The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

202 THE MAINE BUGLE.
one of the staff got a very bad fall with his horse, his own leg
being broken and badly crushed against the enormous paving
stones in iront of the headquarters. This drizzly promise of
the morning was fulfilled, and rain fell heavily with the evening,
drenching the command, swelling the streams, deepening the
roads, etc., according to the manner of rains in Virginia. But
the spirits of the bold dragoons were not dampened, and they
felt lively enough to push on to Waynesborough to the camp
of General Jubal Early, late of the Confederacy, upon whom
the brilliant Custer fell with his division, and soon had his guns,
and men, and materiel, and would have had him but that he
had sufficient presence of mind to absent his person when he
found how things were going. This was Early's last appearance
in public life, and it seems that he did not cease to fly until he
had crossed the ocean on wings of panic, and now takes heart
of distance and tries to prove that he fought the campaign of
the Shenandoah Valley, from first to last, with a few thousand
less men than got into the hands of our provost marshal during
some slight casualties that befell General Early in those days.
Early's command at Waynesborough being now dispersed or
captured, and the prisoners having been sent off to Winchester
in charge of a trusty officer (Colonel Thompson of the First
New Hampshire Cavalry) and a guard of some five hundred
men, General Sheridan proceeded to occupy Charlottesville.
The mayor brought out the keys and politely offered him the
freedom of the city, which was accepted, and then a halt was
called to await the transportation, for the rains had continued
and the floods had come, but the wagons had not. Then on
again toward Lynchburg and the James River; rapid detours
being made in every direction by small parties striking at sup-
plies and communications, and returning to the main column
again in a boomerang sort of a way that was as confusing to
the inhabitants and to the enemy as it was destructive of prop-
erty. When it was found impossible to cross the James River,
attention was for a while directed to the demolition of the James
River and the Kanawha Canal, which Washington is said to