Not knowing where Jackson was or what he was doing, and fearing that the great Confederate commander might be before him with his whole army, he stopped at Cedar Creek and made a camp of defense.
Shields, in the south, moving forward, found a swarm of skirmishers in his front, and presently the Acadians, sent in that direction by Jackson, opened up with a heavy fire on his vanguard.

Shields drew back.
He, too, feared that Jackson with his entire army was before him and rumor magnified the Southern force.

Meanwhile the flying cavalry of Ashby harassed the Northern advance at many points.
All the time the main army of Jackson was retreating toward Winchester, carrying with it the prisoners and a vast convoy of wagons filled with captured ammunition and stores.

Jackson had foreseen everything.

He had directed the men who were leading these forces to pass around Winchester in case he was compelled to abandon it, circle through the mountains and join him wherever he might be.
But Harry when he returned to Winchester breathed a little more freely.
He felt in some manner that the steel ring did not compress so tightly.
Jackson, acting on the inside of the circle, had spread consternation.
The Northern generals could not communicate with one another because either mountains or Southern troops came between.