At the same time Early was engaged in wreaking destruction upon the Northern Central Railroad, and by night he entered York.

About the only opposition he encountered came from a militia regiment at Gettysburg, but this was soon driven away.
There was wild commotion throughout the North, and people began to feel that the boast of the Georgia Senator Toombs, that he would call the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill Monument, might soon be realized.

The enemy seemed very near and the Army of the Potomac far away.
On the same day Stuart succeeded with great difficulty in crossing the Potomac in the vicinity of Drainsville.

He found our troops were now all north of this river, so that one object of his expedition -- to detain them on the south side--had failed.
On the 28th he resumed his march, and as he passed close to Washington and Baltimore, he created considerable excitement in those cities.
At Rockville he came upon a large train full of supplies, on its way to Frederick, Maryland, and captured it with its slender escort, after which he kept on in a northerly direction through Brookeville and Cookesville, travelling all night.
On this day the Adjutant-General at Richmond telegraphed for troops to be sent there at once from the Carolinas and elsewhere, for he estimated the Union forces at the White House at thirty thousand men, and considered the capital to be in great danger.

Neither Davis nor his cabinet had the slightest desire to have any successes Lee might obtain at the North supplemented by their own execution at the South, a result they felt was not wholly improbable, in the excited state of public feeling at that time, if the city should be taken.
Lee, ignorant that Hooker was following him up, continued his aggressive advance.