CHAPTER IX. SEPTEMBER 1862.-LEE'S ENTRY INTO MARYLAND.-CAPTURE OF MACCLELLAN'S defeat had saddened the Northern population, without at all making them relax their efforts, or discouraging them. Had they not on the Rappahannock another army more numerous, better organized, under commanders who inspired confidence and hope? But when this second army also had come, mutilated and in disarray, to seek refuge under the walls of Washington, the new disaster fell on the North with crushing force. All its efforts for fifteen months had gone for nothing; all had to be done over again. The future appeared gloomy, and the people expected to hear that the Federal capital was fallen into the hands of General Lee. Nor was this the only advantage reaped by the Confederates after this victorious campaign; it opened for them the fertile Valley of Virginia, in which, hitherto, their enemy had lived on the fat of the land. The Federals had evacuated it, and henceforth the rich harvests and all the resources of the grand valley, and of all the districts round about, would pass to the Southern army, which had so much need of them. Further, MacClellan's army having quitted the James River, all Lower Virginia was delivered from the enemy, and the Northern troops being recalled in great haste, in consequence of Lee's successes, were already leaving the different points on the coast. Everything, therefore, counselled the South to profit by the demoralization of the North and the disorganization of its armies, and strike further heavy blows before there was time for recovery from past disasters. The Confederate army was too ill provided with clothing, shoes, ammunition, and other necessary war-material to hope to be able, even in so favourable a moment, to conquer peace on Northern soil; but there was every reason to believe that it would succeed in enfeebling the Federals sufficiently to force them to remain north of the Potomac, and defend their own territory. Thus, perhaps, a new invasion would be spared to Virginia, till winter came, which would render all offensive evolutions on the part of the North difficult. Pope's defeat rendered possible some movements which probably Lee had not foreseen. In advancing from Richmond on Culpepper, his design was simply to arrest his adversary's march on Gordonsville; now everything was changed, and it became important to draw the utmost profit possible from the new position of affairs. The political situation of Maryland very naturally suggested the idea of penetrating into that state. A large part of its population were at one with the South, not only through its interests, traditions, and the ties of vicinity, but also through profound sympathy. It had been hindered from taking part and cause with the South only by strong pressure on the part of the Federal Government. All appearances were a sure indication that the people of Maryland simply awaited the arrival of the Confederate army to rise against the United States Government. In any case its rising must create a powerful diversion, and indirectly aid the South by obliging the Washington authorities to send numerous troops against the people who had revolted. There is no doubt that, in all this, General Lee reasoned soundly, that his hopes were justified by the general situation of affairs, and his conclusions based on weighty data. He was not, however, a prey to illusion. He was well aware how difficult it would be for the Maryland people, whom the anxiety of the Federal Government had disarmed, and whose state was occupied by a multitude of Northern troops, to hold their own against superior forces. understood perfectly that as long as the Confederates could not effectually protect them, all rising on their part was little likely and little to be desired, since the effort could only succeed with the help of the South, and its non-success would expose the unfortunate Marylanders to the vengeance of an exasperated government. At the commencement, therefore, he reckoned much more on the well-grounded fears of the Washington Government than on the active co-operation of the Marylanders. The army itself was by no means prepared to invade a hostile country. Exhausted by the extraordinary efforts of the campaign it had just finished, it numbered a large proportion of soldiers without shoes, who had literally traced out the way to the Potomac with blood. Their uniforms were in tatters. The service of victuals was made irregularly. Their means of transport were in no way proportioned to the army's wants, and their stock of ammunition was altogether insufficient for an åggressive movement of this magnitude. Nevertheless, as so many advantages seemed to be promised by a sudden and vigorous offensive movement, General Lee concluded that the considerations just enumerated ought not to stop him. He resolved, therefore, to cross the Potomac and enter Maryland. In order to compel the Unionists also to cross this river, he decided on fording it to the east of the Blue Ridge, so as to menace at once both Washington and Baltimore. The enemy being ousted from Virginia, Lee reckoned on taking up a position in Western Maryland, and, by establishing communications with Richmond, by the Valley of the Shenandoah, and threatening Pennsylvania, to draw the Federals after him, which would increase their distance from their base of operations. He followed the same plan in 1863, in the campaign which ended at Getteysburg. On the 4th of September, D. H. Hill's division, which formed the Confederate van-guard, crossed the Potomac opposite the spot where the Monocacy empties it waters into the Potomac. To oppose it there were only some Federal sentries, who took flight. The night and the days following were employed in destroying the sluices and dykes of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, by means of which Washington chiefly derived its supplies of wood and coal. On the 7th of September, all the Confederate army encamped on Northern territory. The crossing of the river had been accompanied by repeated hurrahs, to the sound of warlike strains, and with an enthusiasm unlimited. The soldiers considered themselves as the avengers of a people outraged in its earest rights, and felt proud and joyful at the prospect of carrying war into the enemy's country. They encamped between the Monocacy and Frederick City; very strict orders had been issued to treat the Marylanders as friends. Pillage and theft were severely punished. What was needed was to be paid for, in Confederate paper, it is true, but the sellers did not refuse to accept it. In proof that these orders were obeyed, it is an extraordinary fact, that during the whole sojourn of the Southern army there, not a single case of bad conduct occurred. This regard for their enemies created astonishment in the North, where it had been expected to see the tattered rebels imitate, and even surpass, the scenes of pillage and disorder which covered Pope's army with infamy. When one thinks that the Confederate soldiers had just seen the laughing fields of Virginia devastated, their friends and relatives pillaged, insulted, and often driven from their homes, by the Union troops, and that now they themselves were in the enemy's country, still smarting under the remembrance of those outrages, and surrounded by so many things they needed, and were able, if they chose, to appropriate, then their chivalrous conduct can be duly estimated. What a proud time for Lee was that when he learnt his orders were so strictly obeyed! No doubt the affection of his soldiers for him had as much to do with it as the sentiment of right and justice. There was no wish to tarnish either their own or their general's good fame. The Marylanders' welcome of the Southern troops was not such as had been imagined. In Western Maryland, which Lee entered, the majority of the people remained attached to the Union, and very few recruits rallied to the Southern standards. The Confederate General-in-chief, on touching the soil of Maryland, addressed the following proclamation to its inhabitants : "Head-Quarters, Army of Northern Virginia, "To the people of Maryland. "It is right that you should know the purpose that has brought the army under my command within the limits of your state, so far as that purpose concerns yourselves. "The people of the Confederate States have long watched, with the deepest sympathy, the wrongs and outrages that have been inflicted upon the citizens of a Commonwealth allied to the States of the South by the strongest social, political, and commercial ties. "They have seen with profound indignation their sister state deprived of every right, and reduced to the condition of a conquered province. Under the pretence of supporting the Constitution, but in violation of its most valuable provisions, your citizens have been arrested and imprisoned upon no charge, and contrary to all forms of law. . . . . The government of your chief city has been usurped by armed strangers; your legislature has been dissolved by the unlawful arrest of its members; freedom of speech and of the press has been suppressed; words have been declared offences by arbitrary decree of the Federal Executive, and citizens ordered to be tried by military commissions for what they may dare to speak. "Believing that the people of Maryland possess a spirit too lofty to submit to such a government, the people of the South |