o fortify.
They slept that night at Martinsburg, and rode the next day, the
18th of October, to Winchester. There Sheridan learned that all
was well with his army and was also told of the reconnoissances
projected for the next morning. He determined to remain at Winchester
in order to go over the ground the next morning with the engineers.
Aroused about six o'clock by the report of heavy firing, he ascribed
it to the reconnoitring column, and thought but little of it until,
between half-past eight and nine, having finished his breakfast,
he became uneasy at the continued sound of the cannon. Then mounting
"Rienzi," accompanied by his staff and followed by his escort, he
rode out to join his army where he had left it, fourteen miles
away, on the banks of Cedar Creek. The fight of the morning had
come to an end an hour ago. Riding at an easy trot half a mile
out on the hill beyond Abraham's Creek,(9) he was shocked to see
the tattered and dishevelled head of the column of stragglers,
every man making the best of his way toward the Potomac, without
his arms, his equipments, or his knapsack, carrying, in short,
nothing but what he wore. Most of these must have been shaken out
of the ranks when Kershaw surprised the camp of Thoburn. If this
be so, they had travelled more than thirteen miles in little more
than three hours.

This appalling sight brought to Sheridan's mind the Longstreet
message, "Be ready when I join you, and we will crush Sheridan."
Should he stop his routed army at Winchester and fight there? No,
he must go to his men, restore their broken ranks, or share their
fate. How he rode on has been made famous in song and story, yet
never so well told as in the modest narrative, stamped in every
line with the impress of the soldier's truthful frankness, than in
the entertaining volumes that were the last work of the great
leader's life.(10)

Once arrived on the field, about half-past ten or perhaps eleven
o'clock, Sheridan lost no time in assuming personal command of the
army. Establishing his headquarters on the hill behind Getty, he
proceeded to complete the dispositions he found already in progress.
He saw at a glance that the line on which Wright had placed Getty
was well chosen; and though knowing nothing of the break that had
taken place during the accidental loss of direction by the left
wing of Getty's corps, and so wrongly inferring from what he saw
that Getty was a mere rear-guard, he yet ad