[176] _Life and Campaigns of Maj.-Gen. J. E. B. Stuart_, 303.
After Gettysburg, General Lee's Army passed through Loudoun, followed by General Meade. Again, on the 14th July, 1864, General Early, after the battle of Monocacy, crossed with his Army from Maryland to Virginia at White's Ford. After resting his men in and around Leesburg he proceeded by way of Purcellville and Snickers Gap to the Valley.
All this time Mosby had been active in his "Confederacy" and attacks on the Federal communications also had been made by White's Battalion when in and around Loudoun. These attacks, frequently successful and always without warning, had caused great losses to the Federals and forced them to keep a large number of men engaged in their rear who badly were needed elsewhere. On the 16th August, 1864, General Grant, determining to end the menace, sent the following order to Major General Sheridan:
"If you can possibly spare a division of Cavalry, send them through Loudoun County to destroy and carry off the crops, animals, negroes and all men under fifty years of age capable of bearing arms. In this way you will get many of Mosby's men. All male citizens under fifty can fairly be held as prisoners of war, and not as citizen prisoners. If not already soldiers, they will be made so the moment the rebel army gets hold of them."
But Sheridan at that time was far too busy with his campaign in the Valley immediately to comply. It was not until after his decisive victory over Early at Cedar Creek on the 19th October, that he felt he could act. On the 27th November he issued the following orders to Major General Merritt in command of the 1st Cavalry Division:
"You are hereby directed to proceed, tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock, with two brigades of your division now in camp, to the east side of the Blue Ridge, via Ashby's Gap, and operate against the guerillas in the district of country bounded on the south by the line of the Manassas Gap Railroad, as far east as White Plains; on the east by the Bull Run Range; on the west by the Shenandoah River; and on the north by the Potomac.
"This section has been the hot-bed of lawless bands who have from time to time depredated upon small parties on the line of the army communications, on safeguards left at houses, and on small parties of our troops. Their real object is plunder and highway robbery.