On the next day I found my assignment awaiting me. I was appointed
assistant inspector-general of the cavalry and horse artillery of the
army of Northern Virginia. Tremendous title!
That evening I went by railway to Petersburg, to visit Colonel P-----,
and receive his instructions. Returning the same night, the next day
set out on horseback for the Valley of the Shenandoah, by way of
Orange, Gaines's Cross Roads, and Ashby's Gap.
Of this journey it is unnecessary for me to speak in the present
volume. Some curious adventures occurred to me, in the valley, near
Millwood, and I made the acquaintance of St. Leger Landon, of
"Bizarre," one of the bravest and truest gentlemen I have ever known.
The adventures alluded to, and some events in the strange history of my
friend, Captain Landon, are embraced in a separate memoir, to which I
have given the fanciful title, _Hilt to Hilt, or Days and Nights on the
Banks of the Shenandoah_.
I remained in the valley from the first to the eighteenth of September,
when I set out on my return to Petersburg, little thinking that, on the
very next day, General Early would be attacked on the Opequon, driven
from Winchester, and forced to retreat up the valley, in spite of
fighting which was never surpassed.
I had received some rough handling in a cavalry combat near the Old
Chapel, beyond Millwood, and my ride back was tedious.
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