Lieutenant [W. S.]Barton, of the Second Virginia Regiment, of Walker's brigade, Johnson's division, accompanied me as a guide, and Brown's battalion of reserve artillery, under Captain Dance, was ordered to accompany my division. Having received the instructions of the lieutenant-general commanding, the wagons, excepting the ambulances and regimental ordnance and medical wagons, were left at Cedarville, and I diverged from the Winchester and Front Royal turnpike at Niveveh, and reached the Valley turnpike at Newton, and thence advancing toward Winchester, I found Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert, of the Maryland Line, with his battalion of infantry, the battery of Maryland artillery, and a portion of the battalion of Maryland cavalry, occupying the ridge between Bartonsville and Kerstown, and engaged in occasional skirmishing with a portion of the enemy which had taken position near Kernstown. I halted my command here, forming it in line either side of the turnpike, and proceeded to reconnoiter the ground for the purpose of ascertain the strength and position of the enemy near Kerstown, and also of finding the rad by which I was to diverge from the turnpike, so as to reach the position in rear of the enemy's works which I had been directed to gain. The only portion of the enemy in sight on my arrival consisted of cavalry; but I was informed that an infantry picked occupied Kernstown and I soon discovered that a battery of artillery was located on Pritchard's Hill, near Kernstown, which was the same position occupied by the enemy's artillery at the time of General Jackson's engagement at this place. Finding it necessary to dislodge the enemy from this hill, after making a reconnaissance, I moved Hays' brigade to the left, through a skirt of woods and a meadows, to the foot of the ridge along which General Jackson made his advance and thence along a road which runs from Bartonsivlle to the Cedar Creek turnpike, until it reached an eligible position for advancing upon Pritchard's Hill from the left. From this point, Hays' was ordered to advance and gain possession of Pritchard's Hill, which he did without opposition, the enemy having withdrawn his battery; but, while advancing, General Hays sent me word that the enemy had a considerable infantry force on the ridge to his left, and I immediately conducted Gordon's brigade over the same route, and sent word to Hays to halt his command until Gordon's should get up. Gordon then advanced his brigade to the left of Hays, and, in conjunction with skirmishers sent out by Hays, drove the enemy's force across the Cedar Creed turnpike and over the ridge between that road and Abraham's Creek, which here crosses the Valley turnpike. While this was going on, Hoke's and Smith's brigades, which had been formed in line on the right and left of the Valley turnpike, respectively, were ordered to advance toward Kernstown. Gordon having advanced so that his right reached the Valley turnpike, was halted, and Hays was moved to his left, and then Smith's brigade was moved to the left of Hays, the whole being formed in line in rear of the crest of the ridge which is immediately south of Abraham's Creek. The enemy then occupied Bower's Hill, near Barton's Mills, with infantry and artillery, and it being too late for any further operations that evening, Hoke's brigade, under the command of Colonel [I. E.] Avery, of the Sixth North Carolina Regiment, which had