"Is the deadlock there broken ?" "Not yet, sir," replied the sergeant.

"The winter being so very severe the troops are not able to do much.

General Lee still holds his lines." "I suppose that General Grant doesn't care to risk another Cold Harbor, but what has been done here in the Valley of Virginia should enable him to turn Lee's flank in the spring." "I take it that you're right, sir.

General Lee is a hard nut to crack, as we all know, but his army is wearing away.

In the spring the shell of the nut will be so thin that we'll smash it." The column, after its exploit, reported to Sheridan at Winchester, the little city around which and through which the war rolled for four long years, and where two great commanders, one of the gray and the other of the blue, had their headquarters at times.