Wright had been assigned, July 13th,(16) to command all the troops engaged in the pursuit of Early, including a portion of the Nineteenth Corps under General W. H. Emory, just arriving by transport from the Army of the James. Hunter still remained in command of the Department of West Virginia. The recent failure of Hunter caused him to be distrusted for field work, and another commander was sought. General Sheridan was, by Grant, ordered from the Army of the Potomac, August 2d, to report to Halleck at Washington. In a dispatch to Halleck of August 1st, Grant said he wanted Sheridan put in command of all the troops in the field. On this being shown to President Lincoln (August 3d), he impatiently wired Grant:(17)
"I have seen your dispatch in which you say 'I want Sheridan put in command of all the troops in the field with instructions to put himself south of the enemy and follow him to the death. Wherever the enemy goes let our troops go also.' This, I think, is exactly right as to how our forces should move; but please look over the dispatches you may have received from here ever since you made that order, and discover, if you can, that there is any idea in the head of any one here of 'putting our army south of the enemy,' or of 'following him to the death' in any direction. I repeat to you it will neither be done nor attempted, unless you watch it every day and hour and force it."
Sheridan reached Harper's Ferry, August 7th, and assumed command of the newly constituted Middle Military Division, including the Middle Department, and the Departments of Washington, Susquehanna, and West Virginia.(18) The First Division of the cavalry, commanded by General Alfred T. A. Torbert, reached Sheridan from before Petersburg, August 9th. Sheridan moved on the 10th, and reached Cedar Creek twelve miles south of Winchester on the Strasburg pike on the 12th, encountering some opposition at Opequon Creek, Winchester, and Newtown. Early was reinforced by Kershaw's division of Longstreet's corps, and by other detachments from Lee's army. The enemy manoeuvred on Sheridan's flanks, and by August 22d the Union Army had retired to Halltown and Harper's Ferry.
Thus far Lincoln's predictions were fulfilled. But great events were soon to follow.
( 1) Memoirs of Grant, vol. ii., p. 151.
( 2) War Records, vol. xxxvi., Part II., p. 273, 291. Butler's Book, p. 677.
( 3) Ibid., vol. xl., p. 168.
( 4) War Records, vol. xl., Part II., p. 169.
( 5) The memorable "Mine explosion," under the immediate direction of Burnside, occurred July 30, 1864.
( 6) War Records, vol. xxxvii., Part I., p. 97.