Existing comment:
The Union Responds:
General Grant:
General -- two deserters state that it is currently reported in Richmond and Petersburg that Early... was making an invasion of Maryland with a view of capturing Washington, supposed to be defenseless...
-- Major General George G. Meade
Grant Surprised:
News of Early's advance into Maryland caught Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant by surprise. To bolster his advance through Virginia, Grant had stripped Washington, D.C., of most able-bodied soldiers. The Union capital lay virtually defenseless.
Word of Early's advance came not from Union soldiers, but from John Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. When authorities in Washington hesitated to act, Garrett asked Union general Lew Wallace to defend Monocacy Junction and the road to Washington. Wallace assembled a makeshift force of short-term volunteers, while Grant rushed emergency reinforcements from the Union army at Petersburg.
By early July 1864, all was set for a dramatic clash near Frederick. |