rout, redoubled the confusion, and to all minds it was evident that the day was lost.

It was now only the question how best to save the troops. This matter they were left to decide for themselves. The Fifth and the Eighteenth Corps were under brisk fire, and had suffered considerable loss. A division of the Eighteenth, with Turner's Division of the Tenth, had demonstrated on the right (the latter even gaining the crater, and the slope beyond), in useless attempts to distract the attention of the enemy. He directed his fire straight upon the dismantled fort, now a mere slaughter-pen, in which huddled the fragmentary brigades of the Ninth Corps, hoping for relief from their comrades, who lay two hundred yards distant in their intrenchments. Now squads of men began the work of retreating. But this was a perilous undertaking. The enemy kept a deadly cross-fire on every rod of the space which intervened between the fort and our lines. In spite of this, the disorderly movement was kept up. About noon, a general retreat was ordered. A considerable part of the survivors of the assault had crossed towards the rear. And now the men in the fort, who had preferred the chances of honorable death in repelling the enemy to those of the perilous retreat, had discharged nearly all their ammunition. Left unsupported by the rest of the army, a final charge of the enemy, about two o'clock, captured them. Among the captured were General Bartlett and most of his staff. By the middle of the afternoon the bloody day was done. Our loss was in round numbers about four thousand men, of whom the majority were wounded. The loss of the enemy was about one thousand two hundred men, of whom a fifth were prisoners. It is conjectured that nearly two hundred men were destroyed by the mine.

On Sunday, the 31st, a flag of truce was sent for permission to bury the dead. This, on account of an informality, was not granted until Monday, thirty-six hours after the close of the fight. Immediately on the expiration of the time granted, the enemy again opened fiercely with his guns.

CHAPTER LVI.

Sigel's Movement in the Valley.-Hunter Supersedes Sigel, and Defeats the Rebels near Staunton.-Occupation of Lexington.-Lynchburg.-Early sent to the Valley.Retreat of Hunter through Western Virginia.-Advance of Early down the Valley and Invasion of Maryland.-Defeat of Wallace.-Washington Threatened.-Arrival of Sixth Corps and Retreat of Early.-Various Encounters iu the Valley.-Hunter Superseded by Sheridan.

THAT portion of the grand combined attack on Richmond, which consisted of a movement up the Valley of the Shenandoah upon Lynchburg, was confided to General Sigel. This movement, in connection with that of Grant in front and that of Butler on the south, was designed to close the door of retreat upon Lee, and shut him up in Richmond with his communications severed. The enemy's force in the valley was composed of the commands of Echols, Imboden, and

Breckinridge, Imboden having the advance. In the early part of May the latter general was driven up the valley by Sigel, towards Newmarket, where a concentration of the rebel troops took place. On May 15th, Sigel encountered their combined forces at Reed's Hill, near Mount Jackson, and suffered a severe repulse, losing a number of guns and prisoners. He retreated upon Strasburg, and soon after was relieved by General Hunter.

Travelling without pause from Washington to Cedar Creek, General Hunter assumed command of the beaten army, which he found demoralized to a degree that could scarcely be exceeded. Nearly two thousand of its infantry were without shoes. About one thousand had thrown away their arms in their flight, and had to be rearmed. He received re-enforcements, and advanced upon Staunton, the enemy falling back before him, and on June 6th inflicted a severe defeat upon the rebel General Jones, near Staunton,_capturing fifteen hundred prisoners and three guns. On the 8th of June, when Grant was about crossing the James, Hunter occupied Staunton, where he was joined by Averill, who had been operating in Southwestern Virginia, on the line of the Lynchburg and East Tennessee Railroad, and by General Crook, who had also been raiding upon the railroads. A demonstration was made towards Waynesboro' by a cavalry force, which was repulsed by Imboden. At Staunton several millions worth of public property was destroyed, and on the 10th the whole force, about sixteen thousand strong, advanced by two roads, forming a junction several miles northeast of Lexington, and forty miles from Lynchburg. Lexington was held by McCausland, with special orders to make the defence good until re-enforcements arrived from Richmond. IIe made the stand accordingly; but, finding the town directly under the guns of Hunter's infantry advance, and that he was being flanked by Averill's Cavalry, who had forded the river higher up, McCausland finally fell back.

