To carry out these instructions Jackson had at his disposal 3600 infantry, 600 cavalry, and six batteries of 27 guns.  Fortunately, they were all Virginians, with the exception of one battalion, the First, which was composed of Irish navvies.

This force, which had now received the title of the Army of the Valley, was organised in three brigades:—­

First Brigade (Stonewall):  Brigadier-General Garnett. 2nd Virginia Regiment. 4th Virginia Regiment. 5th Virginia Regiment. 27th Virginia Regiment. 33rd Virginia Regiment.

Second Brigade:  Colonel Burks. 21st Virginia Regiment. 42nd Virginia Regiment. 48th Virginia Regiment. 1st Regular Battalion (Irish).

Third Brigade:  Colonel Fulkerson. 23rd Virginia Regiment. 27th Virginia Regiment.  McLaughlin’s Battery 8 guns.  Waters’ Battery 4 guns.  Carpenter’s Battery 4 guns.  Marye’s Battery 4 guns.  Shumaker’s Battery 4 guns.  Ashby’s Regiment of Cavalry.  Chew’s Horse-Artillery Battery 3 guns.

The infantry were by this time fairly well armed and equipped, but the field-pieces were mostly smoothbores of small calibre.  Of the quality of the troops Bull Run had been sufficient test.  Side by side with the sons of the old Virginia houses the hunters and yeomen of the Valley had proved their worth.  Their skill as marksmen had stood them in good stead.  Men who had been used from boyhood to shoot squirrels in the woodland found the Federal soldier a target difficult to miss.  Skirmishing and patrolling came instinctively to those who had stalked the deer and the bear in the mountain forests; and the simple hardy life of an agricultural community was the best probation for the trials of a campaign.  The lack of discipline and of competent regimental officers might have placed them at a disadvantage had they been opposed to regulars; but they were already half-broken to the soldier’s trade before they joined the ranks.  They were no strangers to camp and bivouac, to peril and adventure; their hands could guard their heads.  Quick sight and steady nerve, unfailing vigilance and instant resolve, the very qualities which their devotion to field-sports fostered, were those which had so often prevailed in the war of the Revolution over the mechanical tactics of well-disciplined battalions; and on ground with which they were perfectly familiar the men of the Shenandoah were formidable indeed.

They were essentially rough and ready.  Their appearance would hardly have captivated a martinet.  The eye that lingers lovingly on glittering buttons and spotless belts would have turned away in disdain from Jackson’s soldiers.  There was nothing bright about them but their rifles.  They were as badly dressed, and with as little regard for uniformity, as the defenders of Torres Vedras or the Army of Italy in 1796.  Like Wellington and Napoleon, the Confederate generals cared very little what their soldiers wore