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Updated: June 2, 2025
The general signed and sent his letter. Standing for a moment, in the cool of the evening, at the door of headquarters, he looked toward the east where the first stars were shining. Fourteen miles over there was his strongest outpost, the village of Front Royal occupied by Colonel Kenly with a thousand men and two guns.
They pushed back their chairs and started to leave the dining room. But it was not written that Kenly Lounsbury should reach the door without further annoyance. The waiter came shouting after them. "Excuse me, Mister," he said kindly, holding out a quarter, "you left some money on the table." Virginia laughed with delight and pocketed the coin herself, but Lounsbury's face became purple.
The general could not see the place; it lay between the Massanuttons and the Blue Ridge, but it was in his mind. He spoke to an aide. "To-morrow I think I will recall Kenly and send him down the pike to develop the force of the enemy." The small town of Strasburg pulsed with flaring lights and with the manifold sounds of the encamped army.
The New York cavalry, pressed at every point, were beginning to waver; and near the little hamlet of Cedarville, some three miles from his last position, Kenly gave orders for his infantry to check the pursuit. The column had halted.
And now, looking closer, he saw that the features were not quite the same. There was more breeding, more sensitiveness in Harold's face. And there was also, dim and haunting, some slight resemblance to Kenly Lounsbury, whom he had brought up into Clearwater and who had gone back with Vosper. Yet already his inner consciousness was screaming in his ear the identity of this man. Already he knew.
Moreover a gasping courier brought news to Kenly. "A great force of cavalry, sir Ashby, I reckon, or the devil himself on the right! If they get to the river first " There was small need of further saying. If Ashby or the devil got to the river first, then indeed was the trap closed on the thousand men! Face to the Rear! March! ordered Kenly.
Sufficient damage was done, however, to render the passage of the North Fork by the Confederates slow and difficult; and Kenly took post on Guard Hill, a commanding ridge beyond the stream. Again there was delay.
Banks, however, notwithstanding this report, could not bring himself to believe that an attack was imminent, and the cavalry was called back to Strasburg. For this reason Kenly had been unable to patrol to any distance on the 22nd, and the security of his camp was practically dependent on the vigilance of his sentries. May 23. On the morning of May 23 there was no token of the approaching storm.
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