either debouch through the South Mountain passes to plant himself upon Lee's line of retreat, or moving northward on the eastern side of the mountains, follow Lee's movement in the direction of the Susquehanna.

The former course is of the two the bolder and more decisive move, and though there is no proof that is conclusive respecting which of these courses General Hooker designed to adopt, there is yet evidence that he purposed making, at least, a strong demonstration on Lee's line of communications. With this view he threw out his left well westward to Middletown, and ordered the Twelfth Corps, under General Slocum, to march to Harper's Ferry. Here Slocum was to be joined by the garrison of that post, eleven thousand strong, under General French, and the united force was to menace the Confederate rear by a movement towards Chambersburg. Unhappily, this project traversed the pet crotchet of General Halleck respecting Harper's Ferry, and thence began griefs for Hooker, and an imbroglio more and more involved till it resulted in his supersedure from command at the critical moment when the two armies were manoeuvring towards a collision the weightiest of the war. The circumstances under which this took place are as follows.

At the time Lee's advance was set on foot, the distribution. of the Union forces showed the same vicious amorcellement under independent commanders that had marked the worst period of 1862. General Heintzelman commanded the Department of Washington, with a force of about thirty-six thousand men ;* General Schenck controlled the Middle Department, east of Cumberland, including the garrisons at Harper's Ferry, Winchester, etc.; while General Dix, with a considerable force, lay for some purpose inconceivable on the Peninsula. Now, about the time Hooker crossed the Potomac, the general-in-chief, awakening at length to the fatal folly of this untimely waste of valuable force, placed the troops of

* General Heintzelman's tri-monthly report for June 10, showed thirty-six thousand six hundred and forty men.

Generals Heintzelman and Schenck under his control.

But it was soon proved that this control was rather in name than in reality; for when he attempted to fit out from these departments a column of fifteen thousand men to move on Frederick, he found himself estopped by General Halleck's fears touching the safety of Washington-a circumstance for which General Hooker conceived he provided sufficiently by the presence of the Army of the Potomac covering the capital; and when, after advancing on Frederick, he had planned the movement on the rear of Lee, and for that purpose had directed the temporary abandonment of Harper's Ferry, with the view of uniting its garrison of eleven thousand men under General French with the column of General Slocum destined to make the proposed movement, he asked General Halleck, on the 26th of June, "if there was any reason why Maryland Heights should not be abandoned after the removal of the public stores and property," he was met by the following reply from the general-in-chief: "Maryland Heights have always been regarded as an important point to be held by us, and much expense and labor incurred in fortifying them. I cannot approve their abandonment except in case of absolute necessity."* It was in vain that General Hooker urged in rejoinder of this fatuitous objection that Harper's Ferry was, under the circumstances, a point of no importance; that it defended no ford of the Potomac; that its fortifications would remain after the troops were withdrawn; nor was there the slightest probability that the enemy would take possession of them, and that, therefore, the ten thousand men that remained there useless, should be marched to a point where they could be of service.†

*Telegram from General Halleck to General Hooker, June 27: Report on the Conduct of the War, second series, vol. i., p. 292.

The text of General Hooker's dispatch is as follows:

MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK, General-in-chief:

SANDY HOOK, June 27, 1868

I have received your telegram in regard to Harper's Ferry. I find ten thousand men here in condition to take the field. Here they are of no earthly

Against stupidity, sings Schiller, gods and men fight in

vain.

Finding himself deprived of that freedom of action on which, in so large a degree, the success of military operations depends, General Hooker requested, on the 27th of June, to be relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac; and early the following morning, a messenger reached Frederick from Washington with an order appointing MajorGeneral G. G. Meade, commanding the Fifth Army Corps, in his stead.

Provoking as was the behavior of General Halleck, the conduct of General Hooker cannot be accounted noble or high-minded. A truly lofty sense of duty would have dictated much long-suffering, in a conjuncture of circumstances amid which the success of the campaign might be seriously compromised by the sudden change of commanders. Yet it was fortunate for the Union cause at this crisis, that the choice of the Government for the commander of the Army of the Potomac fell upon one who proved fitted for the high trust; and fortunate, too, that that oft-displayed steadfastness of the army, "unshaked of motion" and committed to the death to a duty self-imposed, rendered such transitions, elsewhere dangerous, here safe and easy. Meade put his hand to his work in a quiet, practical, business-like way; and it was remarked that his undemonstrative temper, and the aspect he wore of a scholar rather than a soldier, were no drawback to the confidence of the troops, who had learned from the experience of his predecessor, that high-flown

account. They cannot defend a ford of the river; and as far as Harper's Ferry is concerned, there is nothing in it. As for the fortifications, the work of the troops, they remain when the troops are withdrawn. No enemy will ever take possession of it for them. This is my opinion. All the public property could have been secured to-night, and the troops marched to where they could have been of some service. Now, they are but a bait for the rebels should they re turn. I beg that this may be presented to the Secretary of War, and his ex cellency the President.

JOSEPH HOOKER, Major-General.

promise is often associated with very disproportionate performance. Without being what is called a popular officer, General Meade was much respected by his comrades in arms. He was known in the army as one who had grown up with it, whose advancement was due to merit, and who had shown a special steadfastness in many trying hours. The command of the Army of the Potomac was put into his hand without any lets or hindrances, the President expressly waiving all the powers of the Executive and the Constitution, so as to enable General Meade to make, untrammelled, the best dispositions for the emergency.

Immediately the columns moved on as if no change had occurred.

V.

CONCENTRATION ON GETTYSBURG.

At the time General Meade took command, the army was lying around and near Frederick-its left at Middletown ; and all he knew touching the enemy was, that Lee, after crossing the Potomac, had marched up the Cumberland Valley, and that Ewell's corps occupied York and Carlisle, and threatened the passage of the Susquehanna at Columbia and Harrisburg.

In this state of facts, Meade adopted the only course then considered by him practicable, which was to move his army by the inner line from Frederick towards Harrisburg, continuing the movement until he should meet Lee, or make him loose his hold on the Susquehanna.

He therefore put his army in motion on the morning of the 29th, taking a course due northward, and keeping east of the South Mountain range. The army moved in three columns, covering, as it advanced, the lines of approach to Baltimore and Washington. The First and Eleventh corps were directed on Emmettsburg; the Third and Twelfth on Taney

town; the Second on Frizzleburg; the Fifth to Union, and the Sixth to Windsor.

Now, on the very day that Meade began to move northward, Lee, apprised of those previous manoeuvres that seemed to threaten an irruption into the Cumberland Valley (a step which would imperil his communications with the Potomac), discovered it would be necessary to do something to check this menace. At this time Longstreet and Hill were at

SKETCH OF MANEUVRES ON GETTYSBURG.

Chambersburg, Ewell was at York and Carlisle, and Lee was just on the point of moving his whole force northward to cross the Susquehanna and strike Harrisburg;* when, learning the already mentioned menace, he resolved to concentrate on the east side of the South Mountain range as a diversion

"Preparations were now made to advance upon Harrisburg; but on the night of the 28th information was received from a scout that the Federal army, having crossed the Potomac, was advancing northward, and that the head of the column had reached South Mountain. As our communications