CHAPTER XXIII.
GENERAL HUNTER'S SUCCESSFUL MARCH AND SUBSEQUENT RETREAT--GENERAL JUBAL A.EARLY THREATENS WASHINGTON--CHAMBERSBURG, PA., BURNED -- SELECTED TO OPERATE AGAINST GENERAL EARLY--THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY -- THE CONFEDERATE ARMY.
When the attempt to take Petersburg in conjunction with the mine explosion resulted in such a dismal failure, all the operations contemplated in connection with that project came to a standstill, and there was every prospect that the intensely hot and sultry weather would prevent further activity in the Army of the Potomac till a more propitious season.

Just now, however, the conditions existing in the Shenandoah Valley and along the upper Potomac demanded the special attention of General Grant, for, notwithstanding the successful march that Major-General David Hunter had made toward Lynchburg early in the summer, what he had first gained was subsequently lost by strategical mistakes, that culminated in disaster during the retreat he was obliged to make from the vicinity of Lynchburg to the Kanawha Valley.

This route of march uncovered the lower portion of the Valley of the Shenandoah, and with the exception of a small force of Union troops under General Franz Sigel posted aft Martinsburg for the purpose of covering the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, there was nothing at hand to defend the lower valley.
The different bodies of Confederates which compelled Hunter's retreat were under command of General Jubal A.Early, who had been sent to Lynchburg with Ewell's corps after the defeat of the Confederate General W.C.Jones near Staunton on the 5th of June, to take command of the Valley District.

When Early had forced Hunter into the Kanawha region far enough to feel assured that Lynchburg could not again be threatened from that direction, he united to his own corps General John C.Breckenridge's infantry division and the cavalry of Generals J.H.Vaughn, John McCausland.

B.T.Johnson, and J.D.
Imboden, which heretofore had been operating in southwest and western Virginia under General Robert Ransom, Jr., and with the column thus formed, was ready to turn his attention to the lower Shenandoah Valley.