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presence of
Ewell in the Shenandoah Valley, he called
Howe across the river, and on the day when
Milroy was driven from
Winchester,
he moved rapidly northward, with his whole force, to
Centreville and its vicinity, keeping his cavalry well to his left to watch the passes of the
Blue Ridge, while intent, himself, upon covering
Washington.
The National authorities, as well as those of
Maryland and
Pennsylvania, had, meanwhile, become thoroughly aroused by a sense of danger.
The Government had just created
two new military departments in
Pennsylvania.
1 On the 12th,
Governor Curtin, of that State, issued a call for the entire militia of the commonwealth to turn out to defend its soil, but it was feebly responded to; and on the 15th, the
President called upon the States nearest the capital for an aggregate of one hundred thousand militia.
2 This, too, was tardily and stingily answered, while uniformed and disciplined regiments of the
city of New York so promptly marched toward the field of danger that the
Secretary of War publicly thanked the
Governor of that State for the exhibition of patriotism.
Despondency had produced apathy, and it appeared, for the moment, as if the patriotism of the loyalists was waning, and that the expectation of the
Confederates, of a general cry for peace in the Free-labor States, was about to be realized.
Finally, when the
Confederates were streaming across the
Potomac, the number of troops that responded to the call was about fifty thousand, one-half of whom were Pennsylvanians, and fifteen thousand were New Yorkers.
3
Lee had about a week's start of
Hooker in the race for the
Potomac, and when the latter disappeared behind the
Stafford hills,
the occupants of Fredericksburg Heights marched for
Culpepper.
Longstreet, in position there, his ranks swelled by a part of
Pickett's division, then moved along the eastern side of the
Blue Ridge, and took possession of Ashby's and Snicker's Gaps, for the purpose of seriously menacing, if not actually attempting the capture of
Washington, drawing
Hooker farther from his supplies, and preventing the Nationals from darting through the
Blue Ridge and striking the
Confederates in the
Valley, into which
Hill, covered by
Longstreet, speedily followed
Ewell, and took position at
Winchester.
Hooker, meanwhile, was in the vicinity of Fairfax Court-House, expecting a direct attack from his adversary, and the cavalry of
Pleasanton and
Stuart had almost daily encounters.
In one of these, near
Aldie,
