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raid northward, which the papers captured the day before showed was to have begun this day, the cavalry corps took a position in the neighborhood of Warrenton Junction, guarding the fords of the river, and remained there until Monday, June 15th. Stuart, however, made no attempt to carry out the part assigned him, and Lee's purpose to make an effort to turn Hooker's right by rapid movements along the eastern base of the mountain and interpose between him and Washington was also abandoned and the valley route was taken. This route, while not the one chosen by the Confederate commander, had some advantages over the other. The mountain wall, which intervened between the two armies, was a sure defense against any attack the Federals might make, for its gaps could easily have been fortified and held against any possible force. It was evidently expected and desired by Lee that Hooker would attempt to assail him by one of these passes, in which event one corps could have held him in check, while the other two captured Washington.*

He

General Long, in speaking of this route taken by the Confederate army, says that the purpose was to "expel from that section (the valley) a considerable Federal force and to create an impression of a flank movement, with the view of interrupting Hooker's communications." also says that Lee "by a series of bold, strategic movements (reaching the valley with his army,) removed the enemy from his path and accomplished the most difficult. step in his plan of operations without opposition." Lee simply passed through a gap of the mountain and proceeded northward by way of the valley. Does it not seem

* General Doubleday's Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, page 88.

that instead of removing the enemy from his path, he removed himself from the enemy? As for the danger and difficulty of the movement, it must be confessed that we fail to perceive them. And if, in his taking the valley route, crossing the Potomac west of the Blue Ridge, and marching up the Cumberland Valley, Lee was executing the plans he had originally determined upon, then his strategy was successful; but if in this course he departed from his original plans because of his enemy's possessing his secrets, and taking measures to defeat them, then his strategy was not successful, and General Long's effort to divert attention from this fact is more ingenious than

commendable.

Compelled to abandon the route originally chosen by the eastern base of the mountain, General Lee, on this day (Wednesday, June 10th,) put his army in motion, and General Ewell with his corps left Culpeper Court - House, passing through Gaines' Cross Roads, and halted near Flint Hill on his way to Chester Gap and Front Royal.

Thursday, June 11. Learning of the withdrawal of Ewell's corps from Culpeper, General Hooker, on this day, ordered the Third Corps to leave its encampment at Boscobel, near Falmouth, and march to Hartwood Church, to prevent any crossing in that vicinity, and confine the enemy to the valley route.

Friday, June 12. The First Corps marched from its encampment at Fitzhugh's plantation and White Oak Church to Deep Run; the Third Corps went from Hartwood Church, which it had reached the previous evening, to Bealeton, and with the Third division under General Humphreys advanced to the Rappahannock; and the

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Eleventh Corps, from the vicinity of Brooke's Station, marched to IIartwood Church, from which the Third Corps had departed that morning. The positions occupied by these three corps, as will be seen by a glance at the map, were intended to prevent Lee from crossing the river east of the mountain, compelling him to pass into the valley.

Saturday, June 13. The First Corps marched from Deep Run to Bealeton, uniting there with the Third, which had reached that place the evening previous; the Fifth Corps left its encampment in the vicinity of Banks' Ford and marched by Grove Church toward Morrisville; Wright's and Newton's divisions (first and third) of the Sixth Corps marched from Franklin's Crossing to Potomac Creek; the Eleventh Corps marched from Hartwood Church, where it had remained over night, to Catlett's Station; and the Twelfth Corps, which up to that time had remained in its encampment near Stafford Court House and Aquia Landing, started en route to Dumfries. The Artillery Reserve moved from near Falmouth to Stafford Court House.

General Hill, who had been left at Fredericksburg to watch the Federals, as soon as he saw them leave their encampment and march northward, also left his position. and proceeded to Culpeper Court House.

There appears to be some discrepancy in the statements in regard to the precise time when Longstreet and Hill left Culpeper. General Longstreet, on page 418 of Annals of the War, says: "General A. P. Hill having left Fredericksburg as soon as the enemy retired from his front, was sent to follow Ewell, who had marched up the valley and cleaned it out of the Federals. My corps left

Culpeper on the 15th, and with a view of covering the march of Hill and Ewell through the valley, moved along the east of the Blue Ridge, and occupied Snicker's and Ashby's gaps, and the line of the Blue Ridge." General Long differs from Longstreet, as will be seen in his statement, which is as follows: "Hill, as soon as the enemy disappeared from his front, withdrew from Fredericksburg and proceeded to close upon the main body of the army. On the 15th, Longstreet was put in motion for the valley, and Hill was directed to follow a day later." Whether or not Hill preceded Longstreet is not material, but it would seem that from the route the latter took, and the duty assigned him of covering the other two corps in the valley, he must have been the last to leave Culpeper. At all events, by the 16th, both of these corps had left-Hill following Ewell into the valley, and Longstreet moving northward along the eastern base of the mountain.

Information of the purpose of General Lee to invade the North, as revealed by the papers captured from General Start's headquarters, as well as the fact of the departure of Ewell's Corps from Culpeper for the Shenandoah Valley, was promptly communicated to the authorities at Washington, and the necessary preparations to meet the emergency were discussed. One of the first of the Federal posts that would most likely be assailed by the advancing foe, was Winchester, in the valley of Virginia. At that place General Milroy was stationed with about ten thousand men, of whom about seven thousand only were effective. These were not enough to insure safety in the threatened advance of Lee's entire army, yet too many to lose. The exposed condition of these men was foreseen,

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and it was deemed best to withdraw the military stores and ammunition from Winchester, and hold the place merely as a look-out, to give warning of the enemy's approach. Accordingly on the 11th, probably before the authorities at Washington knew that Ewell's. corps had left Culpeper for the valley, General Milroy received orders through General Schenck, his department commander, whose head - quarters were at Baltimore, to send his armament and supplies to Harper's Ferry. General Milroy, informed only of the expected raid by Stuart, and ignorant of the approach of the Confederate army, remonstrated against the withdrawal, declaring that he could hold the place against any force that might come against him. In reply to this remonstrance General Schenck telegraphed him that he might remain, but must be in readiness to fall back whenever circumstances made it necessary. Milroy replied to this that he could be ready to move in six hours. General Milroy then sent a brigade under Colonel A. T. McReynolds out upon his right to Berryville, to observe the adjacent passes of the Blue Ridge and the fords of the Shenandoah river; at the same time his cavalry scouts patrolled the valley as far as Front Royal and Strasburg. On Friday the 12th, he sent out a strong reconnoissance on each road to ascertain if the enemy were in sight. That on the Strasburg road went nearly to Middletown, where its troopers decoyed a Confederate cavalry patrol into an ambush, and routed it with a loss of fifty killed and wounded, and thirty-seven prisoners. Colonel Shawl who was in command of this reconnoitering party, returned to Winchester and reported no force on the road which had not been there for several months. On the