REBEL ADVANCE IN MARYLAND. mand of the fortifications of Washington and of all the troops for the defence of the capital. The return of Pope's forces virtually brought the entire army of the Potomac again under his authority, and when, as was immediately the case, it became necessary once more to take the field -General Pope having been relieved and appointed to a new sphere of duty-the command of the army for active operations was virtually assigned by the President to General McClellan, whose experience and popularity with the army were looked to to repair its shattered fortunes. On the 4th he issued the first of a new series of general orders, announcing his command and requiring corps commanders to place their troops in condition for immediate service. Rumors meanwhile began to be current that the Confederate General Lee was about to carry out a long-threatened plan of invasion of the North. It was observed that his lines were extended into the Shenandoah Valley and towards the Potomac, it was thought quite probable, with the intention of crossing the river into Maryland. The public was not kept long in suspense. At noon of the 5th of September a body of rebel cavalry from Leesburg attempted to pass the river at Edwards Ferry, but were repulsed by the Union forces at that place. The attempt, however, was renewed in the vicinity with success the following night, and the next day Poolesville and Darnstown were visited by a party of cavalry. At the same time the river, now fordable, was crossed in force by the enemy above and below Point of Rocks. This advance of the army of Lee under General Hill marched immediately upon Frederick, the capital of the state, and occupied the city on the 6th. Their appearance was a signal to withdraw above and below the trains and rolling stock of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail road, whose track they had crossed. A Provost Marshal, Bradley T. Johnson, a seceding Marylander who had entered 635 An the Confederate, army was appointed to keep order at Frederick, and as a policy of conciliation was evidently intended, the presence of the rebel troops was made as endurable as was consistent with an enforced supply of their necessities, to the inhabitants. Foraging parties were sent out for live-stock and provisions, and the most liberal purchases were made of drugs, shoes, clothing, and other articles from the shopkeepers of the town. occasional "greenback" was rumored to have been exhibited, but the tradesmen were for the most part paid in Confederate currency, which they received with a blank incredulous aspect. Sound Unionists ironically congratulated "copperhead" storekeepers on the excellent business they were doing. Beyond this compulsory traffic there appears to have been little violation of the ordinary privileges of the inhabitants. They had indeed to endure the sight of the rebel flag which was substituted for the stars and stripes on their public buildings; but beyond a house or two occupied as headquarters, private residences were not disturbed by the soldiers who were encamped outside the town. Citizens were permitted to pass freely in and out of the place. This forbearance was shown to "my Maryland” as by right, in the opinion of the invaders, an integral portion of the Confederacy. His forces having now entered in numbers and gained a foothold in the state, General Lee, on the 8th September, from the headquarters of his Army of Northern Virginia, near Frederickton, issued his proclamation to the people of Maryland. "It is right," said he, "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 Provost Marshal Johnson also issued a commercial ties, and reduced to the condition of a conquered province. Under proclamation energetically appealing to 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 the forms of law. A faithful and manly protest against this outrage, made by a venerable and illustrious Marylander, to whom in better days no citizen appealed for right in vain, was treated with scorn and contempt. 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 the Press and of speech has been suppressed; words have been declared offences by an arbitrary decree of the Federal Executive, and citizens ordered to be tried by military commission 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 have long wished to aid you in throwing off this foreign yoke, to enable you again to enjoy the inalienable rights of freemen, and restore the independence and sovereignty of your state. In obedience to this wish, our army has come among you, and is prepared to assist you with the power of its arms in regaining the rights of which you have been so unjustly despoiled. This, citizens of Maryland, is our mission, so far as you are concerned. No restraint upon your free will is intended-no intimidation will be allowed within the limits of this army at least. Marylanders shall once more enjoy their ancient freedom of thought and speech. We know no enemies among you, and will protect all of you in every opinion. It is for you to decide your destiny freely and without constraint. This army will respect your choice, whatever it may be, and while the Southern people will rejoice to welcome you to your natural position among them, they will only welcome you when you come of your own free will." his late fellow-citizens to join the Con- Remem SOUTHERN ANTICIPATIONS. 