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53]
at the
Pass between the
Bull's Run and Kittoctin mountains,
1 the position of
Lee was partially revealed to
Hooker, and caused the latter to send the Second Corps to Thoroughfare Gap, the Fifth to
Aldie, and the Twelfth to
Leesburg.
In that encounter the Confederate cavalry was charged by
Kilpatrick's brigade (First Maine, First Massachusetts, and a battalion of the Fourth New York), and driven back to Ashby's Gap, whence they had emerged.
Two days earlier than this,
when
Milroy's flying troops were crossing the
Potomac at
Hancock, a brigade of Confederate cavalry, fifteen hundred in number, under
General Jenkins, detached from
Ewell's corps, had dashed across the river at
Williamsport, in pursuit of
Milroy's wagon-train, swept up the
Cumberland Valley to
Chambersburg, in Pennsylvania, destroyed the railway in that neighborhood, and plundered the region of horses, cattle, and other supplies.
Then, with fifty kidnapped negroes, they turned their faces toward the
Potomac,
2 encamped at and held
Hagerstown, in Maryland, and there waited for the advance of
Lee's army.
Jenkins's raid was a reconnaissance for information.
It satisfied Lee that very little opposition might be expected to an immediate invasion in force, and he determined to advance.
By skillful movements he kept the Army of the Potomac in doubt, in the vicinity of Washington, while Ewell's corps pressed to the river, crossed it at Williamsport and Shepardstown into Maryland, on the 21st and 22d of June, moved directly on Hagerstown, yet held by Jenkins, and then up the Cumberland Valley to Chambersburg,
where
General Knipe was in command.
That officer fell back, and all
Western Pennsylvania, up to its capital on the
Susquehanna, appeared to be at the mercy of the invaders, for few troops had yet joined
Couch or
Brooks.
3 Still farther northward
Ewell advanced in two columns,
Rodes's division pushing on through
Carlisle to
Kingston,
within thirteen miles of
Harrisburg, while
Early's division marched up the eastern side of the
South Mountain range, and through Emmettsburg,
Gettysburg, and
York, to the banks of the
Susquehanna at
Wrightsville,
