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 1864] Early threatens Washington, but retires. 531 detachments had met and foiled this movement. A new expedition was thereupon organised, with a larger force, under General Hunter, with directions to destroy, if possible, the railroad between Charlottesville and Lynchburg. Hunter moved actively southward, won an important engagement at Piedmont on June 5, wrought considerable destruc- tion to the railroads and miscellaneous military property, and pushed his advance up to the very fortifications of Lynchburg. But finding that Lee had detached Early with a large force against him, having exhausted his ammunition, and being 200 miles from his base, he was forced to retreat, and he committed the error of withdrawing toward the Ohio river by way of the Kanawha Valley. It was about this time when Grant, having driven Lee's main army before him from the Wilderness to Richmond, had reached and crossed the James river, and was beginning his long siege of Petersburg and the Confederate capital. To relieve the pressure on his own front, Lee now gave permission to Early with 17,000 men to move northward through the Shenandoah Valley, which Hunter's westward retreat had left open towards the Potomac, in order to threaten and possibly capture Washington City. Starting from Staunton on June 27, he reached Winchester on July 2. Unable to occupy Harper's Ferry because Unionist troops held Mary- land Heights, he crossed the Potomac at Shepardstown and made a short circuit into Pennsylvania and Maryland, levying contributions in money and supplies on several towns through which he passed. Marching swiftly by way of Frederick he drove back Lew Wallace, who had hastened from Baltimore with a force of from 5000 to 6000 men to oppose him at the Monocacy river; and thence he moved rapidly upon Washington. On the morning of July 11 he was before Fort Stevens, immediately north of the Soldier's Home, with the dome of the Capitol plainly in sight. It was not until Early had reached Maryland that the serious nature of the raid was understood ; and troops were hurriedly dispatched from Grant's army at Petersburg to insure the safety of Washington. While Early was carefully reconnoitring these strong defences on the afternoon of July 11, two divisions under command of General Wright landed from steamers at the Potomac wharf and marched up Seventh Street to Fort Stevens and the adjacent works which had been hastily manned. The help, though coming late, arrived in time to save the Federal capital. The skirmishing which followed on the next day, July 12, was a mere blind to conceal Early's withdrawal, but was sufficiently serious to cause a loss of 280 of the city's defenders. Intense anxiety brought President Lincoln to the parapet of Fort Stevens; and only when a sharpshooter's bullet killed an officer standing within a few feet of him did he yield to those who begged him to retire from so dangerous a position. CH. xvi. 34 2