637 try. Mirabeau, the French philosopher, said that the only way to conduct a successful revolution was to dare, to dare again, and still to dare,' and I wish this army, this people of ours, the Executive, "to dare, to dare again, and still to dare," and dare at once. We have tried the opposite policy long; and it has been partially successful. But now is the time to make the enemy suffer, to make them bleed, and feel the iron heel of war. I believe we can do it, at least I am willing to make the experiment. We have battled long on our territory, and now is the time to cease; and I speak the sentiment of at least my own constituents when I say, go into the enemy's country. 'Go with banner, brand and bow, As foeman meets his mortal foe."" Fort Warren; the insults to your wives aggressive policy. "It is the desire of and daughters; the arrests, the midnight the people," said he, "that the war searches of your houses. Remember should be carried into the enemy's counthese your wrongs, and rise at once in arms, and strike for Liberty and Right!" A debate in the Confederate Congress at Richmond, on the 12th, in the first flush of Lee's invasion of Maryland, exhibited the expectations formed at the South from this event. Not only were thanks tendered to General Lee and the officers and men under his command, "for their brilliant victory, culminating in the signal defeat of the combined forces of the enemy in the two great battles of Manassas ;" but it was resolved, "That Congress has heard with profound satisfaction of the triumphant crossing of the Potomac by our victorious army, and, assured of the wisdom of that masterly movement, could repose with entire confidence on the distinguished skill of the commanding-general and the valor of his troops, under favor of the Great A more moderate view was taken by Ruler of nations, to achieve new tri- Mr. Smith of Alabama. "Our troops, umphs, to relieve oppressed Maryland, said he, "have already achieved great and advance our standard into the terri- victories, and the great success of our tory of the enemy." In the debate on arms has been marked by triumphs unthese resolutions, Mr. Lyons of Virginia paralleled in the history of nations. But it demurred to committing the House to is a question yet as to whether we shall any movement of the army beyond be able to hold Maryland. We have Maryland, in which he was stoutly op- never been invited to enter Maryland, posed by Mr. Miles of South Carolina, and we do not know how we shall be who hailed the invasion as the fulfillment received. When our armies entered of the long-cherished and openly-expressed wishes of the South. "Do you believe that we could safely go into the heart of the North," asked Lyons. "I say promptly, yes!" responded Miles. "I was told by a general, for whose opinion I know the gentleman from Virginia has a high regard, that give Jackson one half of our present army, and although there were 600,000 men in the field he would drive them all before him. I believe now is the time to strike the blow. The regular armies of McClellan and Pope are unable to meet one-fifth of the number they ought to be." Mr. Ayer of South Carolina seconded the Kentucky, where we had been invited to go, we had to meet the Kentuckians steel to steel and knee to knee, and we were driven out by Kentuckians. This illfated move lost us Nashville, and led to a series of other disasters, until the great valley of the Missisippi was lost. It was an old saying, that whom the gods would destroy, they first made mad.' The people go mad twice a year, when they have anything to go mad about. No war of invasion had ever been successful except it was for the purpose of colonizing the country which they invaded. If the policy was continued we might look for the second day which tried men's souls." The remonstrance of Mr. Smith did not suit the temper of the House. The "aggressive" clause of the resolution was passed, yeas 63; nays 15. ties, and some from Baltimore City. After seeing the character of the army and the life which the men led, many of them refused to join, and were getting Nothwithstanding these good set terms home again. When leaving, myself, I of invocation, in the proclamation of Lee met six young men from Carroll County, and his Provost Marshal, the people of and piloted them to Westminister. They Maryland, insensible alike to the self- acknowledged they had been to Fredsacrificing sympathies of their Southern | erick to join the army, but after 'seeing brethren, and to the accumulated wrongs and smelling' it, had concluded to reinflicted on themselves thus temptingly turn home. They begged me not to catalogued, responded but feebly to the give their names. Q. What did they call of the rebel leaders. There was mean by smelling it? A. They meant nothing of the general uprising so fondly exactly what they said. I have never anticipated in rebeldom, and often fore-seen a mass of such filthy, strong-smelling told by certain parties in the North, men. Three of them in a room would with whom the success of the rebellion was a foregone conclusion. A few hundred recruits only, it is said, were obtained by them, and these were without arms or equipments. Various reasons were given for this reluctance to join the fortunes of the Confederacy. The most influential, doubtless, was the substantial loyalty to the Union of the great majority of the inhabitants of the state; nor was it to be expected that sympthizers who wished well to the rule of Jefferson Davis would leave comfortable homes, and rush in a body, in the face of General McClellan and his army, to encounter the obvious deprivations of the rebel service. The impression made by the common soldier in the army of invasion, as he passed among the neat and prosperous citizens of Maryland, was not calculated to further the operations of the recruiting sergeant. Observers