erate rear and the Federal vanguard. They were pressing hotly to strike Jackson and delay him until General Shields reached New Market to intercept his retreat, and no efforts were spared to break through the obstinate impediment which Ashby presented, and force Jackson to turn and defend himself. Shields' column was pressing forward through the Luray valley; if the Confederate commander could only be delayed for a day, nay a few hours, his fate would be sealed.

Jackson fully appreciated, however, the critical character of his situation, and did not relax the rapidity of his retreat. His column pressed on along the bank of the Shenandoah, pushing the heavy trains and long lines of prisoners before it, and Ashby continued to hold the rear, repulsing successfully every assault. His artillery was never silent, and at times the troops in front would hear the sudden rattle of small-arms, indicating that he had ambushed the advancing squadrons, and from the woods on the roadside poured a fire into their ranks when it was least expected.

The Federal forces were thus successfully held in check. Mount Jackson was passed; the bridge over the Shenandoah, a locality well known to Ashby, was destroyed by him in rear of the army; and Jackson was safe from the column in his rear. A short march now promised to terminate the retreat. Jackson pushed on through New Market, and finding at Harrisonburg, which he reached on the 5th, that all the bridges above that point were destroyed by the citizens, turned to the left and followed a country road in the direction of Port Republic, beyond which Brown's Gap opened the straight path to Richmond.

The fluttering signals on the summit of the Massinutton Mountain informed him that General Shields was pressing up the Luray valley to intercept him at Port Republic; but this fact gave him little concern. The real struggle had been to prevent the enemy from uniting their columns and striking him while laden with spoils and prisoners. One of their columns was now distanced; the other was not feared. Jackson had been the lion in the toils, but he was now out of the meshes.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE DEATH OF ASHBY.

THE army marched from Harrisonburg in the direction of Port Republic, on the morning of the 6th of June. They had not seen the enemy for nearly two days, and indulged the hope that they were now beyond pursuit. In this, however, they were mistaken. The destruction of the bridge over the Shenandoah had delayed the Federal advance for a short time only, and they were now pressing forward again on Jackson's trail.

Their cavalry advance-the 1st New Jersey-was commanded by Sir Percy Wyndham, an Englishman, who had served as a captain in the Austrian army; in the Italian Revolution under Garibaldi as colonel, and had come to the United States at the breaking out of the war, and received from President Lincoln the appointment of colonel of cavalry. Placed in command of a regiment to operate in the Valley, Colonel Wyndham had suffered much from the enterprise and activity of Ashby, and had publicly announced his intention speedily to "bag" that officer. We learn this from a correspondent of a Northern journal who accompanied Colonel Wyndham, and who narrated what occurred on this occasion. Advancing now from Harrisonburg, Colonel Wyndham came, about three in the afternoon, upon Ashby's cavalry, drawn up to dispute his further progress, and notified his friend the correspondent, that if he "wished to see a little fun," he ought to remain and witness the encounter. The correspondent did do so, and what he witnessed was the scene here recorded. Ashby had seen Colonel Wyndham somė time before he was himself discovered, and determined to "bag" Sir Percy. He accordingly sent a portion of his command to make a circuit, unperceived, and take position on the side of the road at a point where the crest of a small hill concealed them from view. When the party was in position, he made a demon

stration on the road in front of Colonel Wyndham, with the apparent purpose of opposing his advance.

The force which Ashby showed in front was designedly small, to draw his adversary on; and the plan succeeded. Wyndham, flushed with anticipated success, and now certain that he would capture or crush the renowned cavalier of the Valley, charged down the road; when Ashby advanced to meet him, the party in ambush closed in on his rear, and he was captured, together with sixty-three of his men. As he was marched to the rear, under guard, he is described as appearing "much chopfallen, and looking unutterable things in the way of impotent rage, disappointed hopes, and wounded pride." As he passed along, the troops greeted his appearance with laughter; but what is said to have excited his rage to the highest pitch, was the exclamation of one of the Southern soldiers as he passed: "Look at the Yankee colonel!" Sir Percy, it seems, had a great horror of being regarded as a "Yankee," and could not bear this title with equanimity.

