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and skilfully to send another army of invasion into the
Northern States.
Operations West of the Blue Ridge.
At the last reference to operations west of the
Blue Ridge,
Gen. Hunter--the same who had made himself famous by his
negrophilism in the department of
Beaufort,
South Carolina-had taken command of the
Federal forces there, and was about to enter upon an enlarged campaign.
That campaign was dictated by
Grant.
It indicated the extension of the auxiliary movement against
Richmond to as many points as
Staunton,
Lynchburg,
Charlottesville and
Gordonsville — the general design being to cut the communications of
Richmond, in view of which
Hunter was to move on the point that best invited attack.
West of the
Blue Ridge the
Confederate force was small, disarranged, and altogether unequal to meet these formidable enterprises of the enemy.
It consisted of a few small brigades of inferiour cavalry, about two regiments of infantry, and a small brigade (
Vaughan's) of dismounted troops acting as infantry.
To supply the place of
Breckinridge, who had gone to the
Richmond arid
Petersburg lines,
McCausland's little force, from
Dublin, was sent to the front of
Staunton, and
Gen. William E. Jones was ordered to take all the troops he could move from
Southwestern Virginia to the same position in the lower valley.
Accordingly,
Gen. Jones not only got together all the infantry west of the
New River, but having dismounted
Vaughan's brigade of cavalry also, took all to
Staunton, leaving nothing in the extreme southwest but a few disjointed bodies of cavalry and
Morgan's command to meet
Burbridge, coming in from
Kentucky.
Gen. Hunter, having received his instructions from
Grant, immediately took up the offensive, and moving up the Shenandoah Valley, met
Jones' little command, on the 5th June, at
Piedmont.
Here the
Confederates were overpowered with the loss of more than one thousand prisoners, and of their commander, who, with hat in hand, was cheering his men when he fell, pierced through his head by a minie ball.
On the 8th,
Hunter formed a junction with
Crook and
Averill at
Staunton, from which place he moved, by way of
Lexington, direct on
Lynchburg.
He reached this place on the 16th June.
It now became necessary for
Gen. Lee to detach a considerable portion of his force to meet this distant demonstration of the enemy, and to select a commander, the decision, energy and rapidity of whose movements might overthrow
Hunter, and possibly make an opportunity to pass a column, however small, through the
Valley of Virginia to threaten the
Federal capital.
For this work
Gen. Early was selected.
He had latterly commanded
