pared to cross the Blue Ridge or the Potomac, as might be required.
It was not long before Pleasanton and Stuart were fighting again. On the 19th the former attacked Stuart at Middleburg and drove him out. This victory was followed up, and Stuart was driven back eight miles to Upperville. The Union scouts were now able to climb the peaks of the Blue Ridge, where they had a full view of the whole lower valley of the Shenandoah, and saw Ewell's corps marching towards the Potomac.
On the 21st Lee ordered Ewell to march on Harrisburg, and on the 23d sent the other two corps forward. They passed into Pennsylvania, and requisitions of every kind followed. The Confederates, accustomed to their impoverished lands, were amazed at the richness of the country. They were able to fit themselves out anew with every thing they needed. Ewell reached Carlisle on the 27th and his scouts reconnoitred Harrisburg, where the citizens were making desperate preparations for defence.
As Lee was marching away from Washington, it was necessary to guard his flank from an attack from that quarter, and Early was sent east of the mountains. On June 26th he bivouacked at Gettysburg, after driving out a thousand Pennsylvania militia. Gordon pushed forward to cross the big wooden bridge at Wrightsville, but it was burned before he could do so.
When Hooker learned of the arrival of Ewell at Hagerstown, he sent three army corps to Poolesville to hold the left bank of the Potomac and to guard Washington, and he prepared to follow Lee into Maryland with the remainder of his army. He crossed the Potomac on the 26th, and the two armies were now only 40 miles apart. Lee heard nothing of this movement. He relied on Stuart for information, but that enthusiastic officer had started off on a raid of his own, and was out of reach. Stuart proposed to make a circuit of the Federal army by passing