The affair which thus resulted in the capture of Colonel Wyndham by the commander of the Confederate cavalry, was succeeded on the same afternoon by a more serious engagement, in which Ashby was to fall-depriving the army of the services of a partisan of matchless enterprise, indefatigable energy, and romantic daring. His fame had mounted to the zenith in the brief and fiery campaign now nearly over, and he seemed to have before him long years of renown and usefulness, when he was suddenly cut down. We approach the narrative of his death with reluctance, but cannot omit an event which covered the whole army with gloom, and struck down in his pride and strength the renowned Partisan of the Valley.

The enemy's cavalry was speedily followed by the main body of their troops, and, believing that he could strike them to advantage, Ashby sent back for a portion of the infantry which was placed at his orders, for the defence of the rear. The 58th Virginia and 1st Maryland were sent to him; and, leaving Colonel Munford in command of the cavalry, with orders to keep up a

fire of artillery upon the Federal cavalry, drawn up on a hill in his front, Ashby took the two regiments of infantry and moved to the right of the road through the fields, with the design of making a circuit, unperceived, and falling on the left flank of the enemy. They seem to have conceived a similar design to assail his right flank; and thus the two columns met, encountering each other in a field waving with ripe wheat, near a piece of woodland. General Ewell, who had now arrived, threw forward his skirmishers to drive the Federal forces from their cover behind a fence immediately in his front. It was about sunset when this movement was made, and the golden flush of the beautiful June evening lingered on the trees and brightened their summits, as it slowly died away beyond the western hills. The troops advanced cautiously through the tangled underwood, when all at once the dropping fire of musketry was heard in front, and the 58th Virginia, a very small regiment, was ordered to attack the enemy. Ashby led it, and a heavy volley was poured into the Federal forces, which they replied to; another came from the 58th, and the firing on the right became hot and continuous. General Ewell saw that the position of the enemy was such as to give them great advantage against an attack in front, and that the small numbers of the 58th were making no impression. He accordingly ordered Colonel Johnson, commanding the 1st Maryland, to advance, while the fight was going on, on his right, and, by charging the enemy's right flank, drive them from the fence. Johnson promptly obeyed, and, gaining the edge of the woods on the Federal flank, gave the order to charge, and his men rushed forward under a heavy fire. Captain Robertson and Lieutenant Snowden were shot dead; Colonel Johnson's horse fell with him, pierced with three bullets; and the colors of the regiment were three times shot down. But the Pennsylvania "Bucktails," Lieutenant-Colonel Kane, were driven from their position behind the fence, their colonel captured, and the Federal forces were now in full retreat.

Ashby was dead. He had gone forward with the 58th and taken position on the right of the regiment, which suddenly

found itself in front of the enemy. A volley was poured into the Federal forces, as we have seen, by the 58th-and then another but the numbers of the Virginians were so small, and the position of the Federal troops so well chosen, that the fire did them little damage. Ashby witnessed this result and the persistent stand of his opponents with fiery impatience. He directed the 58th to cease firing, and press the enemy with the bayonet; and, putting spur to his horse, rushed forward, shouting, "Virginians, charge!" when the animal was shot under him, and fell.* In an instant he was on his feet, and again advanced. He had not, however, moved ten steps, and was still ordering the men not to fire but depend on the bayonet, when a bullet pierced his body, and he fell dead almost instantly, at the very moment when the shouts of triumph around him indicated the repulse of the enemy. His body was raised in the arms of the men, placed on a horse before one of them, and, with the equipments of his horse, borne from the field, where the soldier had died the death he would have chosen-leading a charge, and with his face to the foe.

Thus ended the brief but splendid career of Turner Ashby. The leader in a hundred engagements had fallen in an obscure skirmish, so insignificant that the very name of it is unknown. But that was not important. The time and place were nothing, and would thus have been regarded by him, so that he died "in harness," fighting to the last.

The name of Ashby will long be remembered by the people of Virginia, who rightly esteemed him as one of the ablest soldiers of the war, and one of the noblest sons of the commonwealth which gave him birth. He was the ideal-type of the Southern cavalier, pure-hearted, stainless in morals, and of heroic courage and constancy. Let us praise the dead warmly, when we can do so with truth-and Ashby was one of those men who stand out

*This horse was the same which Jackson had ridden at the battle of Manassas, and belonged to Captain James Thomson of the Stuart Horse Artillery. He lent the animal to both Jackson and Ashby, and both were shot upon him.