[486] himself menaced on all sides, directed all the troops which yet remained under his control to follow the Martinsburg road, which was yet free, trying to delay the pursuit of the enemy in order that he might then push forward to the right in the direction of Harper's Ferry. But the column soon became divided. The largest portion gained the Alleghany ridges on the left in great disorder: it finally reached the Potomac at Hancock without being pursued, but still continued its precipitate retreat as far as Pennsylvania, where it caused consternation and alarm everywhere. Other bands of fugitives, among whom was Milroy, arrived at Harper's Ferry without having been molested. They had thus avoided Rodes, who, following an imaginary enemy, had pushed as far as Martinsburg, whence he had dislodged a detachment of Tyler's division in the evening. He had captured from the latter six guns and two hundred prisoners, but in consequence of this march he had not been able to receive Ewell's instructions in time to completely cut off Milroy's retreat. The victory of Winchester delivered into the hands of the Confederates, according to their own reports, 3358 able-bodied prisoners, 700 sick and wounded, 23 pieces of artillery, and 300 wagons: the small amount of provisions left behind by the Federals was seized by the foremost soldiers who entered the forts. These various engagements cost the Second corps only 47 killed, 219 wounded, and 3 prisoners. It was a brilliant commencement of the campaign which was about to open: it was the more fortunate because it struck the Federals at a point about which they were particularly sensitive. From the manner in which he had directed their marches, combined their attacks, and gathered the fruit of their manoeuvres, Ewell won the confidence of Jackson's old soldiers.
No one, however, at the North, when telegraphic communications with Winchester were cut off in the afternoon of the 13th, suspected the fate which menaced this place, and the Washington authorities did not believe in the presence of Ewell in the Valley of Virginia until the 14th, when Milroy's fate had already been virtually settled.
On the 12th, however, Hooker, always vigilant, having learned from a negro that Ewell's corps had passed by Sperryville, concluded that, not being able to attack Hill near Fredericksburg,
