Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw, June 26, 1863

Poolesville, June 26, 1863.

We have come to Poolesville just at the right moment — the whole army is passing here. I have seen a great many officers whom I know — especially at Headquarters, which are here to-night.

While I have been writing this, I have received orders to march to-morrow to Knoxville, to report to Major-General Slocum for temporary duty.¹

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¹ General Hooker, commanding the Army of the Potomac, sent this order to Lowell, who was at Poolesville, Maryland, watching the Potomac for spies, blockade-runners, guerrillas, or important raids. Lowell obeyed, and reported to Slocum, and was sent to Sandy Hook. June 28, Major-General Schenck, commanding Middle Department at Baltimore, was hastily notified from Washington: “A strong brigade of the enemy's cavalry have crossed . . . near Poolesville. Colonel Lowell, with five companies of the 2d Mass. Cavalry, who are there, should be warned, so that he may be ready for an attack.” Then Halleck, General-in-Chief, learned that Lowell was not there, and telegraphed Hooker: “Lowell's cavalry is the only force for scouts in this department, and he cannot be taken from General Heintzelman's command.” Lowell was also telegraphed to take no orders from General Hooker, and to return and watch the fords from Poolesville to Harper's Ferry. But unhappily Stuart had passed in his absence. Lowell's force was not large enough to cope with the rebel force, had he been there, and the raid seems to have resulted in more good than harm. General Doubleday, in his Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, says: “It is thought that he [Stuart] hoped by threatening Hooker's rear to detain him and delay his crossing the river, and thus give time to Lee to capture Harrisburg, and perhaps Philadelphia. His raid on this occasion was undoubtedly a mistake. When he rejoined the main body, his men were exhausted, his horses broken down, and the battle of Gettysburg was nearly over.”

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 267, 428