Summary:
In June, 1863, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania in what became the Gettysburg campaign. In this dispatch, Army of the Potomac commander Joseph Hooker responds to early reports of Lee's movements, including news of enemy forces at Chambersburg.

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Maj.-Gen. Halleck,
Washington:

Fairfax Station,

June 17, 1863--9.20 p. m.
(Received 10.40 p. m.)

I am in constant receipt of copies of dispatches from Gen. Couch with regard to enemy at Chambersburg. Is there, in your opinion, any foundation for the reports? All my cavalry are out, and I have deemed it prudent to suspend any farther advance of the infantry until I have information that the enemy are in force in the Shenandoah Valley. I have just received dispatches from Pleasonton, dated 4.15 p. m. He ran against Fitzhugh Lee's brigade of cavalry near Aldie, and from prisoners learned that Stuart is at Middleburg; and it is further reported that there is no infantry on this side of the Blue Ridge. When the orderly left, Pleasonton had charged and driven Lee out of Aldie. All my cavalry are out.

Has it ever suggested itself to you that this cavalry raid may be a cover to Lee's re-enforcing Bragg or moving troops to the West?

JOSEPH HOOKER,
Maj.-Gen.

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Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 27, Serial No. 43, Pages 50, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.