where he remained for some months a standing
threat to the enemy.

Such was the famous march of General Early to Washington; and there
seems at present little reason to doubt that the Federal capital had a
narrow escape from capture by the Confederates. What the result of so
singular an event would have been, it is difficult to say; but it
is certain that it would have put an end to General Grant's entire
campaign at Petersburg. Then--but speculations of this character are
simply loss of time. The city was not captured; the war went upon its
way, and was destined to terminate by pure exhaustion of one of the
combatants, unaffected by _coups de main_ in any part of the theatre
of conflict.

We have briefly spoken of the engagement between Generals Early and
Hunter, near Lynchburg, and the abrupt retreat of the latter to the
western mountains and thence toward the Ohio. It may interest the
reader to know General Lee's views on the subject of this retreat,
which, it seems, were drawn from him by a letter addressed to him by
General Hunter:

"As soon after the war as mail communications were opened," writes
the gentleman of high character from whom we derive this incident,
"General David Hunter wrote to General Lee, begging that he would
answer him frankly on two points:"

'I. His (Hunter's) campaign in 1864 was undertaken on information
received by General Halleck that General Lee was about to detach forty
thousand picked troops to send to Georgia. Did not his (Hunter's) move
prevent this?

'II. When he found it necessary to retreat from Lynchburg, did he not
take the most feasible route?'

General Lee wrote a very courteous reply, in which he said:

'I. General Halleck was misinformed. I had _no troops to spare_, and
forty thousand would have taken nearly my whole army.

'II. I am not advised as to the motives which induced you to adopt
your line of retreat, and am not, perhaps, competent to judge of the
question; _but I certainly expected you to retreat by way_ of the
Shenandoah Valley.'

"General Hunter," adds our correspondent, "never published this
letter, but I heard General Lee tell of it one day with evident
pleasure."

Lee's opinion of the military abilities of both Generals Hunter
and Sheridan was indeed far from flattering. He regarded those two
commanders--especially General Sheridan--as enjoying reputations
solely conferred upon them by the exhaustion of the resources of
the Confederacy, and no