tween Front Royal and Strasburg. The 6th Virginia had
accompanied Jackson, the 2nd, under Colonel Munford, destroyed the
railway bridges eastward of Front Royal. Had Kenly retreated on
Strasburg he would have found Ashby on his flank. Had reinforcements
been despatched from Strasburg they would have had to deal with Ashby
before they could reach Kenly. Had the Federals attempted to escape
by Manassas Gap they would have found Munford across their path.
Meanwhile another party of cavalry had cut the telegraph between
Front Royal and Washington; and a strong detachment, scouring the
country east of the Blue Ridge, checked Geary's patrols, and blocked
the entrance to the Gap from the direction of Manassas. Within an
hour after his pickets were surprised Kenly was completely isolated.*
(* The ingenuous report of a Federal officer engaged at Front Royal
is significant of the effect of the sudden attack of the
Confederates. He was sick at the time, but managed to escape. "By
considerable coaxing," he wrote, "I obtained an entrance to a house
near by. I was now completely broken down--so much so that the
gentleman prepared a liniment for me, and actually bound up some of
my bruises, while the female portion of the household actually
screamed for joy at our defeat! I was helped to bed, and next morning
was taken by Mr. Bitzer to Winchester in his carriage. He is a
gentleman in all particulars, but his family is the reverse (sic). On
reaching Winchester I found things decidedly squally, and concluded
to get out. I was carried to Martinsburg, and being offered by the
agent of a luggage train to take me to Baltimore, I concluded to
accept the offer, and took a sleeping bunk, arriving in Baltimore the
next afternoon." He then proceeded to Philadelphia, and sent for his
physician. Several of his officers whom he found in the town he
immediately sent back to the colours; but as he believed that "the
morale of his regiment was not as it should be" he remained himself
in Philadelphia.)

A failure in staff duties marred to some extent the Confederate
success. "A vicious usage," according to Dabney, "obtained at this
time in the Southern armies." This was the custom of temporarily
attaching to the staff of a general commanding a division or an army
a company of cavalry to do the work of orderlies. By this clumsy
contrivance the organisation of the cavalry regiments was broken up,
the men detached were deprived of all opportunity for dri