouacked that
night within ten miles of Front Royal, held by a strong detachment of
Banks' small army.

Since they had Left Mount Solon and Elk Run Valley on May 19 the
troops in four days had made just sixty miles. Such celerity of
movement was unfamiliar to both Banks and Stanton, and on the night
of the 22nd neither the Secretary nor the general had the faintest
suspicion that the enemy had a