246 
THE OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA. 
the Confederates were now worse off than ever. When Lee sent to 
Richmond for rations after the battle of Chancellorsville, the commissary- 
general is said to have endorsed upon the paper, “ If General Lee wishes 
rations, let him seek them in Pennsylvania.” 
With a well-equipped and admirably officered army, 68,352 infantry 
and 10,000 cavalry and artillery, Lee prepared to invade the North. 
Ewell, with one corps, advanced, by Chester Gap, into the Yalley, 
re-captured Winchester from Milroy, and went on to Martinsburg, 
followed by Hill, while Longstreet occupied Ashby’s and Snicker’s Gaps, 
assisted by Stuart’s cavalry. Ewell pushed on to Chambersburg ; Hill 
and Longstreet passed the Potomac at Shepherdstown and Williamsport; 
Hooker, from the Rappahannock, followed across the Potomac, by 
Leesburg. The Confederates were rapidly moving towards the 
Susquehanna, when General Meade superseded Hooker as Federal 
commander, and, on June 30th, he was approaching Gettysburg. Lee 
concentrated around this place (1st July) and, after a furious series of 
attacks, for three days, on the enemy’s position, failed to carry it, and, 
although Meade’s army was too exhausted after one of the bloodiest 
battles of the century, to attack in turn, he thought it desirable to 
retreat into Virginia. He withdrew, on the night of the 4th, by 
Chambersburg and Hagerstown or Williamsport, crossed the river on 
pontoons on the morning of July 14th, and was safely back again in 
Virginia. Meade crossed southward near Leesburg, Lee retired from 
the Valley by Chester’s Gap to Culpeper. It will be seen that the 
English and French did not more frequently move across the Rivers and 
Sierras on the frontiers of Spain and Portugal, during the Peninsular 
War, than did the hostile armies in Virginia traverse the Potomac and 
the Blue Ridge, during the campaigns which are our subject. Lee put 
his army into quarters on the south of the Rapidan, closely watched, in 
October, by the enemy, whose head-quarters were in Culpeper. 
In this month Lee made a bold move to turn Meade by moving to 
his own left, on Warrenton, and thence on Manassas on the Federal 
communications. But this dash failed, as Meade retreated in time, 
and, after a rear guard action at Bristoe, leaving Stuart to pursue 
to the direction of Centreville, Lee retired again to Culpeper, 
giving orders to tear up the railway, and put his army behind the 
Rappahannock. But Meade repaired the railway and followed him up. 
He fell back behind the Rapidan, and put his troops, who wanted rest 
badly, into winter quarters : then the enemy made a determined effort to 
pierce his lines. But, although Meade, from the direction of 
Germanna Ford, did all he could from November 27th to December 1st, 
he did not dare to attack the enormous entrenchments which Lee had 
improvised. The great system of breastwork was now fully developed, 
and Meade declared that he could not carry them with a less loss than 
30,000 men. 
Thus ended the campaign of 1863 in Virginia, where Lee still held 
his own ; but the loss of Vicksburg on the Mississippi and the defeat of 
the Confederates at Chattanooga on the Tennessee, more than counter¬ 
balanced all the results of his admirable strategy and brought into 
prominence Grant and Sherman, whose efficient co-operation with 
Grant in 1864-5 resulted in the ruin of the South. 
We must now hurry over the extraordinary campaign from May 
to July, 1864, in which Lee, on an inner line constantly moving to his 
right, foiled every attempt of his opponents to reach Richmond, from 
