attack, gave his men a few hours' rest and then ̄resumed the march. At five o'clock in the foggy morning of the 19th they succeeded in silencing most of the sentinels and then burst into the camp where the unsuspecting Eighth was asleep. Many men were shot or stabbed as they tried to rise, get their eyes open, and comprehend the situation. The whole corps was broken up and lost its formation, so that it fought no more as an organization that day. But many of its men escaped and joined the colours of the other corps.

If this were all, it would not have been much of a triumph; for the hungry Confederates fell to plundering the camps and were largely demoralized. But Early had the rest of his troops well in hand and ready for the opportunity that had been created. They promptly made a frontal attack and for a time pushed everything before them, while Kershaw, pushing across the pike, curled up the left of the line of the Nineteenth Corps. But Wright was equal to the occasion. He faced about the two remaining corps, and executed a great right wheel, to the east. What had been the left of the Nineteenth Corps, at the turnpike, was the pivot, and what was now the left of the Sixth Corps traversed the circumference of the arc. This threw his army across the pike, several miles in the rear of the morning position, just south of Middletown. Major Putnam gives a lively description of the operations at the pivot as seen by a participant:

We peered down the slope southward toward the bridge across the creek, but could trace neither by sight nor by sound any approach from the only direction in which the enemy could properly be expected. In the course of a few minutes round shot came bowling into our line of intrench

ment directly from the eastern slope on the other side of the pike. My own battalion was as promptly as possible gotten out of the trenches and faced to the left on the crest of the slope. For a moment, a moment extending possibly to half an hour, the 176th New York [his own regiment] was the pivot of the wheeling operation. The force of Early's attack was directed against this pivot; and the Rebel divisions led by Gordon and Kershaw outnumbered very considerably the troops that were at first opposed to them. The men of the Nineteenth Corps had gotten under arms before the attack reached their position. They were, however, confused and perplexed. Our own brigade was for a time under fire from three directions. Toward seven o'clock, however, the fog became thinner, and as it lifted the strength of the attack became evident. The troops were coming across the pike in masses with a view of occupying it and cutting off the retreat of our division. . . When the Rebel infantry line got its musketry to bear, the position of the battery in front of the 176th became untenable. The horses were killed or disabled, and the captain used his men to drag back the guns. One gun was left on the slope, and Colonel Macauley called for volunteers to drag it in. I was probably the officer nearest in line to it, and with a group of men I dashed across the space to get the gun. As we moved forward, the slope between us and the road was suddenly covered by the lines of men in butternut; and the slope itself for a few moments was peppered most uncomfortably with shots from either side. I ordered the men to lie down, and I remember having a feeling as I lay face downward on the turf that I must be about the size of an elephant. I felt a keen desire to be as thin as the knave of spades. Within a very few minutes after the cessation of the fire, the second line of the enemy ran over us. We were promptly disarmed and were relieved not only of weapons but of certain portions of our equipment which the Rebels thought we could spare and which doubtless they needed.

These men were a part of the 1400 that Early secured and carried off to Richmond.

Though the commands had been badly broken, and the losses were heavy, General Wright got his troops into a satisfactory line extending across the pike and repelled Kershaw's last attack, while the Confederate cavalry had failed to effect anything. Sheridan, on his return from Washington, had slept at Winchester. The sound of the firing reached him there, and he rode to the front as fast as his horse could carry him. The masses of defeated and discouraged men whom he met as they were going to the rear he passionately exhorted to turn about, promising to attack the enemy and defeat them. A half day remained for the fighting; and Sheridan's presence and voice were a powerful inspiration to the whole army. Many of the stragglers rejoined the colours, and the army assumed the offensive, in turn driving the enemy before them.

Near Fisher's Hill there was a stream known as Tumbling Creek, the banks of which were so steep that nothing on wheels could pass it except by the turnpike bridge. A detachment of National cavalry, finding itself isolated, took a position south of the bridge and disputed the passage. This caused a piling up of guns, wagons, and troops on the bridge till it broke down, and consequently Sheridan's men were enabled to recover the twenty-four guns they had lost and capture as many of Early's, with caissons, wagons, and prisoners.

Sheridan's loss in this battle is including several valuable officers. at about 3300.

reckoned at 5764,

Early's loss is put