“In pushing up the Shenandoah Valley, as it is expected you will have to go first or last, it is desirable that nothing should be left to invite the enemy to return.  Take all provisions, forage, and stock wanted for the use of your command.  Such as cannot be consumed, destroy.  It is not desirable that the buildings should be destroyed —­they should, rather, be protected; but the people should be informed that so long as an army can subsist among them recurrences of these raids must be expected, and we are determined to stop them at all hazards.

“Bear in mind, the object is to drive the enemy south; and to do this you want to keep him always in sight.  Be guided in your course by the course he takes.

“Make your own arrangements for supplies of all kinds, giving regular vouchers for such as may be taken from loyal citizens in the country through which you march.

“Very respectfully,
“U.  S. Grant, Lieut.-General.”

“Major-General D. Hunter,
“Commanding Department of West Virginia.”

When I had read the letter addressed to Hunter, General Grant said I would be expected to report directly to him, as Hunter had asked that day to be wholly relieved, not from any chagrin at my assignment to the control of the active forces of his command, but because he thought that his fitness for the position he was filling was distrusted by General Halleck, and he had no wish to cause embarrassment by remaining where he could but remove me one degree from the headquarters of the army.  The next day Hunter’s unselfish request was complied with, and an order was issued by the President, consolidating the Middle Department, the Department of Washington, the Department of the Susquehanna, and the Department of West Virginia.

Under this order these four geographical districts constituted the Middle Military Division, and I was temporarily assigned to command it.  Hunter’s men had been bivouacking for some days past in the vicinity of Monocacy Junction and Frederick, but before General Grant’s instructions were written out, Hunter had conformed to them by directing the concentration at Halltown, about four miles in front of Harper’s Ferry, of all his force available for field service.  Therefore the different bodies of troops, with the exception of Averell’s cavalry, which had followed McCausland toward Moorefield after the burning of Chambersburg, were all in motion toward Halltown on August 6.

Affairs at Monocacy kept me but an hour or two, and these disposed of, I continued on to Harper’s Ferry by the special train which had brought me from Washington, that point being intended as my headquarters while making preparations to advance.  The enemy was occupying Martinsburg, Williamsport, and Shepherdstown at the time; sending occasional raiding parties into Maryland as far as Hagerstown.  The concentration of my troops at Halltown being an indication to Early that we intended to renew the offensive, however, he immediately began counter preparations by drawing in all his detached columns from the north side of the Potomac, abandoning a contemplated raid into Maryland, which his success against Crook at Kernstown had prompted him to project, and otherwise disposing himself for defense.