Hunter advanced very slowly, throwing cavalry out to the right and left, in demonstrations against the railroad connections of the enemy. Upon reaching Lexington he awaited the expected co-operation of Sheridan in the direction of Gordonsville, which, as has been previously stated, came to naught. Not hearing from Sheridan, he then pressed on to Lynchburg, destroying railroads and bridges by the way; but upon arriving before the city, he found it too strongly fortified to be assaulted with any prospect of success. An attempt on the 18th satisfied him of the impossibility of capturing the place with his limited force. Lee now prepared to avail himself of his interior lines to throw an overpowering force into the valley, crush Hunter, and then demonstrate towards Maryland and Washington. His position at Petersburg and Richmond was so well secured that he could easily spare a whole corps for this object, and still from behind his powerful earthworks confront the Army of the Potomac.

Ewell's Corps was selected, and with Breckinridge's command and two brigades from Hill's Corps, the whole commanded by Early, proceeded about the middle of June towards the valley. The enemy had signal officers upon every hill around, and knew all Hunter's move

ments, so that Ewell's Corps was not dispatched from Richmond until its presence at Lynchburg was needed. The Union troops at this time were fifteen days' march from regular bases of supplies, and were subsisting upon the enemy's country, while the enemy, by means of the railroad from Lynchburg to Richmond, had at any time the power of concentrating against Hunter just as many troops as General Lee could spare from the Army of Northern Virginia. Hunter was not slow to perceive how critical was his position, and on the 19th commenced his march down the valley. But scarcely had he started when he found the enemy pressing him so hard that he was compelled to leave the valley, abandon part of his trains and guns, and strike across the mountains to the Kanawha, hoping to reach Long's Creek, whence by steamboat down the Kanawha and up the Ohio to Parkersburg, and thence by railroad, he could regain Martinsburg. This eccentric retreat of Hunter was forced upon him by lack of all supplies, and by the fact that the enemy had a railroad east of the Blue Ridge, from Lynchburg to Rockfish Gap or Waynesboro, only twelve miles from Staunton, by means of which the whole of Ewell's Corps, and as many other troops as Lee might think necessary, could easily have been thrown from sixty to eighty miles in Hunter's rear, while Breckinridge, with the valley troops, held him in front. And as he had but little ammuni tion, and was utterly ort of supplies, while there would be no chance to collect in presence of a superior force of the enemy, it appeared reduced to a mathematical certainty that an attempt to return down the Shenandoah would be equivalent to the annihilation or surrender of our force. Retiring by the Kanawha Valley, he confidently expected abundant supplies of commissary and quartermaster stores at Meadow's Bluff, about five or six days' march from Lynchburg. More than a million rations, about five or six days previous, had been left there by Generals Crook and Averill, under charge of two regiments of Ohio militia. These stores the enemy had destroyed.

The enemy, in all about twenty-five thousand men, after driving Hunter over the mountains, lost no time in advancing down the valley, and on Saturday, July 2d, suddenly made his appearance at North Mountain, eight miles north of Martinsburg, thus flanking Sigel, who held command there. On the following morning Sigel was compelled to fall back upon Harper's Ferry, where he united with General Stahl. The small Union force then evacuated the town and held Maryland Heights. It now became manifest that another invasion of Pennsylvania was at hand. The enemy's main line of advance was by way of Martinsburg and North Mountain, across the Potomac to Hagerstown. Refugees, farmers, and citizens soon passed east towards Baltimore, and the roads were filled with pedestrians, with droves of cattle, and with wagons of all species of construction, carrying such goods and valuables as the frightened owners had dared to stay to pick up. The terror of the fugitives was extreme, and their stories of what they had seen and heard extravagant. The panic was wide-spread and universal, and the region for miles became depopulated.

The enemy advanced steadily, and by the 4th of July the country between Winchester and Williamsport was occupied by him. On

that day a part of Mosby's Cavalry crossed at Point of Rocks, while the enemy occupied Harper's Ferry and the south bank of the Potomac, Sigel holding Maryland Heights. On the 6th, the enemy's cavalry, under McCausland, occupied Hagerstown. In view of the gravity of the situation, requisitions for troops were made upon the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, and the Sixth Corps was ordered to embark for Washington, which had been nearly stripped of its garrison to re-enforce Grant, and against which the enemy was evidently moving, hoping possibly to capture it by a coup de main. One of the objects of Lee in planning this invasion was to induce Grant to retire from before Richmond and cover the Federal capital; and the fact that the latter general thought it necessary to detach no more than a single corps for that purpose, showed that he took the proper view of the invasion, and was not to be enticed by his wily adversary from relaxing the iron grip which he had fastened upon the approaches to the rebel capital.

