The rest of the train, well loaded, reached camp about 9 o’clock P. M., very tired, having traveled twenty-four miles over mountain roads.
On the 18th of October the regiment, in conjunction with the 11th Virginia, made a reconnaissance to within a half mile of the enemy’s camp. We could plainly see them lying around under the trees, but nothing to indicate the movement that, on the morrow, was to startle the nation, and shake the army of the Shenandoah to the very centre.
At half past 4 on the morning of October 19th, the regiment was routed out by a straggling picket fire in our front; the word was passed along that the enemy were advancing, and the men quietly fell into line along the breast-work. The other brigades, however, failed to observe the warning, or were too slow in “falling in.” The Rebels easily turned the right of our corps, getting over the works with little or no opposition, many of the men being still asleep in their tents.
Some resistance, however, was made by our brigade, the only one in the division not surprised; we fell slowly back, the broken ranks of the other brigades, rallying upon our line; we soon came upon the 19th corps that, by this time had got into line, and, meeting their first division, we made a good stand, giving them several well directed volleys, that checked their advance, but soon being flanked on the left, were compelled again to give way; here our division commander, Gen. Thoburn, and his Adjutant General, were killed. A running fight was now kept up for about four miles, when meeting the 6th corps drawn up in line, with their artillery in position, the retreat was checked. The 19th corps took position on their left, our corps joining their’s, with a good body of cavalry on our left. Up to this hour it had been the darkest day of our army life; flushed with victory in two great battles within a month, supposing ourselves invincible against anything in the valley, thus to be driven almost in a rout from our works, was a little too much for our philosophy. But now retreat was no longer thought of; Gen. Wright of the 6th corps had our lines well established, and the enemy decidedly checked, when Gen. Sheridan arrived on the field, he having ridden from Winchester, “Twenty miles away,” since the battle commenced. New life seemed at once to animate the whole army. Some slight changes were made in the line, particularly with the cavalry—when the order was given, “Forward along the line,” and away we went, with a heavy line of skirmishers, armed with repeating rifles, supported by strong lines of infantry, against whose steady and determined advance there was no resistance. In less than an hour the Rebel horde was flying back over the ground they had so lately traversed, flushed with success. The cavalry now swooped down from their positions, on the right and on the left, and as the enemy’s lines were turned, and in wild retreat, the scene that ensued along that valley pike beggars description.
It was a grand sight to see that army, lately shattered and stricken nigh unto annihilation, thus reform their columns and boldly move out to the charge; in all the battles of the great rebellion, no parallel is presented. Back through our camps which they had swept in the morning, the beaten Rebels ran, throwing away their guns and knapsacks, and everything that in any way impeded their headlong flight.
The cavalry kept up the pursuit for sixteen miles, recapturing all of our trains, and capturing the greater portion of their’s.
We stacked our muskets behind the works occupied in the morning, and slept that night, as we had fought that day, without food.
There is scarce a doubt that if we could have had two hours more of daylight, the Rebel army would have been totally annihilated, as it was we captured forty-nine pieces of artillery, besides retaking the ones taken from us in the morning, and over two-thousand prisoners. Our loss was very heavy, being over six-thousand in killed and wounded; that of the enemy being much less. The loss in our regiment was one killed, fifteen wounded and thirteen missing.
The change from the gloom of disaster that hung over our army in the morning, to complete and undisputed victory in the evening, cannot easily be described. The rebellion for this portion of the confederacy was effectually closed. And when we remember the armies, great and small, that have at different times marched up and down this famous valley; the many hard fought battles for the mastery of its soil; its importance in the great drama of the rebellion is plain. Here the sons of nearly every State in the Union are sleeping the last long sleep: some in burial places set apart for their repose, while many, many more, quietly rest in unmarked and forgotten graves, the victims of a wicked, cruel and uncalled for attempt upon the life of the purest and best government upon the face of the earth.
We encamped at night upon our old ground, but without tents, blankets or rations, the Rebels having made clean work of our camp, and as most of the men left their haversacks where they grasped their muskets, but very few had anything to eat, though fighting hard from five in the morning till seven at night has a tendency to make one hungry.