. A history of the Laurel brigade, originally the Ashby cavalry of the Army of northern Virginia and Chew's battery . numerous camp-fires of the Federal cavalry indi-cated, without much if any exaggeration, the greatlysuperior strength of Sheridans mounted force. Says Pond in his Shenandoah Valley in 1864: The assurance with which Rosser challenged Custer all theway down from Harrisonburg, showed that he had no concep-tion of Sheridans mounted strength, though his fatal zeal wasprobably due in part to the excitement of his men at seeingtheir barns and houses in flames; for many of Earlys caval
. A history of the Laurel brigade, originally the Ashby cavalry of the Army of northern Virginia and Chew's battery . numerous camp-fires of the Federal cavalry indi-cated, without much if any exaggeration, the greatlysuperior strength of Sheridans mounted force. Says Pond in his Shenandoah Valley in 1864: The assurance with which Rosser challenged Custer all theway down from Harrisonburg, showed that he had no concep-tion of Sheridans mounted strength, though his fatal zeal wasprobably due in part to the excitement of his men at seeingtheir barns and houses in flames; for many of Earlys cavalry-men were from this region. Their eagerness to exact retribu-tion brought upon them double mortification and suffering. Perhaps the Laurels did feel some pangs of remorse forthe bloody retribution they had exacted. At all events theylay down that night with a sense of insecurity, which onlyyielded to a strong faith in the genius of their fearlesscommander. Rosser himself was not without one time he thought seriously of withdrawing duringthe night. Some of his officers tried to pursuade him to do. CAPT. J. W. CARTER A History of the Laurel Brigade 305 so; but regarding Earlys orders as imperative, he deter-mined to stay where he was, thinking that if pressed by anoverwhelming force on the morrow, it would be quite easyto retire in good order before an enemy whom he had drivenpell-mell for two days. At dawn on the morning of the 9th, the Federals werein the saddle and were observed to be moving into positionalong Toms Brook. In the fights of the two preceding days the greatlysuperior numbers of the enemy had either not been noticedor were disregarded. Now, as scjuadron after squadron de-ployed in full view, the inequality of the contest was mani-fest. Rosser had all told less than 2,000 men, probably notmore than 1,500, while opposed to him were at least 4,000Federals, freshly mounted and armed with the Spencerseven-shooter carbines, which were effective at over 1
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