Grant was overwhelming the Confederates by weight of numbers, and pushed slowly on. To divert him, Lee threw a portion of his army into the Shenandoah valley, and started again to invade Maryland and Pennsylvania. A body of Union troops contested their passage at Snicker's Ferry and a sharp skirmish followed.
A CHRISTOPHER OF THE SHENANDOAH
ISLAND FORD, SNICKER'S GAP, JULY 18, 1864
TOLD BY THE ORDERLY
Mute he sat in the saddle,—mute 'midst our full acclaim,
As three times over we gave to the mountain echo his name.
Then, "But I couldn't do less!" in a murmur remonstrant came.
This was the deed his spirit set and his hand would not shun,
When the vale of the Shenandoah had lost the glow of the sun,
And the evening cloud and the battle smoke were blending in one.
Retreating and ever retreating, the bank of the river we gained,
Hope of the field was none, and choice but of flight remained,
When there at the brink of the ford his horse he suddenly reined.
For his vigilant eye had marked where, close by the oozy marge,
Half-parted its moorings, there lay a battered and oarless barge.
"Quick! gather the wounded in!" and the flying stayed at his charge.
They gathered the wounded in whence they fell by the river-bank,
Lapped on the gleaming sand, or aswoon, 'mid the rushes dank;
And they crowded the barge till its sides low down in the water sank.
The river was wide, was deep, and heady the current flowed,
A burdened and oarless craft!—straight into the stream he rode
By the side of the barge, and drew it along with its moaning load.