Late in June 1863, the Union Army of the Potomac pursued Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia as it invaded the North less than a year after the Antietam Campaign. On Monday, June 29, the Federal corps marched north toward Pennsylvania on parallel roads after being ordered to stay between Lee and the large Northern cities. Gen. John Sedgwick's VI Corps, guarding the army's right flank, moved through New Market to Mount Airy and Westminster, reaching Manchester on June 30. On July 1, the corps began a 34-mile march to Gettysburg and arrived late in the afternoon of July 2. A soldier in the 37th Massachusetts Infantry later recalled that in New Market, two or three young ladies stood in front of their home waving small Union flags, an electrifying sight that convinced the troops they were in the land of friends.