Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1867-02-22
Gen. Early's AccOu t of his March on Wash
ingtOn.

lHStUu.
The Richmond Examiner prints from ad-
vance sheets of Jubal Early's Last year Of
the War" the following account Of his dem
onstrations on Washington
"The rapid marching which had broken
down number of the men who were bare
footed or weakened by previous exposure,
and had been left in the Valley and directed
to be collected at Winchester, and the losses
in killed and wounded at Harper's Ferry,
Maryland Heights. and Monocracy. had re-
duced my infantry to about eight thousand
muskets. OF those remaining, very large
number were greatly exhausted by the last
two days marching, some having fallen by
sunstrokc, and ! was satisfied, when we ar
rived III front of the Notifications, that not
more than one-third of my force could have
been carried into action | had about forty
pieces Of field artillery, Of which the largest
were twelve pouuder Napoleon, besides few
pieces Of horse artillery with the cavalry
McCauSlaud reported the works on the
Georgetown pike loo strongly manned for
him TO assault. We could not move to the
right or the left without its being discovered
from signal station on the top of the . Sol
diers' Home" which overlooked the country
and the enemy would have been enabled to
move in his works to meet US.
Under the circumstances. to have rushed
my men blindly against the Notifications,
without understanding the state of things,
would have. been worse than folly. Eve had
any friends in Washington none Of them came
out to give us information, and this satisfied
me that the place was not undefended. I
knew that troops had arrived from Grants
army, for prisoners had been captured from
Ricketts, di ,ision of the Sixth corps at Monoc-
acy. From Sharpsburg had sent mes
sage to Moshy by one of his men, requesting
him to cross the Potomac below Harper's
Ferry, cut the railroad and telegraph and
endeavor to find out the condition of things
in v Washington; but he had not crossed the
river. and had received no information from
him. A Northern paper which was obtained
gave the information that Hunter, after NOV
ing up the Ohio river in steamboats,, was
passing over the Baltimore and Ohio railroad
and I knew that he would be- at Harper
|
tie damage to the road west Of Martinsburg
After dark ON the 18th, I held consul
tation with Major Generals Breckenridge
Rodes, Gordon and Ramseur, in which
stated to them the danger of remaining wher'
we were, and the necessity of doing some
thing Immediately, as the probability wa
that the passes OF the South Mountain ane
the fords Of the upper Potomac would sool
be closed against us. After interchangine
views with them, being very reluctant t
abandon the project Of capturing Washing
l ton, [ determined to make an assault on thu
enemy's works at aylight next morning, un
less some information should be received be
fore that time showing it's impracticability
and so informed those officers During til,
night dispatch was received from Genera
Bradley johnson from near Baltimore, in
forming me that he had received information
from reliable source. that two corps had ar
rived from General Grants army, and tina
his whole army was probably in notion
This caused me to delay the attack until
could examine the works again, and, as sool
as it was light enough to see, rode to tn,
front and found the parapets lined will
troops. had, therefore, reluctantly to Civ
| up all hopes Of capturing Washington afte
/ had arrived in sight Of the dome Of the Cap
itol, and given the Federal authorities ter
!. rible fright.
! Grant, in his report, says in regard to til
condition of things when I moved toward
Washington: The gafrisons Of Baltimor