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[199] his line of communications with Richmond and the latter his line of manoeuvre towards Pennsylvania.

Sketch of manoeuvres on Antietam.

Now, at the time Lee crossed the Potomac, the Federal post at Harper's Ferry, commanding the debouteh of the Shenandoah Valley, was held by a garrison of about nine thousand men, under Colonel D. H. Miles, while a force of twenty-five hundred men, under General White, did outpost duty at Martinsburg and Winchester. These troops received orders direct from General Halleck.

Lee had assumed that his advance on Frederick would cause the immediate evacuation of Harper's Ferry1 by the

1 ‘It had been supposed that the advance upon Frederick would lead to the evacuation of Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, thus opening the line of communication through the Valley.’—Lee's Report: Reports of the Army of Northern Virginia, vol. i., p. 28.

1866.

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