s staff to make a strategic retreat on Winchester, "By God, sir,
I will not retreat! We have more to fear from the opinions of our
friends than from the bayonets of our enemies!" The Cabinet backed
him up next day by actually proposing to reinforce him at Strasburg
with troops from Washington and Baltimore. Nevertheless he was
forced to fly for his life to Winchester. His stores at Strasburg
had to be abandoned. His long train of wagons was checked on the
way, with considerable loss. And some of his cavalry, caught on
the road by horsemen who could ride across country, were smashed
to pieces.

Jackson pressed on relentlessly to Winchester with every one who
could march like "foot cavalry," as his Valley men came to be called.
On the twenty-fifth, the third day of unremitting action, he carried
the Winchester heights and drove Banks through the town. Only the
Second Massachusetts, which had already distinguished itself during
the retreat, preserved its formation. Ten thousand Confederate
bayonets glittered in the morning sun. The long gray lines swept
forward. The piercing rebel yell rose high. And the people, wild
with joy, rushed out of doors to urge the victors on.

By the twenty-sixth, the first day on which Stanton's reinforcements
from Baltimore and Washington could possibly have fought at Strasburg,
the Confederates had reached Martinsburg, fifty miles beyond it.
Banks had already crossed the Potomac, farther on still. The newsboys
of the North were crying, _Defeat of General Banks! Washington in
danger!_ Thirteen Governors were calling for special State militia,
for which a million men were volunteering, spare troops were hurrying
to Harper's Ferry, a reserve corps was being formed at Washington,
the Federal Government was assuming control of all the railroad
lines, and McClellan was being warned that he must either take
Richmond at once or come back to save the capital. Nor did the
strategic disturbance stop even there; for the Washington authorities
ordered McDowell's force at Fredericksburg to the Valley just as
it was coming into touch with McClellan.

On the twenty-eighth Jackson might have taken Harper's Ferry. But
the storm was gathering round him. A great strategist directing
the Federal forces could have concentrated fifty thousand men, by
sunset on the first of June, against Jackson's Army of the Valley,
which could not possibly have mustered one-third of such a number.
McDowell arrived that night a