army had been engaged.  The stirring incidents of the battle had been crowded into a short space of time.  It was five o’clock when the Federals left their covert.  An hour and a half later they had abandoned the field.  Their precipitate retreat, the absence of a strong rear-guard, were sure tokens that every regiment had been employed in the attack, and it was soon discovered by the Confederate soldiers that these regiments were old opponents of the Valley army.  The men who had surprised and outflanked Jackson’s old division were the same men that had been surprised at Front Royal and outflanked at Winchester.  But Banks’ army corps formed only a third part of Pope’s army.  Sigel and McDowell were still to be accounted for.

It was possible, however, that no more formidable enemies than the troops already defeated would be found between Cedar Run and Culpeper, and Jackson, intent upon securing that strategic point before morning,* (* Report.  O.R. volume 12 part 2 page 184.) pushed steadily forward.  Of the seven miles that intervened between the battle-field and the Court House only one-and-a-half had been passed, when the scouts brought information that the enemy was in position a few hundred yards to the front.  A battery was immediately sent forward to develop the situation.  The moon was full, and on the far side of the glade where the advanced guard, acting under Jackson’s orders, had halted and deployed, a strong line of fire marked the hostile front.  Once more the woodland avenues reverberated to the crash of musketry, and when the guns opened a portion of the Federal line was seen flying in disorder.  Pope himself had arrived upon the scene, but surprised by the sudden salvo of Jackson’s guns, he was constrained to do what he had never done in the West—­to turn his back upon the enemy, and seek a safer position.  Yet despite the disappearance of the staff the Union artillery made a vigorous reply.  Two batteries, hidden by the timber, concentrated on the four guns of the advanced guard, and about the same moment the Confederate cavalry on the extreme right reported that they had captured prisoners belonging to Sigel’s army corps.  “Believing it imprudent,” says Jackson, “to continue to move forward during the darkness, I ordered a halt for the night.”

August 10.

Further information appears to have come to hand after midnight; and early the next morning General Stuart, who had arrived on a tour of inspection, having been placed in charge of the cavalry, ascertained beyond all question that the greater part of Pope’s army had come up.  The Confederates were ordered to withdraw, and before noon nearly the whole force had regained their old position on Cedar Run.  They were not followed, save by the Federal cavalry; and for two days they remained in position, ready to receive attack.  The enemy, however, gave no sign of aggressive intentions.

August 11.

On the morning of the 11th a flag of truce was received, and Pope was permitted to bury the dead which had not already been interred.  The same night, his wounded, his prisoners, and the captured arms having already been removed, Jackson returned to his old camps near Gordonsville.