On the night of the 18th of October we received orders to prepare for marching at midnight.  No drums were to be beaten, nor noise of any kind made.  From this we knew an advance was to be made, as Gordon’s Division had orders to march soon after nightfall.  The most profound secrecy, the absence of all noise, from rattling of canteens or tin cups, were enjoined upon the men.  They were to noiselessly make their way over the spur of the Massanutton Mountain, which here butted out in a bold promontory, dividing the Shennandoah and the Luray Valleys, and strike the enemy in the flank away to our right.  The other divisions were to be in readiness to attack as the roll of battle reached their front or right.  The enemy was posted on an almost impregnable position on the bluff overlooking Cedar Creek, while in their rear was a vast plateau of several miles in extent.  The enemy’s breastworks were built of strong timbers, with earth thrown against them, with a deep trench on the inside, being deeper from the bottom of the trench to the top of the works than the heights of the soldiers when standing.  Thus a step of three or four feet was built for the troops to stand on and fire.  The breastworks wound in and out with the creek, some places jutting out almost to the very brink; at others, several hundred yards in the rear; a level piece of bottom land intervening.  This ridge and plateau were some fifty feet or more above the level of the creek, and gave elegant position for batteries.  In front of this breastwork, and from forty to fifty feet in breadth, was an abattis constructed of pine trees, the needles stripped, the limbs cut and pointed five to ten feet from the trunks.  These were packed and stacked side by side and on top of each other, being almost impossible for a single man even to pick his way through, and next to impossible for a line of battle to cross over.  All along the entire length of the fortifications were built great redoubts of earthwork in the form of squares, the earth being of sufficient thickness to turn any of our cannon balls, while all around was a ditch from twelve to fifteen feet deep—­only one opening in the rear large enough to admit the teams drawing the batteries.  Field pieces were posted at each angle, the infantry, when needed, filled the space between.  These forts were built about two hundred yards apart, others being built in front of the main line.  This I believe was the most completely fortified position by nature, as well as by hand, of any line occupied during the war, and had the troops not been taken by surprise and stood their ground, a regiment strung out could have kept an army at bay.