While these events were in progress the remainder of the Confederate cavalry had also been busy.  The 7th Virginia had moved to Buckton.  The railway was torn up, the telegraph line cut, and an urgent message to Banks for reinforcements was intercepted.  The two companies of Pennsylvania infantry, on picket near the station, occupied a log storehouse and the embankment.  Dismounting his command, Ashby, after a fierce fight, in which two of his best officers were killed, stormed the building and drove out the garrison.  Two locomotives were standing on the rails with steam up, and by this means the Federals attempted to escape.  Twice they moved out towards Strasburg, twice they were driven back by the Confederate carbines, and eventually the two companies surrendered.

Jackson’s measures had been carefully thought out.  Kenly’s patrols had failed to discover his advance in the early morning, for at Asbury Chapel, about three and a half miles south of the Federal outpost line, he had turned to the right off the Luray road, and plunging into the woods, had approached Front Royal by a circuitous track, so rough that the enemy had thought it hardly worth while to watch it.  The main body of the cavalry left the Luray road at McCoy’s Ford, and crossing the South Fork of the Shenandoah, worked through the forest at the foot of the Massanuttons.  During the night Ashby had withdrawn the 7th Virginia, with the exception of a few patrols, from in front of Banks, and joining Jackson, by a rough track across the mountains, before daybreak, had been directed to cut the communication between Front Royal and Strasburg.  The 6th Virginia had accompanied Jackson, the 2nd, under Colonel Munford, destroyed the railway bridges eastward of Front Royal.  Had Kenly retreated on Strasburg he would have found Ashby on his flank.  Had reinforcements been despatched from Strasburg they would have had to deal with Ashby before they could reach Kenly.  Had the Federals attempted to escape by Manassas Gap they would have found Munford across their path.  Meanwhile another party of cavalry had cut the telegraph between Front Royal and Washington; and a strong detachment, scouring the country east of the Blue Ridge, checked Geary’s patrols, and blocked the entrance to the Gap from the direction of Manassas.  Within an hour after his pickets were surprised Kenly was completely isolated.* (* The ingenuous report of a Federal officer engaged at Front Royal is significant of the effect of the sudden attack of the Confederates.  He was sick at the time, but managed to escape.  “By considerable coaxing,” he wrote, “I obtained an entrance to a house near by.  I was now completely broken down—­so much so that the gentleman prepared a liniment for me, and actually bound up some of my bruises, while the female portion of the household actually screamed for joy at our defeat!  I was helped to bed, and next morning was taken by Mr. Bitzer to Winchester in his carriage.  He is a gentleman