Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/514



ONSIDERING the great disparity of forces engaged and the results accomplished, the Shenandoah Valley campaigns of 1864, by Lieut.-Gen. Jubal Anderson Early against the forces of Gen. David Hunter at and beyond Lynchburg, including the advance on Washington and the subsequent numerous contentions with the large army commanded by General Sheridan, were among the most remarkable and brilliant of the Confederate war in Virginia and Maryland. Unfortunately the record of these campaigns, as officially published, is a very meager one, as scarcely any reports concerning its operations were sent in to the Confederate government, and consequently few were found among the archives that were captured by the Federal forces during the retreat from Richmond, and since so impartially published. The Confederate portion of the story of these campaigns is mainly told by the maps and accompanying brief report and personal diary of the writer of this volume, which were furnished to the United States war department and are published in serial No. 90 of the War Records of the Union and Confederate armies, and in part 17 of the great Atlas accompanying these records. Aided by these, General Early wrote and published his brief, truth-telling narrative of the events of these campaigns. The Federal reports of these campaigns, as published in the Official Records, are voluminous, and numbers of the officers connected with the portion of the Federal army that Early contended with, have published narratives and magazine articles concerning these unique and but little understood campaigns.

The Second corps of the army of Northern Virginia, after participating in all the battles and engagements of the Wilderness campaign, from the 3d of May until the 8th of June, 1864, was resting, in reserve, in a camp to the west of Gaines' mill, until the morning of the 13th