The northward march was begun the first week in June. Longstreet and Ewell advanced upon Culpeper, while Hill remained near Fredericksburg, aiming to deceive Hooker as to his intentions. Hooker quickly perceived that most of the rebel army had disappeared from his front, but it was a mystery to him where it had gone. A reconnoissance developed the direction taken by the two missing corps. Unsuspicious of the grand project that was in the mind of the Confederate commander, Hooker moved down the Shenandoah Valley, taking the same course as Lee, but with the Blue Ridge Mountains between them.
LEE'S PRELIMINARY MOVEMENTS.
Passing through the defiles in this range, Lee dropped down on Milroy at Winchester before he dreamed of danger. Most of his 7,000 men were captured, but Milroy and a few escaped by a hurried flight at night. All doubt now had vanished as to the intentions of Lee; he was aiming for Pennsylvania, at the head of a powerful, well-organized army; Washington and probably Philadelphia were in peril. The only check that could block its way was the Army of the Potomac, and Hooker lost no time in moving. He reached Fairfax Court-House on the night of the 14th, thus placing himself on the flank of Ewell. The Confederates, however, held the mountain passes securely and nothing effective could be done.
ROBERT E. LEE. (1807-1870)
Confederate Commander-in-chief at Gettysburg.
On the 22d the headquarters of Lee were at Beverly, ten miles from Winchester, with which Lee kept up communication through A.P. Hill's corps, which was between Culpeper and Front Royal. Ewell, without hesitation, forded the Potomac into Maryland, while his cavalry pushed on into Pennsylvania.
By this time the government was so alarmed that President Lincoln, on the 15th of June, called by proclamation on the governors of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia to furnish 100,000 militia for the protection of those States. Pennsylvania, the one in greatest danger, was so laggard that she asked New Jersey to come to her help, and that little State gallantly did so.
GENERAL MEADE APPOINTED TO THE COMMAND OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.
Hooker deserved credit for appreciating his own unfitness for the command of the army that was again to fight Lee. He crossed the Potomac June 26th, making a movement which threatened Lee's communications, and resigned the next day. At Frederick, on the 28th, he published an order to the effect that the army had been placed in charge of Major-General George G. Meade.