University of Virginia Library

1. I.

In the Virginia Convention of 1860-61, when the great struggle
for separation took place, and the hot war of tongues preceded
the desperate war of the bayonet, there was a gentleman
of resolute courage and military experience who made himself
prominent among the opponents of secession. Belonging to the
old Whig party, and thinking apparently that the right moment
had not yet come, this resolute soldier-politician fought the advocates
of the ordinance with unyielding persistence, aiming by his
hard-hitting argument, his kindling eloquence, and his parliamentary
skill, to give to the action of the Convention that
direction which his judgment approved. Many called him a
“submissionist,” because he opposed secession then; but when
the gauntlet was thrown down, this “Whig submissionist” put
on a gray coat, took the field, and fought from the beginning to
the very end of the war with a courage and persistence surpassed
by no Southerner who took part in the conflict. When he was
sent to invade Maryland, and afterwards was left by General
Lee in command of that “forlorn hope,” the little Valley army,
if it could be called such, in the winter of 1864-5, he was
selected for the work, because it required the brain and courage
of the soldier of hard and stubborn fibre. Only since the termination
of the war has the world discovered the truth of that
great campaign; the desperate character of the situation which
Early occupied, and the enormous odds against which he
fought.

He entered upon the great arena almost unknown. He had
served in the Mexican war, and had there displayed skill and
courage; but his position was a subordinate one, and he was
better known as a politican than a soldier. In the field he
made his mark at once. About four o'clock in the afternoon of
the 21st of July, 1861, at Manassas, the Federal forces had been
driven by the resolute assault of Jackson and his great associates
from the Henry-House hill; but a new and formidable
line-of-battle was formed on the high ground beyond, near
Dogan's house, and the swarming masses of Federal infantry
were thrown forward for a last desperate charge. The object of
the Federal commander was to outflank and envelop the Confederate
left, and his right wing swayed forward to accomplish
that object, when all at once from the woods, which the enemy
were aiming to gain, came a galling fire which staggered and
drove them back. This fire was delivered by Kirby Smith and
Early. So hot was it that it completely checked the Federal
charge; and as they wavered, the Southern lines pressed forward
with wild cheers. The enemy were forced to give ground.
Their ranks broke, and in thirty minutes the grand army was in
full retreat across Bull Run. The “Whig Submissionist” had
won his spurs in the first great battle of the war. From that time
Early was in active service, and did hard work everywhere—in
the Peninsula, where he was severely wounded in the hard struggle
of Malvern Hill, and then as General Early, at Cedar Mountain,
where he met and repulsed a vigorous advance of General
Pope's left wing, in the very inception of the battle. If Early had
given way there, Ewell's column on the high ground to his right
would have been cut off from the main body; but the ground
was obstinately held, and victory followed. Advancing northward
thereafter, Jackson threw two brigades across at Warrenton
Springs, under Early, and these resolutely held their ground
in face of an overpowering force. Thenceforward Early continued
to add to his reputation as a hard fighter—at Bristoe, the
second Manassas, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg,
Gettysburg, Spottsylvania, Monocacy, and throughout the Valley
campaign. During the invasion of Pennsylvania he led

General Lee's advance, which reached the Susquehanna and captured
York. In Spottsylvania be commanded Hill's corps, and
was in the desperate fighting at the time of the assault upon the
famous “Horseshoe,” and repulsed an attack of Burnside's corps
with heavy loss to his opponents. After that hard and bitter
struggle the Federal commander gave up all hope of forcing
General Lee's lines, and moving by the left flank reached Cold
Harbour, where the obstinate struggle recommenced. It was
at this moment, when almost overpowered by the great force
arrayed against him, that General Lee received intelligence of
the advance of General Hunter up the Valley with a considerable
army; and it was necessary to detach a commander of ability,
vigour, and daring to meet that column. Early was selected,
and the result is known. General Hunter advanced, in spite
of opposition from the cavalry under General Jones, until he
reached the vicinity of Lynchburg; but here he came in colision
with his dangerous adversary. A complete defeat of the
Federal forces followed, and Hunter's campaign was decided at
one blow. He gave ground, retreated, and, with constantly
accelerated speed, sought refuge in the western mountains,
whence, with a decimated and disheartened army, he hastened
towards the Ohio. The great advance up the Valley, from
which, as his report shows, General Grant had expected so
much, had thus completely failed. The campaign beginning
with such high hopes, had terminated in ignominy and disaster.
The inhabitants of the region, subjected by General Hunter to
the most merciless treatment, saw their powerful oppressor in
hopeless retreat; and an advance which threatened to paralyse
Lee, and by severing his communications, drive him from Virginia,
had been completely defeated. Such was the first evidence
given by General Early of his ability as a corps commander,
operating without an immediate superior.

