Background and Overview of the Campaign
Early’s Invasion of the North was a continuation of the Lynchburg Campaign (see timeline). A Federal invasion launched from the upper Shenandoah Valley and commanded by Major General David Hunter was turned back from the vital Confederate rail center at Lynchburg by Lieutenant General Jubal Early and his Second Corps. Hunter was low on supplies and retreated back toward the Shenandoah, pursued by Early. When Hunter retreated into West Virginia Early planned to continue north and down the Shenandoah Valley.
Timeline of the Campaign
| June 28 | Lieutenant General Jubal Early resumed his march north from Salem. | |
| June 29 |  Confederate cavalry strike at the railroad and telegraph near Martinsburg. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad President John Garrett notified the War Department that behind the Confederate troopers heavy infantry forces were threating the lower Shenandoah Valley. Garrett was a trusted ally of the Lincoln administration and his network of agents and telegraphists along the railroad had proven invaluable during Confederate incursions in the past. The War Department put little faith in its generals in Maryland and West Virginia, but it listened to Garrett. |
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| June 30 | Early passed north through New Market along the Valley Pike. | |
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July
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| July 1 | Early’s men reached Winchester and continued north. | |
| July 2 |  Early’s advance elements encountered Sigel’s outpost guard and forced it back into Harpers Ferry. Early received a telegram from Lee instructing him to remain in the Valley “until everything was in readiness to cross the Potomac and to destroy the Baltimore & Ohio and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal.” At the same time the B&O’s President Garrett met with Lew Wallace, commander of the Middle Military District headquartered in the railroad’s headquarters city of Baltimore. Wallace’s authority extended only to the Monocacy River outside Frederick, Maryland, but he promised Garrett that he would reinforce the guard on the B&O bridge over the river there. |
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| July 3 | Terry’s Virginia Brigade reached Martinsburg, disrupting the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The Federal high command were still not aware of the threat Early posed. Grant telegraphed Washington from Petersburg that “Early’s Corps is now here. There are no troops that can now be threatening Hunter’s department, except the remnant of the force W.E. Jones had, and possibly Breckinridge.”
Meanwhile Lew Wallace learned that Hunter’s troops left the Shenandoah Valley entirely and any Confederate raid would have a relatively open road to Washington and Baltimore. He sent the promised reinforcements to the Monocacy River bridge and began to pull together the meager forces in his rear-area department, gathering about 2,300 men. |
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| July 4 |
Sigel evacuated Harpers Ferry and pulled back to Union fortifications on Maryland Heights. Four trainloads of supplies were saved and sent toward Baltimore. The bridges across the Potomac were disabled, blocking Early’s direct route to Washington. Small groups of Confederates looted the town’s saloons and stores, well stocked for Independence Day celebrations. Washington lost telegraph communication with Harpers Ferry when Confederate partisan rangers under John Mosby cut the wires at Point of Rocks, Maryland. |
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Early’s Raid on Washington |
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| July 5-6 | Early crossed the Potomac at Boteler’s Ford at Shepherdstown, ten miles upstream from Harpers Ferry. Rebel cavalry under John Imboden wrecked bridges and culverts along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad as far west as Cumberland, while Gordon’s infantry wrecked the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal bridge over Antietam Creek and the Antietam Ironworks and burned several canal barges full of coal. McCausland’s cavalry occupied Hagerstown with orders to demand 1,500 sets of shoes and clothes and a $200,000 ransom from the city or it will be burned to the ground. But a misplaced decimal point in their demands brought them only $20,000. Lew Wallace left his Baltimore headquarters shortly after midnight on a locomotive provided by Garrett and joined his small force guarding the Monocacy River bridge. This is where the road from Frederick splits to go to Washington or Baltimore, so any Confederate invasion for either had to pass this point. Wallace decided he would gather his small forces and do what he could to stop or delay the enemy. | |
| July 7 | Early’s men moved through Boonsboro on the way to South Mountain. John Echols took command of Breckinridge’s Division from J.C. Vaughn. | |
| July 8 | Early crossed South Mountain and skirmished with Federal troops west of Frederick. | |
| July 9 |
The Battle of Monocacy (see more details)Early defeated a hastily assembled force of Union troops under Lew Wallace. They included Army of the Poromac vererans from the Sixth Corps that Grant had hurriedly shipped up from Petersburg. |
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| July 10 | Early continued his interrupted advance on Washington. The day was brutally hot and straggling was heavy. | |
| July 11-12 |
Battle of Fort StevensEarly’s leading men reached the outskirts of the District around midday, at about the same time steamers began to unload more Union Sixth Corps veterans that Grant had sent up. With his exhausted men still arriving and moving into position at the end of the day Early decided to hold off attacking the imposing Union defences until morning. |
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| July 12 | It became obvious that the reinforced defenses were too much for Early’s men to take and hold. He spent the day skirmishing and sent bullets singing past Lincoln’s head, wounding a man standing next to the President. A late afternoon advance by the Union Sixth Corps veterans drove Early’s men back. | |
| July 13-14 | Early withdrew from Washington, crossed the Potomac and moved across Loudoun County toward the Valley. He was followed by Wright’s 6th Corps along with elements of the 19th Corps, recently arrived from Louisiana and originally intended for Petersburg. | |
| July 15 |  Wright was joined by the Army of West Virginia, commanded by Brevet Major General George Crook (West Point Class of 1852). Crook had commanded a brigade at Antietam and a division at Chickamauga. At West Point he had been roommates with Phillip Sheridan, with whom he remained friends. |
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| July 16 |
Heaton’s Crossroads and WoodgroveUnion cavalry attacked Confederate supply trains and harassed Early’s column as it withdrew across Loudoun County. Early’s force crossed the Blue Ridge at Snicker’s Gap and reached Berryville. |
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| July 17 |
Battle of Cool Spring (Snicker’s Ferry)Union pursuers failed to force their way across the Shenandoah River at Snicker’s Ford, also known as Castleman’s Ferry. |
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| July 19 | Early withdrew his army to Strasburg, leaving Ramseur’s Division in Winchester to cover the evacuation of hospitals and supplies. Averell’s Division of Union cavalry moved from Martinsburg to Bunker Hill to counter a suspected Confederate raid against the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. | |
| July 20 |
Battle of Rutherford’s Farm (see details)Confederate cavalry under Vaughan and Jackson discovered Averell’s Federal Cavalry Division at Bunker Hill. They withdrew toward Winchester, skirmishing with Averell’s Division as it advanced on the city. Ramseur advanced his infantry division northeast of town to try to ambush the Union cavalry. After a short fight Ramseur was outflanked and his men withdrew into Winchester. |
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| July 24 |
Second Battle of Kernstown (see details)Early turned on following Union forces and attacked them south of Winchester. The Union troops collapsed and withdrew to Harpers Ferry as Early’s men followed them north. |
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| July 30 |
Burning of ChambersburgBrigadier General John McCausland and 2,800 Confederate cavalrymen entered Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. They demanded a ransom of $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in greenbacks. Failing to get it, McCausland’s men burned the town. |
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August
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| August 1 |
Battle of Folck’s MillEmergency 100-day Union troops under Benjamin F. Kelley turned back McCausland’s cavalry as they sought to destroy the Union railroad center at Cumberland, Maryland. |
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With his raid on Washington driven back, Early now began his 1864 Valley Campaign. His intentions were to divert as many Federal troops as possible from the siege of Petersburg and Richmond while preserving food production in the Shenendoah Valley for the Confederacy, just as Jackson had with many of the same troops in 1862.