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ear, and the ground shook under the flying squadrons of Sheridan's cavalry.

Where the men fell thickest, and most of our boys met their death, we trod over broad acres of the most peaceable wheat beautifying the earth with refreshing greenness. This battleground is disappointing: no landmarks remain, and it is very difficult to fix upon important locations. The two belts of timber, which formed the theatre of the heroic exploits of the Nineteenth Corps, have entirely disappeared; and the general aspect of the field is altogether altered. We had our dinner on the battle-field, in a house built by Mr. J. W. Jarrett, at the very point where Jackson's old division double-quicked up and checked our first advance. Mr. Charles B. Spangler, of the Tenth Va., who was fighting us that day, was our escort over the field. We plodded into Winchester at night loaded down with bullets and a ten-pound cannon-ball fired at us by the Johnnies on that day of victory and glory.

Winchester is the same half-nice, half-shabby, predominatingly nondescript town that it was in the days when Union and Rebel armies played shuttlecock with it. We found just two hotels in the place, and that was two too many, of the kind. After a careful investigation, the sound conclusion was reached, that, at whichever of these two houses you determine to stop, you should be sure and go to the other. Entering the hall, a pandemoniac bedlam was the first attraction, a wiggling, kicking pyramid of small-fry being piled in the centre of the apartment. There was no discrimination on account of color or previous condition for woolly pates and white legs were twined in comical and inextricable snarls; ages, sexes, and colors being fraternally mixed.

From Winchester to Cedar Creek we pressed on in the early morning, every inch of the way historic and eventful to Sheridan's army. We took breakfast with the famous Rebel Larrick, who shows the solid shot the Yanks fired into his hotel, which further received a general battering from the Union musketry. We visited Miller's Mill, held by both sides in the afternoon of that fluctuating day.

THE PILGRIM AT CEDAR CREEK.

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Cedar-Creek battle-field is almost precisely as when fought over; save that the Baltimore and Ohio Branch Railroad is doing a thriving business, running its trains through the streambed portions of the field. Here we found the station-agent and postmaster, A. L. Ebersole, an excellent host; and we ate a good dinner at more leisure than when the Johnnies were running us over that very spot in '64. Here, again, we were fortunate in the relic line; Mr. Ebersole furnishing us with choice mementos of the celebrated battle. Mr. George Staples, an opponent on that day when Sheridan was "twenty miles away," then a member of the Lynchburg Artillery, was ploughing on the field; and agreeable reminiscences of the fight were exchanged. Curiously, he was met at the very point where the Rebel column was first observed by the Fourteenth Regiment, charging upon us, on the 19th of October.

The line of breastworks extending from the pike to the ravine, which ran a little to the right of the Fourteenth's location, are in almost perfect condition, not having been cut by plough or spade. The large white mansion, now embowered in ornamental trees, which Gen. Sheridan occupied as his headquarters, fills its place in the landscape with the same picturesqueness familiar to the Valley campaigner of 1864. Cedar Creek winds in its romantic sinuosities to the still more crooked Shenandoah, with not an iota of apparent change in the scenery. The far-away hill,- Round Top,- beyond Strasburg and Fisher's Hill, with its belt of cleared timber over the summit, used by the Rebels as an observatory, is undisturbed in its wartime aspects.

We visited Strasburg, and climbed the still well-preserved parapets of Fort Banks, from which the Rebels on Fisher's Hill were bombarded by Gen. Banks, with the brilliant result of each side being able to hold its own intrenchments.

From Strasburg we tramped on to Fisher's Hill, the pike running near the Shenandoah in one of its most delightful sections. Here the Sixth Corps advanced to the attack; while along the rocky elevation, rising abruptly from the pike, the Nineteenth Corps poured its line-of-battle. Here again we

fell in with an ex-Rebel whom we sent trotting toward Richmond from these heights. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad runs between the woods out of which we debouched when coming under fire and the line of attack followed by the Fourteenth.

Striking the ridge of timber, from which the regiment emerged to begin the battle, we followed its course exactly until the pike was reached, and the stone bridge (see illustration) was crossed, and the army started on its all-night pursuit of the demoralized foe. Woodstock, Mount Jackson, Newmarket, were passed in turn; but feet were too sore, and legs too tired, to plod farther on foot, "just for the fun of it," and the remainder of the journey up the Valley was taken in an elegant car of the Baltimore and Ohio road. There is no campaign of the war more interesting for study to the veteran or civilian traveller than that of Sheridan's in the Valley; and nowhere, through the South, are such facilities afforded.

From Harper's Ferry to Lynchburg every mile has been fought over, and the railroad mentioned whirls its frequent trains directly across these famous battle-fields. Here are shrines worthy of enthusiastic pilgrimages by all who wore the blue. The towns along the lines of march and battle would never awaken a sad reflection in any Rip Van Winkle who might have "skedaddled" during the late "unpleasantness,” and returned perhaps yesterday. Had he left his pair of mules hitched to the post of a corner grocery, doubtless he would have found them undisturbed. Certainly, not a clapboard appears to have fallen off, nor a shingle to have been replaced. There were the uncouth wagons, shaped like a Chinese junk, with the negro driver still pulling the jerk-rein, and bawling out his mellifluous" Wah-hoo! Yi-yay!" Farmers rode into towns in pairs, dressed in gray or butternut; and we couldn't get rid of the notion that they were Moseby's guerilla patrols.

Harrisonburg will be remembered by the Fourteenth. We did not forget to call upon that good Union Dutchman, Feuchtenberger, who slyly supplied our boys with soft bread. He is rich, but runs his bake-shop still. There is life and enter

THE LAST MARCH.

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prise, and much of beautiful architecture, in Harrisonburg; and from its heights of observation the grand ridges, which enclose the loveliest valley of all the South, settle back into vistas which reveal wondrous glories under the gilding touch of the setting

sun.

Our march is finished. We unsling the old knapsack, and hang it on the tent-pole, and dream of fifty years to come, when some sprightly paragrapher shall say of one of our decrepit veterans whom he remembers, that he

"Wept o'er his wounds, or, tales of sorrow done,

Shouldered his crutch, and showed how fields were won."

While the Union soldier, returning for a reconnoissance of the fields of his marches and sanguinary triumphs, will be made to feel that he heard the last reveille, cooked his coffee, and rolled his dew-heavy blanket, but yesterday, and will find himself strangely at home amid the scenes of his flitting conflictlife, still Nature has put on a new gown in which to greet him, and the grand old Valley displays a magnificence which no campaigner ever gazed upon.

VII.

STATISTICAL TABLES.

THE statistics grouped in the following tables have been procured from three sources: first, and chiefly, from members of the regiment in response to circulars calling for the information given; second, from the official records in the office of the Adjutant-General; third, from relatives and friends of members whose address was unknown, or who were deceased.

That the records of some companies are less complete than others, is not the fault of the committee: the most time and effort has been expended on companies whose tables are most incomplete. The indifference of many members has been a serious hinderance to the work, and is wholly unaccountable.

That positive accuracy has been secured is not claimed, nor is it to be expected: every effort has been made, however, to secure it.

It is proposed to print, from time to time, on slips suitable for insertion in the volume, such additions to Tables VIII. and IX. as time is sure to bring. Members are earnestly requested to forward to the secretary, promptly, such record of the decease of comrades that may come to their notice as is required to complete the Table VIII. and such information as is now wanting in Table IX.

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