By rapid marching Early reached Winchester on the 2d of July, and on

the 4th occupied Martinsburg, driving General Sigel out of that place

the same day that Hunter's troops, after their fatiguing retreat

through the mountains, reached Charlestown, West Virginia. Early was

thus enabled to cross the Potomac without difficulty, when, moving

around . Harper's Ferry, through the gaps of the South Mountain, he

found his path unobstructed till he reached the Monocacy, where

Ricketts's division of the Sixth Corps, and some raw troops that had