The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-02-07

saener~l Early's Invasion Of Maryland
why ne did NOT aake WssninKsOn.
From General Esrly's Memoir OF the Last Year OF
The War for Independence In the Confederate
The rapid marching, which had broken
down q 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 81 harper,s
Ferry, Maryland Heights, and Monocacy,
had reduced ms infantry to about s,ooo
muskets. Ofthose remaining, q very large
number were greatly exhausted Dy tne
last two days. marching, some having fall
len nv sunstroke, and / am satisfied, when
we arrived in 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-pounder
Napoleons, besides q few pieces of horse
artillery with the cavalry. McCauseland
reported the works on the Georgetown
pike too strongly manned for him to
assault. We could not move to the right
or the left without its being discovered
from q signal station on the top of the
"Soldiers' 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
NV men blindly against the Notifications,
without understanding the state OF things,
would have been worse than folly. III we
had any friends in Washington, none OF
| them came out TO give US information ana
this satisfied me that the place was not uh,
defended. / knew that troops had arrived
from Grants army, for prisoners had oeen
captured from Ricketts, division or the
Sixth corps at Monocacy. From Snaps
burg | had sent o message to Mosby by
| one of his men, requesting him TO cross
the Potomac below Harpers' Ferry, cut
the railroad and telegraph, and endeaVor
TO find out the condition of things in wash
~ington 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 moving up the Ohio river in steam.
boats, was passing over the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad, and / knew that he would
be at Harper's Ferry soon, as lmboden had
done very little damage to the road west
Of Martinsburg. After dark on the llth, 1
held a consultation with Major-Generals
Breckenridge, Rodes, Gordon, and Ram
seur, in which | stated to them the danger
of remaining where we were, and the ne
cessity of doing something Immediately, as
the probability was that the passes OF the
South Mountain and the fords of the upper
Potomac would soon be closed against us.
After i~nterchanging views with them,
being very reluctant to abandon the pro-
iect of capturing Washington, | determined
to make an assault on the eremy's works
at daylight next morning, unless some
information should be received before
that time showing its impracticability;
and so informed those officers. During
the night a dispatch was received from
General Bradley Johnson from near Balti-
more, informing me that he had received
information from a reliable source that
two corps had arrived from General Grants
army, and that his whole army was proba-
bly, in motion. This caused me to delay
the attack until | could examine the works
again, and as soon as it was light enough
to see / rode to the front, and found the
parapets lined with troops. | had, there
fore, reluctantly to give up all hopes of
capturing Washington after / had arrived
in sight of the dome of the capitol and
given the Federal authorities q terrible
fright.
Grant, in his report, says in regard to
the condition of things when moved to-
wards Washington : "The garrisons Of Bal
timore and Washington were at this time
made up of heavy artillery regiments, hun
dred days men, and detachments from the
invalid corps" And, in regard to the
force of Wallace at Monocacy, he says:
ellis force was not sufficient to ensure
success, but he fought the enemy never
theless; aud although it resulted in a de-
feat to our arms, yet it detained the enemy
and thereby served to enable General
Wright to reach Washington with W
divisions of the Sixth corps, and the ad-
vance of the Nineteenth corps, before
him." Stanton says in his report: "Here
lat W%ashington) they (we) were met by
troops from the Army OF the Potomac, con-
sisting of the Sixth corps under General
Wright, a part of the Eighth corps under
General Gilmore, and a part of the Nine
teeuth corps, Just arrived from New Or
leans. under General Emory" Taking
Grants statement of troops which had ar
rived from his army as the most reliable,
thew were sufficient to hold the works
against nv troops, at least till others could
arrive. But, in addition to those which
had already arrived, there We're the de-
tachmcnts Of the invalid corps, called l
believe the "Veteran Reserves" (of
which / was informed there were about
5,OOO), the heavy artillery regiments, the
hundred days men, and | suppose the
part of the Eighth corps. mentioned by
Stanton. To all these may be added the
local troops, or militia, and the Govern
ment employees. pome of the Northern
papers stated that between Saturday and
Monday l could have entered the city; but
on Saturday | was fighting at Monocacy,
thirty-ive miles from Washington, a force
which / could not leave in my rear and,
after diSposing of that force and moving as
rapidly as it was possible for me to move,
| did not arrive in front Of the forti-
f~ications until afternoon on Monday, and
then my troops were exhausted, and
it required time to bring them up
into line. l had then made a march,
over the circuitous route by Charlottes-
| vile, Lynchburg, and Salem, down the Val
ley, and through the passes of the South
mountain, which, notwithstanding the de-
lays in dealing with Hunters, Siegels, and
Wallace's forces, is, for its length and rapid
ity, / believe without a parallel in this or
any other modern war-the unopposed ma
rauding excursion Of the freebooter Sher-
man through Georgia not excepted. Ny
small force had been thrown up to the
very walls of the Federal capital, north of
a river which could not be forded at any
point within forty miles, and with a heavy
force and the South mountain in my rear,
the passes through which mountain could