yland was to release these
prisoners.(15) When Early retired from Washington he recalled
Johnson.

The most remarkable thing connected with the campaign just described
was the utter dispersion of the thousands of troops in West Virginia
and the Valley under Hunter, Sigel, Crook, Averell, and B. F. Kelley,
so that none of them participated in the battle of Monocacy or the
defence of Washington.

Wright had been assigned, July 13th,(16) to command all the troops
engaged in the pursuit of Early, including a portion of the Nineteenth
Corps under General W. H. Emory, just arriving by transport from
the Army of the James. Hunter still remained in command of the
Department of West Virginia. The recent failure of Hunter caused
him to be distrusted for field work, and another commander was
sought. General Sheridan was, by Grant, ordered from the Army of
the Potomac, August 2d, to report to Halleck at Washington. In a
dispatch to Halleck of August 1st, Grant said he wanted Sheridan
put in command of all the troops in the field. On this being shown
to President Lincoln (August 3d), he impatiently wired Grant:(17)

"I have seen your dispatch in which you say 'I want Sheridan put
in command of all the troops in the field with instructions to put
himself south of the enemy and follow him to the death. Wherever
the enemy goes let our troops go also.' This, I think, is exactly
right as to how our forces should move; but please look over the
dispatches you may have received from here ever since you made that
order, and discover, if you can, that there is any idea in the head
of any one here of 'putting our army south of the enemy,' or of
'following him to the death' in any direction. I repeat to you it
will neither be done nor attempted, unless you watch it every day
and hour and force it."

Sheridan reached Harper's Ferry, August 7th, and assumed command
of the newly constituted Middle Military Division, including the
Middle Department, and the Departments of Washington, Susquehanna,
and West Virginia.(18) The First Division of the cavalry, commanded
by General Alfred T. A. Torbert, reached Sheridan from before
Petersburg, August 9th. Sheridan moved on the 10th, and reached
Cedar Creek twelve miles south of Winchester on the Strasburg pike
on the 12th, encountering some opposition at Opequon Creek,
Winchester, and Newtown. Early was reinforced by Kershaw's division
of Longstreet's corps, and by other detachments from