Remaining at Harrisonburg until Oct. 6th, on that day the regiment marched to Newmarket, making eighteen miles, and, on the day following, had a still harder march of twenty-two miles. Still falling back, on the 8th Flint Hill was reached, where there was much suffering from the cold. On the 10th, after hearing orders from Gen. Sheridan, announcing a large capture of artillery, wagons, ambulances, and prisoners from Early, the army moved back to Cedar Creek, and again constructed breastworks. An engagement took place on the 14th, between a brigade of the Eighth Corps and a portion of Early’s troops, in which the Thirty Fourth Massachusetts lost heavily, Col. Wells, in command of the brigade, being killed.
On the evening of the 18th, the third brigade received orders to be in readiness in the morning for a reconnoissance, and were in line before daylight for that purpose, when a sudden crash of musketry on the left, where the Eighth Corps were encamped, gave intimation of an attack. The brigade was ordered to the breastworks immediately, and men sent forward to the creek, at the base of the hill, to give notice of the approach of the enemy. No attack was made in front; but, on the left, having flanked the Eighth Corps, and driven it back in confusion, the rebels fell upon the Nineteenth, of which the third brigade of the second division was the extreme left, the Thirty Eighth being on the right of the brigade. Exposed to a severe cross-fire, the brigade-commander, Col. McCauley, being wounded, and the victorious rebels sweeping all before them, the regiment fell back, passed through the camp, and joined in the retreat. At this time the battle seemed lost, and all the manœuvring in the Valley for the past two months thrown away; but the enemy failed to follow up his advantage promptly; and the Union army, recovering from the confusion into which it had been thrown by the suddenness of the attack, reformed its scattered ranks, and disputed the further advance of the rebels, when the arrival of Gen. Sheridan on the ground at noon, put a new face upon matters. The army was no longer without a leader. A temporary breastwork of rails was thrown up, behind which the rebel advance was awaited; and, as they drew near, a terrific volley of musketry staggered and repulsed them. The tide was turning. Riding over the field, showing himself to every regiment, and everywhere received with enthusiasm, the presence of a master-spirit was at once felt; and when the proper time came, and the order was given to charge, the army advanced with a power that crushed all resistance. The cavalry dashed into the broken ranks of the fleeing enemy, capturing them by hundreds, while the infantry pressed on eagerly toward the camps they had left in the morning. In this final charge, for almost the first time in its history, the regiment was in the second line of battle.
Back over the battle-ground where they had triumphed all day, over the Union breastworks, and beyond Cedar Creek, in one confused mass, the discomfited rebels fled, abandoning guns, wagons, rations, and even the plunder of the Union camps; while the victors took possession of their recovered quarters.
“Up from the south at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain’s door,
The terrible grumble and rumble and roar,
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.