GDG- "Inner circle"

[Tom Ryan]

In reading Hooker's instructions to John Reynolds on June 13 as the AoP was
preparing to move  northward to pursue Lee's army that was moving west and
then north through the Shenandoah Valley, he says the following:

	"Should the movement of the enemy develop itself to be toward Maryland, or
the Upper Potomac, above Harper's Ferry, it will probably involve our
marching on the inner circle, and attack them, if opportunity offers."

	The term "inner circle" is not otherwise explained, and it is not a term I
am familiar with as something commonly used at that time.  The only
possibility I can think of is the AoP did a kind of loop northward from the
Rappahannock River to get in front of Washington for its protection with the
seven corps placed in an arc from roughly Thoroughfare Gap to Leesburg.  But
that was not a circle.

	Hooker may have been using "inner circle" as a general descriptive term,
still I wonder if it may have a more specific connotation.  Could it have
been a planned line of movement that was drawn on a map, for example?  Does
anyone have any thoughts on this?  The source is OR, vol. 27, part 3, page
87.

Tom Ryan