r horses
to escape upon, leaving the teams to mingle in the greatest disorder.
Drivers of ambulances filled with dead and wounded also fled, and
the animals ran with them unguided over the field. The scene was
of the wildest ruin. The gloom of night soon fell over the field
to add to its appalling character.

The guns lost by the Eighth and Nineteenth Corps were taken in the
morning to the public square of Strasburg and triumphantly parked
on exhibition. Our cavalry found them there at night. Little that
makes up an army was left to Early; the disaster reached every part
of his army save, possibly, his cavalry which operated on the remote
flanks. In a large sense, Rosser's cavalry, throughout the day,
had been neutralized by a portion of Custer's, and Lomax had been
held back by Powell on the Front Royal road. Dismay indescribable
extended to the Confederate officers as well as the private soldiers.
Among the former were some of the best and bravest the South
produced. Early himself possessed the confidence of General Lee.
Early had, as division commanders, General John B. Gordon (since
in the United States Senate), Joseph B. Kershaw, Stephen D. Ramseur,
John Pegram, and Gabriel C. Wharton, all of whom had won distinction.
Ramseur fell mortally wounded in attempting a last stand near the
Belle Grove House, and died there. Early fled from the field,
surrounded by a few faithful followers, deeply chagrined and
dejected, and filled with unjust censure of his own troops.(25)
The next day found him still without an organized army.(26) He
seems to have deserved a better fate. His star of military glory
had set. It never rose again. A few months later he reached
Richmond with a single attendant, having barely escaped capture
shortly before by a detachment of Sheridan's cavalry. He finally
returned to Southwest Virginia, where Lee relieved him of all
command, March 30, 1865.

His misfortunes in the Valley, doubtless, had much to do with his
continued implacable hatred to the Union. Sheridan was his nemesis.
Just after Kirby Smith had surrendered in 1865 and Sheridan was on
his way to the Rio Grande, the latter encountered Early escaping
across the Mississippi in a small boat, with his horses swimming
beside it. He got away, but his horses were captured.(27)

Sheridan, for his great skill and gallantry, justly won the plaudits
of his country, and his fame as a soldier will be immortal, but
not alone on accoun