Meanwhile, General Lewis Wallace, commanding the Middle Department, had gathered together such troops as were available (Hunter not having yet returned from Western Virginia), and essayed to retard the progress of the enemy. On Saturday, July 9th, having by this time been joined by Ricketts's Division of the Sixth Corps, he encountered the enemy, in superior force, on the Monocacy, near Frederick, and, after a severe fight, was pushed back with loss on the road to Baltimore. The enemy immediately sent a column of troops down the Washington and Frederick turnpike. It entered Rockville on Sunday morning, and then moved on towards Washington. Five miles from Georgetown and two miles beyond the fortifications, it drove in the Federal pickets one mile on Sunday night. At daybreak on Monday morning, skirmishing commenced within rifle-shot of Fort Pennsylvania, three miles from Georgetown.

Simultaneously with the appearance of this force another division of troops appeared on the Seventh Street road, four miles from the city, directly north, and immediately in front of Forts Stevens and De Russey. Here they seemed in larger force. By Monday noon the enemy had a strong skirmish line, and some sixty were killed and wounded; but fortunately by this time the remainder of the Sixth Corps, and a portion of the Nineteenth from New Orleans, began to arrive in the Potomac, and at dusk the veteran troops advanced to the front, where the fighting became severe. The enemy began to use artillery, and Forts Slocum and De Russey opened in reply with their heavy guns. Immense efforts were made to strengthen the Federal lines, and a proclamation required every able-bodied man to turn out as militia, and be mustered into service for sixty days. Citizens were seen on every hand with guns on their shoulders, while employés of Departments and Government workshops, who had been previously organized and drilled, turned out several thousand strong. Three thousand convalescent soldiers were also obtained from the hospitals, in addition to the veteran forces, increasing hourly by fresh arrivals. The telegraph lines and railroads having been cut, Washington was, for the time being, isolated, and provisions began to rise in price. On

Wednesday morning, however, the enemy had disappeared: cavalry followed in pursuit, and found him retreating towards Frederick. A small battery had remained near Bladensburg, firing at the railroad train, long after the main line had retreated.

In the mean time, on the 10th, the enemy's cavalry approached within sixteen miles of Baltimore, and raiding parties made their appearance in various directions. One burned the dwelling of Governor Bradford; another captured a train in which was Major-General Franklin, who managed to make his escape. Other forces busied themselves in collecting large stores of forage, grain, and army supplies of all sorts, and making forced contributions in money. affair at Monocacy was the only persistent effort to oppose the raid. That ended in a defeat, and thenceforth the enemy for several days had it all his own way, and was enabled, after his demonstration upon Washington and Baltimore, to retire across the Potomac with large spoils.

The

The pursuit was commenced July 13th, by General Wright, with the Sixth Corps and one division of Emory's Nineteenth Corps. He crossed the Potomac at Edwards's Ferry and moved towards Leesburg, where Ricketts overtook and joined him. The cavalry under Duffie, of Crook's command, captured some of the rebel trains near Snicker's Gap, on the 17th. The remainder of Crook's force then came up, but the enemy commanded the stream they had crossed with two guns and checked the pursuit. On the succeeding day, Duffie was repulsed by Breckinridge, at Island Ford on the Shenandoah, with the loss of three hundred men. The enemy proceeded towards Winchester and Strasburg, followed closely by Averill, who, on the 20th, had a combat near Winchester with Ramseur's Division, which he defeated with the loss of four hundred men and four guns. Crook then joined Averill. On the 23d the enemy advanced in force and drove in the Union Cavalry, and on the 24th precipitated himself with so much force upon Crook as to push him back, with considerable loss, upon Martinsburg, whence, on Tuesday, the 26th, he recrossed the Potomac. Early now again held the right bank of the Potomac from Williamsport to Shepardstown. The enemy manoeuvred on the Potomac, effectively concealing their numbers and intentions, until the 30th, when McCausland, with a cavalry force, advanced upon Chambersburg and demanded a ransom of five hundred thousand dollars, which, not being paid, he fired the town, inflicting a loss estimated at one million dolfars. In the mean time, Averill, who had retreated from Hagerstown towards Carlisle, turned upon McCausland, and on Sunday, August 9th, our cavalry again occupied Hagerstown. The same day, Averill overtook the enemy at Moorfield and routed him, capturing all his artillery, consisting of four pieces, and many of his wagons and smallarms, and five hundred prisoners. Our loss was less than fifty men. The pursuit was kept up for many miles. For this exploit Averill was promoted to the rank of major-general.

On the 7th of August, Hunter was superseded by Sheridan, who was assigned to the command of the forces in the Middle Military Division, consisting of the Department of Washington, the Middle