agreed with great unanimity as to his ill-provided, squalid appearance. A gentleman of Maryland, who passed four days in Frederick during the rebel rule, answered a series of questions, which with his replies were published in the Baltimore American. He was asked whether the rebels obtained many recruits in Frederick; to which he answered, "Not many in Frederick, but there were about fivehundred came in from Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Montgomery and Carroll Coun make it unbearable, and when marching in column along the street the smell from them was most offensive. There are some of the better class of men among them, but the great mass are men of lowest caste, and although under strict discipline, the filth that pervades them is most remarkable. Their sympathizers at Frederick have been greatly disappointed in the character of the army, and most of them are now as anxious for them to disappear as they were for them to come. They have no uniforms, but are well armed and equipped, and have become so inured to hardships that they care but little for any of the comforts of civilization. Q. What was the appearance of the rebel soldiers? A. They were the roughest set of creatures I ever saw their features, hair and clothing matted with dirt and filth, and the scratching they kept up gave warrant of vermin in abundance; the Secession ladies of Frederick used to call the troops of General Banks nasty, dirty creatures,' and the Unionists had adopted a species of signs to remind them of their old taunts; whenever a Unionist met a Secessionist on the street, he would commence to scratch, which all understood." It was observed, however, in spite of their ragged and filthy appearance, that these half-fed, barefooted soldiers of the rebellion, ac PREPARATIONS FOR THE FOE. 639 customed to hard fare and privations, tional works. The patriotic General were robust and healthy; while of their Kenly, having recovered from his wound warlike spirit they had given too many at Front Royal and been exchanged, proofs on various battlefields to leave was appointed to the command of a brithat any longer a matter of doubt. The gade of troops for the defence of the lack of supplies in the rebel service was city. Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania, perhaps in one way an advantage; it warned of impending danger by the rufreed the army from many of those impedi- mored approach of the enemy to Haments which harass soldiers on the gerstown, called upon all the able-bodied march; the men became more hardy men of the state to organize immediately and self-reliant, and depended for their for its defence, and be ready for marchprestige not upon military pomp and ing orders at an hour's notice. By auequipments, but upon hard fighting. In thority of the President of the United the end they must needs suffer from ne- States, he also summoned "fifty thouglect and want of comforts, but their un- sand of the freemen of Pennsylvania for kempt savagery might in the meantime tell immediate service to repel the now imin encounters with their tamer, less endur- minent danger from invasion by the eneing, though better provided opponents. mies of the country."* General Wool was assigned to the command of the troops north of the Susquehanna. The people of Pennsylvania freely responded to the call upon them, and hastened in great numbers to Harrisburg. There was a great panic at Chambersburg on the 10th, as the enemy threatened the valley of the Cumberland, and even Philadelphia sent specie, papers, and other valuables for safe keeping to New York. The danger, in fact, appeared equal to Pennsylvania and Maryland, as the rebel army, unless speedily checked, might strike either at Harrisburg or Baltimore. The certain intelligence of Lee's invasion of Maryland created, as was to be expected, no little excitement in the state. As pickets and reconnoitering parties were sent out, rumors were rapidly circulated of an advance to the east toward Baltimore, to seize upon the city with the aid of friendly insurgents, and cut off Washington from its northern communications; of a probable attempt on the Central railroad, and movement up the Cumberland valley into Pennsylvania; while it was conjectured that, in another direction, they might proceed westward and coöperate with the army of invasion in Kentucky, Everything depended upon the action. threatening Cincinnati and Louisville. of McClellan and aid from the army of Promptly appreciating the crisis, Gov- the Potomac. Having made the necesernor Bradford issued a proclamation sary dispositions to strengthen the varicalling upon the citizens to enroll them- ous garrisons about Washington, he at selves in voluntary military organiza- once, on the first intimation of Lee's tions of infantry and cavalry to meet forces crossing the river, prepared to the emergency. "Let," said he, "our meet the enemy. General Banks was loyal citizens not wait for the distribu- placed in command of the defences at tion of arms, but organize everywhere the capital, and General Heintzelman in without delay and assist in driving from charge of the forces on the Virginia the state the invading host that now oc- side. In the new army arrangements cupies its soil, armed with any weapon the command of Fitz John Porter's which opportunity may furnish." Gen- corps was given to General Hooker; eral Wool, in command of the military that of General McDowell was assigned department at Baltimore, looked to the defences of the city, and planned addi *Orders at Harrisburg. September 10 and 11, 1862. + New York Evening Post. September 13, 1862. |
