Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/141

 General Lee at Gettysburg. 137

Shenandoah at Front Royal, sending Imboden's cavalry off to the west of Romney. On the i3th, General Ewell attacked the Federal force at Winchester under Milroy, capturing 4,000 men and 28 guns with a large amount of ordnance and other stores; on the same day General Hooker ordered a concentration of his army at Manassas, an old field, already having its "twice-told told tale," with his own headquarters at Dumfries, on the Potomac. Mr. Lincoln humor- ously wired Hooker: ' 'If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg, and the tail of it on the plank r<">ad between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break him?"

As Lee went north, Hooker moved on a parallel line between Lee and Washington. Ewell had gone west of the Blue Ridge, by Winchester, Martinsburg and Williamsport, in Maryland; Long- street moved on the east side of the ridge with Stuart on his front and left flank; and Hill passed behind Longstreet into the Valley, and northward following Ewell, and then was followed by Long- street's corps. General Lee instructed General Stuart to keep on General Longstreet' s right, or at his discretion to move on the rear of Hooker to and across the Potomac, and as soon as possible come in touch with the right of Ewell' s advance. Stuart passed the rear of Hooker's army and crossed the Potomac at Seneca, about thir- teen miles west of Washington. General Ewell with rapid move- ment passed through Chambersburg, and on June 2yth reached Carlisle, threatening Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. Gen- eral Lee had written, "If Harrisburg comes in your way, capture it;" while General Early with his division from E well's corps turned east and went by Gettysburg, to cut the railroad from Baltimore to Harrisburg and seize the important bridge over the Susquehannah at Wrightsville. Certainly there was vigor in the movement, and audacity. The invasion spread itself over an extended territory, with Jenkins and a cavalry brigade going west to McConnellsburg, at its own pleasure, and Early on the Susquehannah to the east with Ewell scouting before Harrisburg. It was Lee's purpose to collect horses, beef cattle and supplies; while the Army of the Potomac was drawn away from Washington. The day Ewell reached Carlisle, Longstreet and Hill reached Chambersburg, with army headquar- ters in the outskirts of the town. General Stuart was performing with his usual dash and gaiety, not on the west and north of Hooker, but using the discretion given him, on the east, between