Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Preparations For The Reception Of The Enemy Advance Of Jenkins' Ca.valry. stirring events about to be related will be better understood if the reader is familiar with the geo- graphical features of the country to which the action of the campaign is now to be transferred. In order to supply this knowledge, I will state it thus: Commencing at the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg, and extending down to the southern border of the State and through the States of Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina into Tennessee, is a large and beautiful valley, ranging in width from fifteen to twenty - five miles. It is bounded on the west by a range of mountains, known as the North Mountain; and on the east, by the South Mountain, down to the Potomac, and from thence down through Virginia, by the same general range, called the Blue Ridge. From the Susquehanna to the Potomac this valley is called the Cumberland Valley; and from the last named river down through Virginia, it is known as the Shenandoah Valley. The principal towns through this valley arc Harriburg, fifty-two miles from Cham- bersburg; Mechaniesburg, forty-three miles; Carlisle, thirty-one miles; New vi lie, twenty-two miles, and Ship- pensburg, eleven miles. South of the town are Marion, six miles; Greencastle, eleven miles; Hagerstown, twentytwo miles, and Martinsburg, forty-two miles. At the time of the war the Cumberland Valley Railroad, commencing at Harrisburg, passed down through this valley to Hagerstown, touching at all the places named, except Martinsburg. It has since been extended to that place. There is also a turnpike road from Harrisburg down through this valley, passing through nearly all the places named. Williamsport, one of the principal fords of the Potomac, is distant from Hagerstown in a south...