Then, early in the morning, Jackson led the rest of the army into a strange district, the Grottoes of the Shenandoah.

It was a dark region, filled beneath with great caves and covered thickly with heavy forest, through the leaves of which the troops caught views of the Massanuttons to the north or of the great masses of the Blue Ridge to the east, while far to the west lay other mountains, range on range.

But all around them the country was wooded heavily.
The army did not make a great amount of noise when it camped in the forest over the caves, and the fires were few.

Perhaps some of the men were daunted by the dangers which still surrounded them so thickly after so many days of such fierce fighting.

At any rate, they were silent.