He was destined to figure now, however, in scenes more striking
and “dramatie” still. General Grant, with about 150,000
men, was pressing General Lee with about 50,000, and forcing
him slowly back upon the Confederate capital. Every resource
of the Confederacy was strained to meet this terrible assault—

the sinews almost broken in the effort. To divert reinforcements
from General Grant was a matter of vital importance—a
thing of life and death—and Jackson's Valley campaign in 1862
had shown how this could be most effectually done. To menace
the Federal capital was evidently the great secret: a moderate
force would not probably be able to do more than divert troops
from Grant; but this was an object of the first importance, and
much might be accomplished by a soldier of decision, energy,
and rapidity of movement. Early had been selected for the
work, with orders when he left the lowland to “move to the
Valley through Swift Run Gap or Brown's Gap, attack Hunter,
and then cross the Potomac and threaten Washington.” This
critical task he now undertook with alacrity, and he accomplished
it with very great skill and success.

Not a moment was lost in pushing his column toward
Maryland; and such was the rapidity of the march upon
Washington, that the capital was placed in imminent danger.
In spite of the prostrating heat, the troops made twenty
miles a day, and the rumour of this determined advance
came to the Federal authorities at the moment when Grant was
supposed to be carrying everything before him. To meet the
attack of their formidable adversary, the authorities at Washington
sent to hurry forward the forces of General Hunter from the
Ohio, and a considerable force from General Grant's army was
dispatched up the bay to man the fortifications. Early had
pressed on, crossed the Potomac, advanced to Frederick City,
defeated General Wallace at the Monocacy, and was now in sight
of the defences of Washington; the crack of his skirmishers was
heard at the “White House” and in the department buildings
of the capital. The enormous march, however, had broken
down and decimated his army. The five hundred miles of
incessant advance, at twenty miles a day, left him only eight
thousand infantry, about forty field-pieces, and two thousand
badly mounted cavalry—at the moment detached against the
railroads northward—with which to assault the powerful works,
bristling with cannon, in his front. His position at this moment
was certainly critical, and calculated to try the nerves of any but

a resolute and daring soldier. He was in the heart of the
enemy's country, or at least in sight of their capital city; in his
front, according to Mr. Stanton, the Federal Secretary of War,
was the Sixth and part of the Eighth and Nineteenth Corps, and
General Hunter was hastening from the West to strike his rear
and cut him off from his only avenue of retreat across the
Potomac. It behoved the Confederate commander under these
circumstances to look to his safety; and he was reluctantly compelled
to give up his intended assault upon the capital—to
abandon the attempt to seize the rich prize apparently in his
very grasp. Early, accordingly, broke up his camp, retreated,
and, with little molestation, recrossed the Potomac, and stood at
bay on the Opequon in the Shenandoah Valley.

Such had been the result of the daring advance upon the
Federal capital. The extent of the danger to which Washington
was then exposed, still remains a matter of doubt and difference
of opinion among the most intelligent persons. It will, no
doubt, be accurately defined when the events of the recent struggle
come to be closely investigated by the impartial historian of
the future, and the truth is sifted from the error. To the world
at large, the Federal capital seemed in no little danger on that
July morning, when Early's lines were seen advancing to the
attack. Northern writers state that, if the assault had been
made on the day before, it would have resulted in the capture
of the city. But however well or ill-founded this may be, it is
safe to say that the primary object of the march had been
accomplished when Early retreated and posted himself in the
Shenandoah Valley—a standing threat to repeat his audacious
enterprise. It was no longer a mere detached column that
opposed him, but an army of about 50,000 men. To that extent
General Grant had been weakened, and the heavy weight upon
General Lee's shoulders lightened.