chances of weighty results.  I therefore determined to bring my troops, if it were at all possible to do so, into such a position near that town as to oblige Early to fight.  The sequel proved, however, that he was accurately informed of all my movements.  To anticipate them, therefore, he began his retreat up the valley the day that I moved out from Halltown, and consequently was able to place himself south of Winchester before I could get there.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Moving on general early—­general grant’s letter of instructions
—­destroying the resources of the valley—­reason for the destruction
—­withdrawal to Halltown—­alarm in the north over the retrograde
movement—­renewing the advance up the valley—­general Anderson’s
attempt to return to Petersburg—­strength of the armies.

For a clear understanding of the operations which preceded the victories that resulted in almost annihilating General Early’s army in the Shenandoah Valley, it is necessary to describe in considerable detail the events that took place prior to the 19th of September.  My army marched from Harper’s Ferry on the 10th of August, 1864, General Torbert with Merritt’s division of cavalry moving in advance through Berryville, going into position near White Post.  The Sixth Corps, under General Wright, moved by way of Charlestown and Summit Point to Clifton; General Emory, with Dwight’s division of the Nineteenth Corps, marched along the Berryville pike through Berryville to the left of the position of the Sixth Corps at Clifton; General Crook’s command, moving on the Kabletown road, passed through Kabletown to the vicinity of Berryville, and went into position on the left of Dwight’s division, while Colonel Lowell, with a detached force of two small regiments of cavalry, marched to Summit Point; so that on the night of August 10 my infantry occupied a line stretching from Clifton to Berryville, with Merritt’s cavalry at White Post and Lowell’s at Summit Point.  The enemy, as stated before, moved at the same time from Bunker Hill and vicinity, and stretched his line from where the Winchester and Potomac railroad crosses Opequon Creek to the point at which the Berryville and Winchester pike crosses the same stream, thus occupying the west bank to cover Winchester.