gunners turned their attention to the hostile battery.  Stuart, at the same time, performed a notable feat.  He had moved with fifty troopers to attack the enemy’s right flank, and in reconnoitring through the woods had become detached for the moment from his command.  As he rode along a winding lane he saw resting in a field a company of Federal infantry.  He still wore the uniform of the United States army; the enemy suspected nothing, taking him for one of their own cavalry, and he determined to effect their capture.  Riding up to the fence he bade one of the men remove the bars.  This was done with respectful alacrity, and he then galloped among them, shouting “Throw down your arms, or you are all dead men!” The stentorian order was at once obeyed:  the raw troops not only dropped their rifles but fell upon their faces, and the Confederate troopers, coming to their leader’s aid, marched the whole company as prisoners to the rear.

So firm was the attitude of Jackson’s command that General Patterson was thoroughly imposed upon.  Slowly and cautiously he pushed out right and left, and it was not till near noon that the Confederates were finally ordered to retreat.  Beyond desultory skirmishing there was no further fighting.  The 5th Virginia fell back on the main body; Stuart came in with his string of captives, and leaving the cavalry to watch the enemy, the First Brigade went into camp some two miles south of Martinsburg.  Patterson reported to his Government that he had been opposed by 3500 men, exactly ten times Jackson’s actual number.* (* O.R. volume 2 page 157.) The losses on either side were inconsiderable, a few men killed and 10 or 15 wounded; and if the Confederates carried off 50 prisoners, the Federals had the satisfaction of burning some tents which Jackson had been unable to remove.  The engagement, however, had the best effect on the morale of the Southern troops, and they were not so ignorant as to overlook the skill and coolness with which they had been manoeuvred.  It is possible that their commander appeared in an unexpected light, and that they had watched his behaviour with some amount of curiosity.  They certainly discovered that a distaste for show and frippery is no indication of an unwarlike spirit.  In the midst of the action, while he was writing a dispatch, a cannon ball had torn a tree above his head to splinters.  Not a muscle moved, and he wrote on as if he were seated in his own tent.

July 3.

The day after Falling Waters, on Johnston’s recommendation, Jackson received from General Lee his commission as brigadier-general in the Confederate army.  “My promotion,” he wrote to his wife, “was beyond what I had anticipated, as I only expected it to be in the Volunteer forces of the State.  One of my greatest desires for advancement is the gratification it will give my darling, and (the opportunity) of serving my country more efficiently.  I have had all that I ought to desire in the line of promotion.  I should be very ungrateful if I were not contented, and exceedingly thankful to our kind Heavenly Father.”