The following article is transcribed from Harper's Weekly: Journal of Civilization, dated April 5, 1862:
A Victory Near Winchester
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General Shields had a conflict with the rebels, commanded by Generals Jackson, Smith, and Longstreet, four miles below Winchester, on 23d, completely routing them, and capturing numbers of prisoners, several cannon, and a large quantity of small-arms thrown away in the flight. At last accounts our cavalry was in pursuit of the flying rebels. It appears that General Jackson was under the impression that our troops had left Winchester, and were advancing on the road from Strasburg. When within about a mile and a half of Winchester a skirmish occurred between the advanced-guard of both armies, in which General Shields was wounded in the arm by the bursting of a shell. The enemy immediately commenced a retreat; but were followed up by the main body of General Shields's army, and an engagement took place, commencing at half past ten on the morning of 23d, and ending in the entire defeat of the rebels at dusk. The rebels had fifteen thousand men in the field, while the force of General Shields was only eight thousand. The loss on both sides was heavy -- that of the rebels, however, nearly doubling that on our side.
The following article is transcribed from Harper's Weekly: Journal of Civilization, dated Apr 12, 1862:
The Battle of Winchester
The Herald correspondent furnished that paper with the following graphic account of the battle:
On Saturday afternoon, March 15, at about a quarter past two o'clock, our advanced pickets on the Strasburg road discovered the rebel cavalry under the madcap Ashby about half a mile beyond them, reconnoit(e)ring the woods on both sides of the turnpike, and steadily advancing. Our pickets consisted of a few men of the Fourteenth Indiana infantry at that point, and they fell back half a mile to the hamlet of Kernstown, four miles from Winchester. The rebels, observing our pickets fall back, were confirmed in the belief that our forces here did not exceed five thousand men. Then they gave chase. Coming up with our men, Ashby cried at the top of his voice, "There they are, boys; now give them hell!" Steadily did the troopers advance as our men wheeled to aim and fire. That fire sent many of them reeling from their saddles, and threw the rest into such confusion that before they could again be rallied for a charge our gallant little band of infantry was beyond the reach of their power, without having lost a man killed or wounded. Meanwhile skirmishing progressed on other points along our advanced line, and our pickets were every where rallying on our reserves. General Shields hearing of the advance of the rebel cavalry, supposed it to be a maneuver of Ashby alone for the purpose of watching our movements. As they were approaching so boldly and so closely, however, he ordered four advanced companies of infantry, engaged in protecting the supply pickets, and try to hold the rebels in check till he could move down the division. These four companies were made up of one from Maryland First, one from the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania, one from the Forty-sixth Pennsylvania, and one from the Twenty-eighth New York. Their regiments had already marched under General Williams. A battery of artillery and the defense generally, a shell from the reel battery of four guns, which now began to play on us, burst near him, and a splinter from it struck him in the left arm, just above the elbow, fracturing the bone and creating a painful wound. His Adjutant-General, Major Armstrong who was standing near, remarked, "General, your are wounded in the arm." "Yes," replied the gallant Shields, "but say nothing about it." He then gave a fresh order to the artillery, and continued on the field till he satisfied himself that all was right. A man belonging to Captain Robinson's company of Ohio artillery and a horse were killed on this day by the enemy's guns; but these were all the casualties that occurred on our side till the skirmish of the first day was ended. The wound of General Shields caused a pang throughout the entire division, and it is remarkable that he should have been the first man struck on our side. Our division began to arrive in force on the field toward dark, and the rebels perceiving this did not push their advance, but halted about three miles from Winchester for the night, lighted their camp fires and bivouacked, while our army lay between them and the town. It was generally believed that a general engagement would take place on the next day (Sunday), and the expectants were not disappointed. That night was of terrible suspense on both sides. No one knew what the rebels delayed their advance for, while it was our policy to postpone a battle, in view of the preponderating force of the enemy, in order to allow reinforcements to arrive from the division of General Williams, the rear-guard of which had already advanced ten miles toward the Shenandoah.
