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there was a sharp skirmish, when the passage was cleared, and
Crook and his horsemen crossed the stream.
Then
Breckinridge turned upon them,
and drove them back with considerable loss.
Another portion of the
National cavalry had a fight, at about the same time, at Ashby's Gap, and in the two encounters the
Union loss was about five hundred men. Early then moved forward as if continuing his retreat, when
Wright, handing the command oyer to
Crook, returned to,
Washington, and the former, with the troops, went to
Harper's Ferry..
General Averill, in the mean time, had moved toward
Winchester from
Martinsburg, and near the former place encountered a body of Confederates, with whom he fought
about three hours, and vanquished them.
They lost nearly four hundred men (two hundred of them made prisoners), with four guns.
Averill's loss was about two hundred.
He was compelled to fall back, for he was menaced by
Early, who, approached from Snicker's Ferry.
Grant found it difficult to understand exactly the situation in the Shenandoah Valley.
There was confusion in dispatches; but there seemed to be a general agreement in saying that
Early was retreating up the
Valley toward
Lynchburg or
Richmond, whereupon the
Lieutenant-General ordered the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps to hasten to
Petersburg by water, to assist in an assault upon the
Confederate lines there, before the invaders of
Maryland should rejoin
Lee. But events soon caused that order to be countermanded.
Supposing
Early was moving up the
Valley,
Crook marched from
Harper's Ferry on
Winchester.
When at
Kernstown, a little beyond that city, he suddenly felt the heavy pressure of his foe on front and flank.
His cavalry were pushed back
on the main body, and on the following day
Crook's entire force was driven, in some confusion, to
Martinsburg, with a loss of twelve hundred men, including
General Mulligan,
1 who was killed.
Early pursued as far as that town, and on the following day
there was a sharp cannon fight there, which enabled
Crook to get his trains safely across the
Potomac.
He followed with his troops, and
Early was left sole master of the southern side of the river, from
Shepherdstown to
Williamsport.
Emboldened by his success, and animated by the knowledge that he had many sympathizers in
Maryland and
Western Pennsylvania,
Early sent about three thousand cavalry, under
McCausland,
Johnson, and others, upon a plundering and devastating raid in the direction of the
Susquehanna.
They swept in excentric lines over the country, thereby distracting the armed defenders of it, and on the 30th of July entered the defenseless and partially
