ly make their
way over the spur of the Massanutton Mountain, which here butted out
in a bold promontory, dividing the Shennandoah and the Luray Valleys,
and strike the enemy in the flank away to our right. The other
divisions were to be in readiness to attack as the roll of battle
reached their front or right. The enemy was posted on an almost
impregnable position on the bluff overlooking Cedar Creek, while in
their rear was a vast plateau of several miles in extent. The enemy's
breastworks were built of strong timbers, with earth thrown against
them, with a deep trench on the inside, being deeper from the bottom
of the trench to the top of the works than the heights of the soldiers
when standing. Thus a step of three or four feet was built for the
troops to stand on and fire. The breastworks wound in and out with the
creek, some places jutting out almost to the very brink; at others,
several hundred yards in the rear; a level piece of bottom land
intervening. This ridge and plateau were some fifty feet or more above
the level of the creek, and gave elegant position for batteries. In
front of this breastwork, and from forty to fifty feet in breadth, was
an abattis constructed of pine trees, the needles stripped, the limbs
cut and pointed five to ten feet from the trunks. These were packed
and stacked side by side and on top of each other, being almost
impossible for a single man even to pick his way through, and next to
impossible for a line of battle to cross over. All along the entire
length of the fortifications were built great redoubts of earthwork in
the form of squares, the earth being of sufficient thickness to turn
any of our cannon balls, while all around was a ditch from twelve to
fifteen feet deep--only one opening in the rear large enough to admit
the teams drawing the batteries. Field pieces were posted at each
angle, the infantry, when needed, filled the space between. These
forts were built about two hundred yards apart, others being built
in front of the main line. This I believe was the most completely
fortified position by nature, as well as by hand, of any line occupied
during the war, and had the troops not been taken by surprise and
stood their ground, a regiment strung out could have kept an army at
bay.

General Gordon's troops left camp earlier than did Kershaw's,
beginning their winding march at single file around the mountain side,
over the great promontory, down in the plain below, through b