Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[621] to Winchester with his division, to join the first division of Banks, of which General Williams had assumed the command. Spurred on by his ardor, and encouraged by his chief, who did not much relish the defensive role allotted to him in McClellan's programme, Shields, on the 18th of March, pushed forward in the track of Jackson as far as beyond Strasburg, pressing close upon his rearguard. But he could neither continue this eccentric movement nor remain in the isolated position in which he found himself. Indeed, the army of the Potomac, when it embarked, had left all the care of covering the line of the Potomac, against any demonstration on the part of the enemy, to Banks's corps. The two fine divisions of which it was composed were amply sufficient for this purpose, provided they were exclusively devoted to such service. The division of Williams was to leave Winchester on the 21st for Centreville and Manassas, to replace the troops about to embark at Alexandria. Shields, left alone in the valley of Virginia, was obliged to shut himself up in the lower part of this valley, and on the 20th of March, early in the morning, he left Strasburg, with all his forces, to return the same day to Winchester, which Banks had directed him to hold. Shields knew the ardent temperament of his adversary; and since he could not come up with him in order to attack him, he determined to lay a trap for him, so as to induce him to follow in pursuit, by giving to his retreat the appearance of a precipitate flight. His pickets were suddenly withdrawn; and when, after a long march, his worn-out troops reached Winchester, he hurried them through the town and made them encamp a few kilometres to the north, on the Martinsburg road. On the morning of the 22d Williams's division left Winchester, where there only remained a few companies, and took up its line of march through Berryville, towards the Snicker Gap pass, in the chain of the Blue Ridge. The inhabitants of Winchester, nearly all secessionists, hastened to send word to Ashby's cavalry, which had followed in the wake of the Federals, to let them know that their town was evacuated. This information was immediately forwarded to Jackson by means of signal-fires kindled on the mountain-tops. When Shields saw thick columns of smoke rising above the woods, he understood that his manoeuvre had succeeded, and prepared to receive the enemy on the ground he had