Battle of Winchester.
On the morning of Sunday, the 23d, the Regiment was ordered into camp on the left of the Kernstown Road, and it was while Colonel Murray was engaged in laying out the ground, word came that a battle was at hand, and immediately the order was given to "Fall in."
The artillery fire opened about eleven o'clock.
The Regiment was ordered to take position on the extreme right of the Division line, and about 2 p.m. was ordered to the centre in support of Clark's Regular and Robinson's Ohio Batteries.
The attack on the left of the Division at this time was successfully met by Sullivan's Brigade.
After this repulse, Jackson's attention was directed to our right. Passing his troops along our front, under cover of the woods, he took a position commanding the right of the Division and with a view to turning that flank and getting to our rear. To aid in this movement, with his men well protected, he started a furious fire from his guns at a distance of half a mile.
About four o'clock the order came from Kimball to Murray to charge straight up to the battery and take it if possible.
The place of the battery was the very key to the enemy's position.
That hour, near the close of that March day, the 23d, made for the 84th Pa. a reputation which was never for a moment blurred in any of its after course. The Regiment equalled itself on other fields, at other times, but it never could have had the opportunity to surpass the gallantry, the true bravery, the manly courage, the noble heroism, the devotion to country, displayed at Winchester, its first battle.
As it did then, so it did always. Wherever ordered to go it went. Through forest, across open field, was no matter in the execution of the order to go. Its Soldiers never stopped to estimate the probable result. Casualties were noted only after the battle, when they went upon the roll as unalterable fact.