After the battle of Winchester, General Shields showed a disposition to appropriate the laurels won by others to himself. In a letter to a friend at Washington, he claimed that, after the reconnoissance to Strasburg, on the 18th, he fell back hurriedly, for the purpose of deceiving the enemy into the belief that his force was small; and that after arriving at Winchester, he moved his division beyond the town, so as to create the belief in the minds of the citizens that most of his force had been sent away. Now the fact is, this reconnoissance was greatly the result of accident. The original design of it was to capture the enemy's advance; this failing, the force proceeded to Strasburg for the purpose of discovering whether or not the enemy was in force in the vicinity. It was clearly shown by this advance, what was afterwards well known, that nothing but a small cavalry force occupied Strasburg, and that Jackson was some distance up the valley. The hurried march of the division back to Winchester, was also the result of accident. The command marched left in front, which brought a regiment in the advance whose colonel cared little for the comfort of his men; hence the rapid march. Shields reached Winchester in advance of the command, having gone on before. After our return there was no change of position, as our tents had not been disturbed, and we reoccupied them as they were before leaving. If Jackson was deceived, the credit of it is not due to Shields, for he was confident to the very last that there was no other force in his front than Ashby. Even as late as Sunday noon, when in reality the battle had begun, he ridiculed the idea of Colonel Kimball calling for so many troops, remarking, that "Kimball wanted more troops than was necessary for the force in front of him." He also boastfully said, that "Jackson knew him, and was afraid of him."
His friends tried to make it appear that it was by his direction that the troops were manœuvred on the field of battle. Now the fact is, he was four miles away, and in such a condition from a wound that he compelled one of the best surgeons of the division to remain with him till long after the battle, against the request of the medical director, who represented to him, in the most earnest manner, that the wounded were suffering for the want of medical attention. In thus retaining a surgeon for his own purpose, while the wounded were suffering for medical aid, he was criminal in the extreme. He committed an offence which ought to have deprived him of his commission.
Colonel Kimball was mainly instrumental in achieving the victory, assisted, of course, by those under his command. The skilful manner, however, in which the troops were managed was entirely due to him; and the authorities regarded it in that light, for he was immediately made a brigadier-general, as were both Tyler and Sullivan.
The number of rebel forces engaged in the battle of Winchester has been variously estimated. They probably numbered sixteen regiments of infantry, four full batteries of artillery, together with one of four guns; in the aggregate, twenty-eight pieces and three battalions of cavalry, under Ashby and Stewart;—in all, eleven thousand men. The Union forces consisted of thirteen regiments of infantry, four full batteries of artillery and a section; in the aggregate, twenty-six pieces, and a battalion of cavalry;—in all, nine thousand men.
The rebel army was the attacking force, yet the engagement between the infantry was on ground of their own choosing, by reason of the Third brigade charging one of their batteries. It was in the vicinity of this battery, which was at least a mile in advance of our selected line of battle, that the fighting occurred which turned the tide of battle. At this point the enemy had every advantage of position. He was securely posted behind a stone wall, and in a belt of timber extending along a ridge; while our forces were compelled to advance across a plain exposed to a galling fire from infantry and artillery; and it was not until they arrived within eighty yards of his line that any thing like a fair ground could be obtained. Jackson, the famous commander of the no-less famous "stone-wall brigade," a sobriquet it had obtained at Bull Run, was fairly beaten; and that, too, by a force without a general, and of inferior numbers. The victory was so complete, that the enemy left two hundred and twenty-five dead on the field. Their killed and wounded amounted to nearly nine hundred, while their loss in prisoners was upwards of two hundred and fifty: adding stragglers and deserters to these figures, and it will swell the number to about two thousand. The Fifth Virginia rebel regiment was nearly annihilated: there was hardly sufficient of it left to preserve its organization.
The loss to the Seventh was fourteen killed and fifty-one wounded: but few were taken prisoners, and those by accident. The following is the list:
Killed.—Orderly-Sergeant A. C. Danforth; Corporal A. C. Griswold; privates, Charles Stern, James Carroll, James Creiglow, Allen C. Lamb, Stephen W. Rice, E. G. Sackett, Reuben Burnham, Louis Carven, Elias Hall, John Fram, Fred. Groth, James Bish.
Wounded.—Captain J. F. Asper; Lieutenant Samuel McClelland; Sergeant-Major J. P. Webb, and Sergeant A. J. Kelly, mortally; sergeants, A. H. Fitch, E. M. Lazonny; corporals, Ed. Kelley, William Saddler, Geo. Blandin, William E. Smith, Benjamin Gridley; privates, Fred. Hoffman, Daniel Clancey, Leander Campbell, Joseph Miller, Hampton Gardner, Arthur Lappin, Thomas Fresher, Duncan Reid, Joseph Smith, Albert E. Withers, Charles Fagan, O. H. Worcester, W. Coleman, Stephen Kellogg, John Gardner, F. M. Palmer, F. A. Warner, Daniel Kingsbury, Richard Winsor, John Milliman, John Atwater, Geo. Anness, Fred. Bethel, Charles W. Minnick, Moses Owens, Arba Pritchell, Edward Thompson, Edward E. Tracy, A. A. Cavanaha, S. Bishop, Owen Gregory, James Hunt, W. McClurg, H. M. McQuiston, D. O'Conner, P. Tenny, Richard Phillips, T. B. Danon, Wm. Birch, Henry Clemens.