They were familiar with the taste of victory, and defeat had been very bitter to them.

They burned to strike back, and they were willing to dare anything for the sake of it.
Orders had already gone to all the scattered and ragged fragments, and the men in gray were concentrating.

Many of them were half starved.
The great valley had been stripped of all its live stock, all its grain and of every other resource that would avail an army.

Nothing could be obtained, except at Staunton, ninety miles back of Fisher's Hill, and wagons could not bring up food in time from such a distant place.
Nevertheless the men gleaned.

They searched the fields for any corn that might be left, and ate it roasted or parched.