In June 1864, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee sent Gen. Jubal A. Early's corps from the Richmond battlefields to the Shenandoah Valley to counter Union Gen. David Hunter's army. After driving Hunter into West Virginia, Early invaded Maryland to attack Washington, D.C., draw Union troops from Richmond, and release Confederate prisoners held at Point Lookout. On July 9, Early ordered Gen. Bradley T. Johnson's cavalry brigade eastward to free the prisoners, and on the next day Johnson sent Maj. Harry Gilmor's regiment to raid the Baltimore area. Although Union Gen. Lew Wallace delayed Early at the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, and Federal reinforcements soon strengthened Washington's defenses, Early attacked near Fort Stevens on July 11-12, then withdrew to the Shenandoah Valley with Federals in pursuit and stopped them at Cool Spring on July 17-18. Despite failing to take Washington or free prisoners, Early succeeded in diverting Federal resources. On July 9, 1864, Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, a Frederick County native, led his brigade of mounted men, many of them fellow Marylanders, from the mountains northwest of Frederick toward Worman's Mill on the old Frederick Road. After halting long enough to hear Early's cannons at Monocacy Junction, the column moved rapidly to Libertytown and then to the intersection with the New Windsor road. In New Windsor, where shopkeepers had locked their doors and fled, Johnson made the Stouffer house on Main Street his headquarters after recognizing Nettie Stouffer as an old classmate. His men began looting the Stouffer store across the street but stopped when Stouffer complained to Johnson; elsewhere Confederates broke in and took clothing and food staples, and soldiers loitered near Louis Dielman's hotel wearing looted clothes and eating. Johnson then ordered Maj. Harry Gilmor, a Baltimore County native, forward six miles with twenty hand-picked men to capture Westminster.