Morning explained the reason of the enemy's halt. About ten o'clock reinforcements of five regiments of infantry and two batteries of artillery were announced arriving from Strasburg, under General Garnett, by the vociferous and prolonged cheers which proceeded from their lines. The attack was not now long delayed. The enemy advanced his army, which now consisted of sixteen regiments of infantry, numbering 11,000 men; five batteries of artillery, with a total of twenty-eight field-pieces, and three battalions of horse, under Ashby and Stewart. His line of battle extended about a mile on the right of the village of Kernstown, and a mile and three-quarters on the left of it, and the village lay on the road between the rebel right and centre. There is a mud road branching from the turnpike a mile or so from Winchester, to the right of the road as you go to Strasburg. This road passed through the left of the enemy's centre, and was one of their points of defense. Beyond that there is a grove of trees, and farther a ridge of hills with a stone wall running along its summit about breast-high. This was the rebel line of offensive and defense on the right of our line. Our most advanced regiment was the Eighth Ohio, of General Tyler's Brigade, and on it the rebels made a furious onslaught about half past ten o'clock A.M. on Sunday, with the intention of turning our right flank. The Ohio Eighth met them gallantly, withering them like autumn leaves before the breath of winter by their deadly fir of rifles. Five several times did the enemy emerge from the woods and from behind the stone parapet with vastly superior numbers, and try vainly to accomplish their object. Our left wing, consisting of the Thirteenth Indiana, Seventh Ohio, and a batter of the Fourth Regular Artillery, under Captain Jenks, had a feint made on it while the real attack of the enemy was being directed against our right wing. The feint on the left was a heavy fire of artillery posted on both sides of the village and the turnpike, which, however, did trifling damage. Our battery replied, silencing those of the enemy, though the firing was maintained for a long time on both sides. Our centre consisted of the Fourteenth Indiana, the Eighth and Sixty-seventh Ohio, and the Eight-fourth Pennsylvania, and two artillery batteries belonging to the First Ohio Artillery, and the cavalry, consisting of the First Michigan and First Ohio, were drawn up in the rear. The whole of our cavalry amounted to no more 800 men, and this arm played a very unimportant part in the action on either side. Our right wing was made up of the Fifth and Eighth Ohio regiments, and a battery of the First Virginia Regiment. The reserves consisted of the Twelfth Indiana, the Thirty-ninth Illinois, and a squadron of the Michigan Cavalry. General Shields was unable to appear on the field in person, and the command in the field devolved upon Acting Brigadier Kimball, who led our centre; and our right was commanded by Acting Brigadier-General Tyler, while Colonel Sullivan directed the operation on our left. The battle raged along the whole line with great fury from eleven A.M. till half past two P.M., when General Shields, who received accounts of the progress of the fight on his couch, ordered the right, where the contest raged the hottest, to charge upon the enemy. That was an awful charge. The left of the enemy prepared desperately to repel our gallant troops, but their rush was as irresistible as the tide in the Bay of Fundy. Previous to this time our line of battle had been somewhat changed. The Eighty-fourth Pennsylvania reinforced our right, and also a battery of artillery. Our whole force now engaged was about 6000 men, while that of the enemy was at the lowest estimate 8000. The rebels had also changed their line, and extending both their wings, presented a concave front to our army. They had also reinforced their left wing, and the charge to be made by our right was all-important in its consequences. On it at three o'clock, depended the fate of the entire battle. The gallant Tyler led the charge, sword in hand, at the head of the line. The rebels fired form the woods with artillery and small-arms, while our men advanced against their murderous showers of lead and iron, returning few shots, and reserving their fire. Up to this time the armies had not been much nearer to each other than three hundred yards, unless in some few instances. The wood was soon cleared at the point of the bayonet, our men discharging their pieces at twenty and even five yards' distance from the rebels, and then dashing at them with the bayonet. The rebels fought well, however. They contested the ground foot by foot, and marked every yard of it with blood. Retiring behind their stone wall on the ridge, our men jumped over after them, and drove, them along in the greatest confusion and with fearful slaughter upon their centre. The panic communicated. Kimball ordered a charge along the whole line, and for a short time the fighting was most desperate. The roar of the cannon was no longer heard, unless in occasional bursts of fitful explosions, and the rattle of musketry was more boisterous than ever, and sounded like the noise made by very close thunder-clap, except that it was sharper and continuous. The rout of the rebels had fairly commenced, however, and two of their guns and four caissons were now ours, and though many of them turned and fired again and again at our pursuing host, many more threw away muskets and bayonets without hesitation. Darkness and the extreme fatigue or our troops, however, saved the enemy for the time, and we retired about two miles, and bivouacked till next morning. At daybreak General Shields ordered the rebel position be attacked, and the enemy, after replying by a few shots from his artillery, continued his retreat. Meantime General Banks, who had been at Harper's Ferry, arrived, and taking command of the troops in person, continued the pursuit with about 10,000 men beyond Strasburg, cutting off many stragglers, and pressing the enemy very sorely.
Our artist thus describes his picture:
The rebel position was a parallelogram, inclosed by a stone wall on two sides and a rail fence and thicket of trees on the other. In the picture the front of the wall is seen crossing the ground from right to left, the thicket being visible in the distance on the rise. In front of this wall our troops had to advance across a field of wheat for 400 yards, exposed to a galling fire, but with invincible courage they carried it, the rebels retreating in a panic as soon as the wall was reached.
One or two was bayoneted, and there was a fist-fight for a moment between on of them and a soldier of the Union force -- the rest fled in confusion, hotly pursued by Tyler's brigade; and two guns, hitherto masked, opened upon our men from a small clump of trees seen in the centre of the lot. These were quickly captured by a brave few, headed by Major Schreiber, of Bank's staff, and then the rout was complete, night only saving the rebels from the fierce pursuit to which they were subjected. Most of the men killed at the stone wall were shot in the head, some of the bullets passing through two men before their work of death was over. The precision of the Union men's fire was unprecedented in the annals of modern warfare.
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