Nearly all his wagons had been captured by the
Southern cavalry, and his ammunition was beginning to fail. Around him
lay two thousand of his best men, dead or wounded. Rosecrans and the
fresh troops were appearing just in time.
Yet the retreat of Sheridan was made with the greatest difficulty.
A part of his troops were cut off and captured. Others drove back
the Confederate flankers with a bayonet charge, and then the remnant
retreated, the new lines opening to let them through. Dick, as he passed
through the gap, saw that he was among countrymen. That is, a Kentucky
regiment, fighting for the Union was standing as a shield to let his
comrades and himself through, and the people of the state were related
so closely that in the flare of the battle he saw among these new men at
least a half dozen faces that he knew.
It was this Kentucky regiment, led by its colonel, Shepherd, that now
formed itself in the very apex of the battle. The remains of the
Winchester regiment, forming behind it, saw a terrible sight. Some of
the regiments crushed earlier in the action had entirely disbanded.
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