Chief of Staff at Washington had promised that this should not be
done, without timely notice being sent to Hunter. But it was done,
and done without any notice being sent by the Chief of Staff, whose
spies were found wanting when most needed. General Sheridan, too,
was detached from the Army of the Potomac with two brigades of
cavalry, and sent to form a junction with and succor Hunter. But the
Chief of Staff failed to send Hunter any information concerning this
movement, and hence Hunter was kept in ignorance of its design.
Sheridan was driven back before superior numbers, and failed to
carry out the plan of his instructions. Had Hunter received
information of this movement, he would not only have saved Sheridan
from defeat, but, having formed a junction with him near
Charlottesville, could leave beaten the enemy and gone where he
pleased. So much for what the Chief of Staff ought to have done but
did not do.

Of course the gates of Lynchburg were swung wide open, and there was
nothing for the famous Early, who commanded the rebel hosts, to do,
but to come out and brush Hunter away from before them. And he did
this, and more than this. He cut Hunter's communications, and sent
him flying over a different road, to the Ohio River, in search of
supplies.

And it was now, my son, that the veritable Jubal, known to his old
classmates at West Point as the late Mr. Early, saw the road open,
and the great prize before him. Scorning, as it were, to pursue
Hunter, he marched directly for Washington by the most direct road.

It was early in July, then, when General Early, at the head of his
rebel hosts, reached and crossed the Potomac. And this movement sent