General Gordon has described with much minuteness how the news of the disaster was received at Strasburg.  The attack had begun at one o’clock, but it was not till four that Banks was made aware that his detachment was in jeopardy.  Believing that Jackson was at Harrisonburg, sixty miles distant, he had certainly no cause for immediate apprehension.  The Valley towards Woodstock never looked more peaceful than on that sleepy summer afternoon; the sentries dawdled on their posts, and officers and men alike resigned themselves to its restful influence.  Suddenly a mounted orderly dashed violently through the camp, and Strasburg was aroused.  By the road to Buckton Banks hastily despatched a regiment and two guns.  Then came a lull, and many anxious inquiries:  “What is it?  Is it Stonewall Jackson, or only a cavalry raid?”

A few hours later reports came in from the field of battle, and Banks telegraphed to Stanton that 5000 rebels had driven Kenly back on Middletown.  “The force,” he added, “has been gathering in the mountains, it is said, since Wednesday.”

But still the Federal general showed no undue alarm.

“Nothing was done,” says Gordon, “towards sending away to Winchester any of the immense quantities of public stores collected at Strasburg; no movement had been made to place our sick in safety.  It did not seem as if Banks interpreted the attack to signify aught of future or further movement by the enemy, or that it betokened any purpose to cut us off from Winchester.  I was so fully impressed, however, with Jackson’s purpose, that as soon as night set in I sought Banks at his headquarters.  I laboured long to impress upon him what I thought a duty, to wit, his immediate retreat upon Winchester, carrying all his sick and all his supplies that he could transport, and destroying the remainder.  Notwithstanding all my solicitations and entreaties, he persistently refused to move, ever repeating, “I must develop the force of the enemy.""* (* From Brook Farm to Cedar Mountain pages 191 and 192.)

The force that had been sent out on the Buckton road had been soon recalled, without securing further information than that the Confederate pickets were in possession of every road which led west or north from Front Royal.

Again did Gordon, at the request of Banks’ chief of the staff, endeavour to persuade the general to abandon Strasburg. “’It is not a retreat,’ he urged, ’but a true military movement to escape from being cut off; to prevent stores and sick from falling into the hands of the enemy.’  Moved with an unusual fire, General Banks, who had met all my arguments with the single reply, ’I must develop the force of the enemy,’ rising excitedly from his seat, with much warmth and in loud tones exclaimed, ’By God, sir, I will not retreat!  We have more to fear, sir, from the opinions of our friends than the bayonets of our enemies!’ The thought,” continues the brigadier, “so long the subject