1862.  January 1.

On January 1, 1862, 9000 Confederates marched from Winchester towards the Potomac.  Jackson’s first objectives were the villages of Bath and Hancock, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, held by Federal garrisons.  By dispersing these detachments he would prevent support being sent to Romney; by cutting the telegraph along the railroad he would sever the communication between Banks at Frederick and Rosecrans in West Virginia, and compel Kelly either to evacuate Romney or fight him single-handed.  To deal with his enemy in detail, to crush his detachments in succession, and with superior force, such was the essence of his plan.

The weather when the expedition started was bright and pleasant, so much so that the troops, with the improvidence of young soldiers, left their coats and blankets in the waggons.  That very afternoon, however, the temperature underwent a sudden change.  Under cold grey skies the column scaled the mountain ridges, and on the winter wind came a fierce storm of snow and hail.  In order to conceal the march as far as possible from the enemy’s observations the brigades had marched by country roads, and delayed by steep gradients and slippery tracks, it was not till the next morning that the supply waggons came up.  The troops, hurried suddenly from comfortable winter quarters, suffered much.  The bivouac was as cheerless as the march.  Without rations and without covering, the men lay shivering round the camp fires.  The third day out, even the commander of the Stonewall Brigade took it upon himself to halt his wearied men.  Jackson became restive.  Riding along the column he found his old regiments halted by the roadside, and asked the reason for the delay.

“I have halted to let the men cook their rations,” was General Garnett’s reply.  “There is no time for that.”  “But it is impossible for the men to march further without them.” “I never found anything impossible with this brigade!” and Jackson rode on.  His plans admitted of no delay.  He intended to surprise the enemy.  In this expectation, however, he was disappointed.

January 3.

A few miles distant from Bath his advanced guard fell in with a Federal reconnaissance, and at nightfall the Confederates had not yet reached the outskirts of the town.  Once more they had to bivouac in the open, and rations, tents, and blankets were still behind.  When the day broke over the Shenandoah Mountains the country was white with snow, and the sleeping soldiers were covered as with a winding-sheet.  After a hasty meal an attempt was made to surround the village, and to cut off the retreat of the garrison.  The outflanking movements, made in a blinding storm, failed in combination.  The roads were too bad, the subordinate commanders too inexperienced; the three hostile regiments escaped across the river in their boats, and only 16 prisoners were captured.  Still, the advantages of their unexpected movement were not