pproach invited, for in all wars enterprises
apparently impracticable have been carelessly guarded against and
positions apparently impregnable have been loosely watched and
lightly defended, so that it might not be too much to say that
every insurmountable difficulty has been surmounted and every
impregnable stronghold taken. Such apprehensions as the commander
of the Union army may be supposed to have entertained were directed
toward his right, where Torbert was, and where the back road to
Winchester gave easy access to his rear.

While Early was engaged in considering this plan, he sent Gordon,
accompanied by Major Hotchkiss of the engineers, to the signal
station on the crest of Three Top Mountain to examine the position
of the Union army and to study the details of the proposed movement.
From this height these officers looked down upon the country about
Cedar Creek as upon an amphitheatre and saw the Union camps as in
a panorama. Every feature was in plain view; they counted the
tents; they noted the dispositions for attack; they made out the
exact situation of the various headquarters; and casting careful
glances into the shadowy depths of the Shenandoah, winding about
the foot of the mountain far below them, they perceived that the
flank of Three Top afforded a footing for the passage of the infantry
at least. Upon this information Early was not long in deciding
upon his course. Under cover of the night he would send the
divisions of Gordon, Ramseur, and Pegram,(4) all under the command
of Gordon, over the Shenandoah near Fisher's Hill, across the
ox-bow, to the foot of Three Top. Thence picking his way over the
foot of the mountain, Gordon in two columns was to cross the river
a second time at McInturff's Ford, just below the mouth of Cedar
Creek and at Bowman's Ford, several hundred yards below. There he
would find himself on the flank and in easy reach of the rear of
Crook, and indeed of the whole Union army, with nothing but a thin
line of pickets to hinder the rush. While Gordon was thus stealthily
creeping into position for his spring, Early meant to take Kershaw
and Wharton upon the valley road and quietly to gain a good position
for assailing Crook and Emory in front, as soon as the rifles of
Gordon should be heard toward the rear. Rosser was to drive in
the cavalry on the right of the Union army, while Lomax, from the
Luray, was expected to gain the valley road somewhere near Newtown,
so as to