June 7.

June 7 was passed in unwonted quiet.  For the first time for fifteen days since the storming of Front Royal the boom of the guns was silent.  The glory of the summer brooded undisturbed on hill and forest; and as the escort which followed Ashby to his grave passed down the quiet country roads, the Valley lay still and peaceful in the sunshine.  Not a single Federal scout observed the melancholy cortege.  Fremont’s pursuit had been roughly checked.  He was uncertain in which direction the main body of the Confederates had retreated; and it was not till evening that a strong force of infantry, reconnoitring through the woods, struck Jackson’s outposts near the hamlet of Cross Keys.  Only a few shots were exchanged.

Shields, meanwhile, had concentrated his troops at Columbia Bridge on the 6th, and presuming that Jackson was standing fast on the strong position at Rude’s Hill, was preparing to cross the river.  Later in the day a patrol, which had managed to communicate with Fremont, informed him that Jackson was retreating, and the instructions he thereupon dispatched to the officer commanding his advanced guard are worthy of record: 

“The enemy passed New Market on the 5th; Blenker’s division on the 6th in pursuit.  The enemy has flung away everything, and their stragglers fill the mountain.  They need only a movement on the flank to panic-strike them, and break them into fragments.  No man has had such a chance since the war commenced.  You are within thirty miles of a broken, retreating enemy, who still hangs together. 10,000 Germans are on his rear, who hang on like bull-dogs.  You have only to throw yourself down on Waynesborough before him, and your cavalry will capture them by the thousands, seize his train and abundant supplies."* (* O.R. volume 12 part 3 page 352.)

In anticipation, therefore, of an easy triumph, and, to use his own words, of “thundering down on Jackson’s rear,” Shields, throwing precaution to the winds, determined to move as rapidly as possible on Port Republic.  He had written to Fremont urging a combined attack on “the demoralised rebels,” and he thought that together they “would finish Jackson.”  His only anxiety was that the enemy might escape, and in his haste he neglected the warning of his Corps commander.  McDowell, on dispatching him in pursuit, had directed his attention to the importance of keeping his division well closed up.  Jackson’s predilection for dealing with exposed detachments had evidently been noted.  Shields’ force, however, owing to the difficulties of the road, the mud, the quick-sands, and the swollen streams, was already divided into several distinct fractions.  His advanced brigade was south of Conrad’s Store; a second was some miles in rear, and two were at Luray, retained at that point in consequence of a report that 8000 Confederates were crossing the Blue Ridge by Thornton’s Gap.  To correct this faulty formation before advancing he thought was not worth while.  On the night of June 7 he was sure of his prey.