And as they went,
mothers and daughters and wives climbed to upper windows and looked out
toward the western mountain up whose face the column stretched, straining
their ears for the sound of shots with a more quaking apprehension than
if their own bosoms had been their marks. It is bad enough to send
friends to far-off wars, sad enough waiting for the slow tidings, but
there is something yet more poignant in seeing loved ones go out to
battle almost within sight of home.
The word was that Hubbard was encamped at a point where the road
running directly west over the mountain to West Stockbridge met two
other roads coming in from northerly and southerly directions.
Accordingly, in the hope of catching the insurgents in a trap the
government force was divided into three companies. One pushed straight
up the mountain by the direct road, while the others made respectively
a northern and a southern detour around the mountain intending to
strike the other two roads and thus come in on Hubbard's flanks while
he was engaged in front. The center company did not set out till a
little after the other two, so as to give them a start. When it
finally began to climb the mountain Sedgwick with his cavalry rode
ahead.
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