In May and June, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864, Union General-in-Chief Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant planned a coordinated movement of troops against Confederates in Virginia. It was during this campaign that Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's Confederates defeated Union forces to open a path to Washington, D.C. After skirmishing with Maj. Gen. David Hunter's men outside of Lynchburg, Virginia, on June 17 and 18, Early increased his forces to nearly 16,000 men and continued to Martinsburg, West Virginia, where the outnumbered Union troops had evacuated the town. On June 19, a small Union force at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, burned the bridge across the Potomac River.