s of the
strange message read off by our signal officers from the waving
flags of the Confederates in plain sight on the crest of Three Top
Mountain.(2) This message purported to have been sent by Longstreet
to Early. "Be ready," it said, "to move as soon as my forces join
you, and we will crush Sheridan." The true story of this despatch
has not until now been made public,(3) and many are the surmises,
clever or stupid, that have been wasted upon the mystery. In fact,
the message was, as both Sheridan and Wright naturally inferred,
a trick intended to deceive them; Early thought to induce them to
move back without waiting for the attack which, with his reduced
strength, he wished to avoid. The effect was to put the Union
commanders on their guard against what was actually about to happen.
Therefore Sheridan instantly turned back all the cavalry save one
regiment, which he kept for an escort, and rode on to Rectortown,
and so went by rail to Washington--first, however, taking the
precaution to warn Wright to strengthen his position, to close in
Powell from Front Royal, to look well to the ground, and to be
prepared. In his official report of the campaign, Sheridan, speaking
of the events now to be related, said:

"This surprise was owing probably to not closing in Powell or that
the cavalry divisions of Merritt and Custer were placed at the
right of our line, where it had always occurred to me there was
but little danger of attack."

But it is important to observe and remember that although Wright,
in sending Longstreet's message, had remarked--

"If the enemy should be strongly reinforced in cavalry he might,
by turning my right, give us a great deal of trouble. . . . I shall
only fear an attack on my right,"

yet Sheridan in his reply made no allusion to any difference of
opinion on his part as to the place of danger. His instructions
to close in Powell, Torbert, under Wright's direction, executed by
calling in Moore's brigade to cover Buckton's Ford, on the left
and rear of Crook. Powell, with the rest of his division, was left
at Front Royal to hold off Lomax.

Sheridan went on to Washington. Arriving there on the morning of
the 17th, he at once asked for a special train to take him to
Martinsburg at noon, and having, between a late breakfast and an
early luncheon, transacted all his business at the War Office,
including the conversion of the government to his views, set out
to rejoin his command. W