June 1.

Directly it was found that the Confederates had gone south, on the afternoon of June 1, Shields was directed on Luray, and that night his advanced guard was ten miles beyond Front Royal; on the other side of the Massanuttons, Fremont, with Bayard’s cavalry heading his advance, moved rapidly on Woodstock.

The Federal generals, however, had to do with a foe who never relaxed his vigilance.  Whilst Ashby and Ewell, on May 31, were engaged with Fremont at Cedar Creek, Jackson had expected that Shields would advance on Strasburg.  But not a single infantry soldier was observed on the Front Royal road throughout the day.  Such inaction was suspicious, and the probability to which it pointed had not escaped the penetration of the Confederate leader.  His line of retreat was the familiar route by New Market and Harrisonburg to Port Republic, and thence to the Gaps of the Blue Ridge.  There he could secure an unassailable position, within reach of the railway and of Richmond.  But, during the movement, danger threatened from the valley of the South Fork.  Should Shields adopt that line of advance the White House and Columbia bridges would give him easy access to New Market; and while Fremont was pressing the Confederates in rear, their flank might be assailed by fresh foes from the Luray Gap.  And even if the retiring column should pass New Market in safety, Shields, holding the bridges at Conrad’s Store and Port Republic, might block the passage to the Blue Ridge.  Jackson, looking at the situation from his enemy’s point of view, came to the conclusion that a movement up the valley of the South Fork was already in progress, and that the aim of the Federal commander would be to secure the bridges.  His conjectures hit the mark.

Before leaving Front Royal Shields ordered his cavalry to march rapidly up the valley of the South Fork, and seize the bridge at Conrad’s Store; the White House and Columbia bridges he intended to secure himself.  But Jackson was not to be so easily overreached.

June 2.

On the night of June 2 the Federal cavalry reached Luray, to find that they had come too late.  The White House and Columbia bridges had both been burned by a detachment of Confederate horse, and Shields was thus cut off from New Market.  At dawn on the 4th, after a forced night march, his advanced guard reached Conrad’s Store to find that bridge also gone,* (* Of the existence of the bridge at Port Republic, held by a party of Confederate cavalry, the Federals do not appear to have been aware.) and he was once more foiled.  On his arrival at Luray, the sound of cannon on the other side of the Massanuttons was plainly heard.  It seemed probable that Jackson and Fremont were already in collision; but Shields, who had written a few hours before to Mr. Stanton that with supplies and forage he could “stampede the enemy to Richmond,” was unable to stir a foot to assist his colleague.

Once again Jackson had turned to account the strategic possibilities of the Massanuttons and the Shenandoah; and, to increase General Shields’ embarrassment, the weather had broken.  Heavy and incessant rain-storms submerged the Virginia roads.  He was ahead of his supplies; much hampered by the mud; and the South Fork of the Shenandoah, cutting him off from Fremont, rolled a volume of rushing water which it was impossible to bridge without long delay.