Quote:
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Early was placed in command of the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia after Cold Harbor. In July, 1864 he marched 14,000 men up the Shenandoah Valley until he encountered a smaller force of Union troops numbering 5,800, commanded by Lew Wallace at Monocacy Junction (about four miles from where I am right now). The larger bulk of the Army of the Potomac was a day or two's march away. Early defeated the smaller force at the cost of some 900 men and a day's march. The next day he marched within the borders of the District of Columbia, but did not believe he had the force to take Fort Stevens. He exchanged artillery fire with the fort, did some light skirmishing, then fell back to White Ferry and crossed the Potomac back into Virginia. The raid accomplished relatively little but did some psychological damage because Early actually managed to get within the borders of DC.
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This hardly counts as an offensive. Here's what this is like:
"By 1944, the strategic offensive capability of the Wehrmacht was totally destroyed."
"But they attacked in the Battle of the Bulge!"
Yes, they managed to start up their Ardennes offensive. It achieved initial successes, but ended up going nowhere and was extremely damaging to those German formation who participated.
This seems like more of the same to me.