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169 ✵ the withdrawal of lee’s army ushered in another period of instability for Winchester. Military operations shifted to the east along the RapidanRappahannock line. No major operations were undertaken in the Shenandoah until the onset of the 1864 campaign season. Instead, frequent cavalry raids, guerrilla activity, and brief occupations by both sides became common disruptions of civilian life. Residents’ physical and psychological endurance was severely tested. As Kate McVicar remembered, “It was the worst time of the war for the citizens of the county. What one side spared the other took. Those raiding parties came so quietly that people had rarely any time to get things out of their way.”1 By the eve of the Third Battle of Winchester a hardened Southern officer like Col. Charles Blacknall could write that what might have been “an adventure of some importance has become to me only an every day occurrence . . . we don’t regard a little skirmish as anything at all.”2 War weariness and hardening wartime conditions made day-to-day survival even more difficult for an already suffering civilian population. The year 1863 “marked a significant watershed” in the “emergence of large-scale destruction carried out, in fairly routine fashion, by large bodies of troops.” As Mark Grimsley indicates, the “difference was less qualitative than quantitative” following the “dramatic expansion in scale” of military operations.3 The destructiveness of Gen. David Hunter’s campaign up the Shenandoah Valley in the spring would only be a prelude to that reeked by Gen. Philip Sheridan’s “hard war” in September and October. Initially General Lee hoped to draw Meade into the Valley. There he wanted “to attack him as far from his base as possible.”4 On July 26 Meade asked Halleck if he wanted or expected him to occupy the Shenandoah. The Federal command in Washington was not interested. The general-in-chief saw no advantage in Meade’s occupying the Valley. Instead, Halleck maintained that Meade’s “objective point” was Lee’s army. However, Meade did point out one advantage in holding the Valley, noting that it would prevent 5 TheChessGame beleaguered winchester 170 the Confederacy from harvesting crops there. Still he was told, “The occupation of the Shenandoah is now a matter of very little importance.”5 Instead , the Army of the Potomac began moving on the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains toward the Rappahannock River, leaving the Valley for minor operations. Mrs. Lee’s question on the evening of July 25, “Who will we belong to to-morrow?” was quickly answered the following day. A Federal cavalry unit charged into town with “sabres & pistols drawn.” Tearing up Charles Coontz’s garden, they rode erratically down the street with heads of cabbage on their swords—reputedly their mission was to bring supplies to the hospital . Then they left. Kate Sperry thought that they “behaved rather civilly, considering all things” but looked “badly frightened at times.” A war-hardened Mrs. Lee merely shrugged; she was “not a bit afraid of the Yankee.”6 Unprotected, residents would experience frequent periods of flux. No one side would occupy the town for any length of time. Cavalry charges constantly interrupted the calm. Occasionally Federals arrested citizens, then released them. Many Unionists, fearful of arrest by Confederates, stayed in Martinsburg, while Southerners remained further up the Valley.7 By early August Ann C. R. Jones lamented, “You never saw such a place as Winchester has become, so many persons anxious to leave it, selling their houses & even old inhabitants, & some young, keen for going away.”8 The town took on a bleak appearance of despair. William H. Morris, just returning from Winchester , told David Strother that it was “dead and rotten.” He observed that there was “No business, nothing to eat. Houses deserted, population leaving going north and south.” He found Main Street nearly empty of people.9 The attraction of sutler stores in Martinsburg drew “a few men and a number of women” to buy supplies after taking an oath.10 The relaxation of regulations in early March had permitted families to secure necessities, only for their own use, from there and other markets.11 Scarcity, inflation, and the decreasing value of Confederate currency posed continuing perplexities. One of the worst consequences of the plummeting value of Confederate money was its depressing effect on morale. An informant told Strother that in Winchester “there is no money that will pass. Country people will not bring marketing to town...

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