; some of them, who had
bivouacked south of Front Royal, had already marched sixteen miles,
the Federals had more than two hours' start, and Winchester was still
twelve miles distant. But the enemy's cavalry had been routed, and
such as remained of the waggons were practically without a guard.
Ashby and Steuart, with three fine regiments of Virginia cavalry,
supported by the horse-artillery and other batteries, were well to
the front, and "there was every reason to believe," to use Jackson's
own words, "that if Banks reached Winchester, it would be without a
train, if not without an army."

But the irregular organisation of the Valley forces proved a bar to
the fulfilment of Jackson's hopes. On approaching Newtown he found
that the pursuit had been arrested. Two pieces of artillery were
engaging a Federal battery posted beyond the village, but the
Confederate guns were almost wholly unsupported. Ashby had come up
with the convoy. A few rounds of shell had dispersed the escort. The
teamsters fled, and the supply waggons and sutlers' carts of the
Federal army, filled with luxuries, proved a temptation which the
half-starving Confederates were unable to resist. "Nearly the whole
of Ashby's cavalry and a part of the infantry under his command had
turned aside to pillage. Indeed the firing had not ceased, in the
first onset upon the Federal cavalry at Middletown, before some of
Ashby's men might have been seen, with a quickness more suitable to
horse-thieves than to soldiers, breaking from their ranks, seizing
each two or three of the captured horses and making off across the
fields. Nor did the men pause until they had carried their illegal
booty to their homes, which were, in some instances, at the distance
of one or two days' journey. That such extreme disorders could
occur," adds Dabney, "and that they could be passed over without a
bloody punishment, reveals the curious inefficiency of officers in
the Confederate army."* (* Dabney volume 2 pages 101 and 102. "The
difficulty," says General Taylor, speaking of the Confederate
cavalry, "of converting raw men into soldiers is enhanced manifold
when they are mounted. Both man and horse require training, and
facilities for rambling, with temptation to do so, are increased.
There was little time, and it may be said less disposition, to
establish camps of instruction. Living on horseback, fearless and
dashing, the men of the South afforded the best possible material for
caval