He would gladly have evaded the errand, but it was obvious that he was the right messenger.
He rode slowly and found Jackson coming up with the main force, Dr.
McGuire, his physician, and Colonel Crutchfield, his chief of artillery, riding on either side of him.

The general gave one glance at Harry's drooping figure.
"Well," he said, "have we not won the victory?
From a hilltop our glasses showed the enemy in flight." "Yes, general," said Harry, taking off his hat, "we defeated the enemy, but General Ashby is dead." Jackson and his staff were silent for a moment, and Harry saw the general shrink as if he had received a heavy blow.
"Ashby killed! Impossible!" he exclaimed.
"It's true, sir.

I helped to carry his body to a house in Port Republic, where it is now lying." "Lead us to that house, Mr.Kenton," said Jackson.
Harry rode forward in silence, and the others followed in the same silence.

At the house, after they had looked upon the body, Jackson asked to be left alone awhile with all that was left of Turner Ashby.
The others withdrew and Harry always believed that Jackson prayed within that room for the soul of his departed comrade.
When he came forth his face had resumed its sternness, but was without other expression, as usual.
"He will not show grief, now," said Sherburne, "but I think that his soul is weeping." "And a bad time for Fremont and Shields is coming," said Harry.
"It's a risk that we all take in war," said Dalton, who was more of a fatalist than any of the others.
The chief wrote a glowing official tribute to Ashby, saying that his "daring was proverbial, his powers of endurance almost incredible, his character heroic, and his sagacity almost intuitive in divining the purposes and movements of the enemy." Yet deeply as Harry had been affected by Ashby's death, it could not remain in his mind long, because they had passed the Massanuttons now, and Fremont and Shields following up the valley must soon unite.
Harry believed that Jackson intended to strike a blow.

The situation of the Confederacy was again critical--it seemed to Harry that it was always critical--and somebody must wield the sword, quick and strong.
McClellan with his great and well-trained army was before Richmond.