campaign had been an advance up
the Valley, and another from Western Virginia, toward the Lynchburg
and Tennessee Railroad--the two columns to cooeperate with the main
army by cutting the Confederate communications. The column in Western
Virginia effected little, but that in the Valley, under General
Hunter, hastened forward, almost unopposed, from the small numbers of
the Southern force, and early in June threatened Lynchburg. The news
reached Lee at Cold Harbor soon after his battle there with General
Grant, and he promptly detached General Early, at the head of about
eight thousand men, with orders to "move to the Valley through
Swift-Run Gap, or Brown's Gap, attack Hunter, and then cross the
Potomac and threaten Washington." [Footnote: This statement of his
orders was derived from Lieutenant-General Early.]

General Early, an officer of great energy and intrepidity, moved
without loss of time, and an engagement ensued between him and General
Hunter near Lynchburg. The battle was soon decided. General Hunter,
who had more cruelly oppressed the inhabitants of the Valley than even
General Milroy, was completely defeated, driven in disordered flight
toward the Ohio, and Early hastened down the Valley, and thence into
Maryland, with the view of threatening Washington, as he had been
ordered to do by Lee. His march was exceedingly rapid, and he found
the road unobstructed until he reached the Monocacy near Frederick
City, where he was opposed by a force under General Wallace. This
force he attacked, and soon drove from the field; he then pressed
forward, and on the 11th of July came in sight of Washington.

It was the intelligence of this advance of a Confederate force into
Maryland, and toward the capital, which came to startle General Grant
while he was hotly engaged with Lee at Petersburg. The Washington
authorities seem to have been completely unnerved, and to have
regarded the capture of the city as nearly inevitable. General Grant,
however, stood firm, and did not permit the terror of the civil
authorities to affect him. He sent forward to Washington two army
corps, and these arrived just in time. If it had been in the power of
General Early to capture Washington--which seems questionable--the
opportunity was lost. He found himself compelled to retire across the
Potomac again to avoid an attack in his rear; and this he effected
without loss, taking up, in accordance with orders from Lee, a
position in the Valley,