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his command to General Elzey at Staunton. He did not report, however, and the
effort to organize the Marylanders at that point failed entirely:

Special Orders No. 105.

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR-GENERAL'S OFFICE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, May 5, 1864.

Major H. W. Gilmor's Battalion Partisan Rangers will be immediately mustered into
the service of the Confederate States as cavalry. Major Gilmor will then proceed by
highway with his battalion of cavalry to Camp Maryland, Staunton, Virginia, and report to
Major-General A. Elzey, commanding Maryland Line, for assignment. Citizens of other
States who are enlisted in any company of this battalion may, if they desire it, be transferred
to companies from their own State.

BY COMMAND OF SECRETARY OF WAR.

JOHN WITHERS,
Acting Adjutant-General.

In June, 1864, Early was sent to the Valley after driving Hunter from Lynch-
burg into the mountains and defiles of West Virginia. He sent Gilmor and the
band to hang on and harrass his rear.

In the movement on Winchester Gilmor, with Holmes Conrad, subsequently
Assistant Attorney-General of the United States under President Cleveland's
Administration, captured a company of infantry and marched them into camp,
and the same evening the same pair of free riders took prisoners a troop of
fifty-eight men of the First New Jersey Cavalry, with their horses, arms and
equipments.

Such an exploit rang through the army, and Gilmor and Conrad received the
plaudits of all and the thanks of " old Jubal."

In June Colonel Bradley T. Johnson was promoted Brigadier and assigned
to the command of the cavalry brigade of General W. E. Jones, who had just been
killed at the battle of New Hope.

Colonel Gilmor was ordered to report with his battalion to General Johnson,
who consolidated the First and Second Maryland Battalions and put Gilmor in
command.

Since the preceding January General Lee had been contemplating an expedi-
tion under Colonel Johnson with the Maryland Line from Hanover Junction to
release the Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout. When Early crossed the
Potomac in the early part of July General Lee sent him an order by a staff officer
to send Johnson with his command to attack Point Lookout on the morning of the
12th. Early on the night of the 8th ordered Johnson with his cavalry to make a