Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 58: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~ ous Sheridan and his men. BURN AND DESTROY. 51 Early had been down the valley, and for a time seemed to have matters all his own way. Grant had uttered the magic words, ‘‘Go in!’’ and the Confederates found in Sheridan, on the offensive, a far different man than Sheridan on the defensive. The sullen roar of Federal cannon announced, on this September morning, the fact that the great cav- alry leader was on the war-path once more. Many of the inhabitants of this richest of Virginia valleys had been living in comfort, giving aid to the Confederacy while professing loy alty to the Union. With barns stored eich wheat and hay? living on the fat of the land unmolested, the Southern sym- : pathizers were a comparatively happy people. What cared they for the Union? They did not respect the cause; neither did they fear the defenders of the flag who passed them by un- molested. But this state of affairs could not last. Many Unionists were brutally murdered by bands of bushwhackers, who received the protection of the —_ inhabitants. Sheridan was not the man to permit such outlawry without an effort to crush it. War is cruel, but these people had not yet felt any of its hardships. It was high time some of the severi- ties of war should be visited upon the valley of the Shenandoah. Boom !—boom !—boom! Puffs of white smoke rose above the trees and went floating away over the hills and vales. It is Federal cannon that speaks. Where is Early that he permits the onward move- ment of this rash young Union general? Flying up the valley! Whirled from one point to another by the victori- Eomicboo cS (Ei 0)