Perhaps the friendly collision with another mind would strengthen his determination. His lieutenant related how Worth's division had marched "around the city of Monterey on two days' rations of roasting-ears and green oranges," and that we could as safely trust ourselves to "the fields of Maryland laden with ripening corn and fruit.”1

September 3 Lee had put his troops in motion, and had reached Dranesville when he wrote Davis that he entertained the idea of invading Maryland. September 4, still marching on and now at Leesburg, his despatch to his President said, "I shall proceed to make the movement at once, unless you should signify your disapprobation; " but before this word could have reached Richmond, the Army of Northern Virginia had crossed the Potomac, its soldiers singing "Maryland, my Maryland," and had continued their rollicking march to Frederick City, which was reached on the sixth by the van led by Jackson. His riding through the streets gave an occasion to forge the story of Barbara Frietchie which Whittier wove into inspiring war verse. This poem was read in the home, in the school, and from the platform, and stirred Northern blood at the "barbarity of rebel warfare." It is a token of the intense emotion which clouds our judgment of the enemy in arms. Although Stonewall Jackson not long before was eager to raise the black flag, he was incapable of giving the order to fire at the window of a private house for the sole reason that there "the old flag met his sight;" and it is equally impossible that a remark of old Dame Barbara, "Spare your country's flag," could have brought "a blush of shame over his face. Jackson was not of the cavalier order, but he had a religious and chivalrous respect for women. It is related, on seemingly good authority, that in this Frederick City, which was Union to the core, a woman, not Barbara Frietchie, waved a Union flag as Jackson's sol

1 See Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, pp. 158, 199; Longstreet's article, Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 663 ; Lee to Davis, Sept. 3, 4, 5, O. R., vol. xix. part ii. p. 590 et seq.

CH. XVIII.]

LEE'S INVASION OF MARYLAND

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diers passed and that he paid no attention to it. One of his colonels tells the story that on their march to Harper's Ferry, as they went through Middletown, two pretty girls, ribbons of red, white, and blue streaming from their hair, waved with a merry defiance their small Union flags in the face of the general. "He bowed and raised his hat, and turning with his quiet smile to his staff, said: "We evidently have no friends in this town.

91

In conformity with his intention in crossing the Potomac to give the people of Maryland "an opportunity of liberating themselves," Lee issued an address to them declaring that the South had "watched with deepest sympathy" their wrongs, and had "seen with profound indignation their sister State deprived of every right and reduced to the condition of a conquered province." "To aid you in throwing off this foreign yoke" is the object of our invasion. He was soon convinced that if the people of Maryland were oppressed they kissed the rod of the oppressor. They gave no signs of rising. Jackson's experience was the epitome of the real feeling, which if it had formulated itself would have issued in an earnest prayer for the departure from their borders of the Confederate host. The most serious effect of their cold welcome was the difficulty in procuring subsistence. Lee proposed to pay for their supplies, but all that he had to pay with was Confederate currency, or certificates of indebtedness of the Confederate States, and these the farmers, millers, and drovers would not take for their wheat, their flour, and their cattle. The army which had defeated McClellan and Pope could not make the farmers thresh their wheat and the millers grind it, nor prevent the owners of cattle from driving them into Pennsylvania. The citizens of Frederick, caring not for the

1 Century War Book, vol. ii. pp. 618, 622; Boston Herald, Sept. 6, 1896; Life of Jackson, by his wife, p. 346; Whittier's Poetical Works (1888), vol. iii. p. 245.

2 O. R., vol. xix. part ii. p. 593.

Sept. 8, ibid., p. 601.

• Ibid., p. 596.

custom offered them by the officers and soldiers, closed their shops.1

It was Lee's intention, and in this Davis agreed with him, to have the Confederate States propose peace to the Northern government and people on the condition of the recognition of their independence. Lincoln in declining this proposal would help the Democratic party in the coming fall elections, when a new House of Representatives was to be chosen; and if the invading army could maintain its position in the territory of the North, a clamor might arise against a further attempt to conquer the South.2 He purposed to attack neither Washington nor Baltimore. His objective point was probably Harrisburg, and his purpose the destruction of the long bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad across the Susquehanna River. Since he had already severed the communication by the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, the success of this undertaking would leave no land connection between the eastern and western States except the railroad line along the lakes. He would draw the Union forces away from the capital, so that, if he fought and overcame them, they would not have the intrenchments of Washington to fall back upon.3

At no time during the war were Confederate prospects so bright. Kirby Smith had defeated a Union force in Kentucky, had occupied Lexington, and was now threatening Louisville and Cincinnati, having pushed a detachment of his army within a few miles of Covington, one of the Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati. Bragg with a large army had eluded Buell, and was marching northward toward Louisville in the hope that Kentucky would give her adhesion to the Confederacy. Cincinnati and Louisville were excited and alarmed. So impressed was Davis by the importance at this juncture of a union of statecraft with military strategy that he had started

1 O. R., vol. xix. part ii. p. 596 et seq.

2 Davis to Lee, Sept. 7, Lee to Davis, Sept. 8, ibid., pp. 598, 600.

3 Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 605; Allan, The Army of Northern Virginia, p. 331.

Cist, The Army of the Cumberland; Cincinnati Commercial, Sept. 1–11.

CH. XVIII.]

CONSTERNATION IN THE NORTH

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from Richmond to join Lee, expecting to sign his manifesto, offering peace from the head of the victorious army; but the general, unwilling to have him undergo the hardships of the journey and the risk of capture by the enemy, sent his aidede-camp to warn him against continuing his progress.1

Lee had now found out that he could not live upon the country, and decided that he must open a line of communication through the Shenandoah Valley so that he could procure sufficient supplies of flour. But Harper's Ferry commanded the valley, and was held by a Federal garrison, although, according to the principles laid down in the military books, this post should have been abandoned when the Confederate army crossed the Potomac. Lee had expected to see it abandoned, and McClellan had advised it, but Halleck would not give it up. It was a lucky blunder, for Lee was forced on September 10 to divide his army, sending Jackson back into Virginia to capture Harper's Ferry, while he proceeded with Longstreet toward Hagerstown.

The feeling in the North approached consternation. That Lee should threaten Washington and Baltimore, then Harrisburg and Philadelphia, while Bragg threatened Louisville and Cincinnati, was a piling up of menace that shook the nerves. of the coolest men. Those who were in a position to receive the fullest information seemed the most gravely anxious, for the inner councils of the nation were even more disturbed than the people. The number of the Confederates was grossly exaggerated, but their mobility and their leaders were compensation so great that their power as an invading army was still rated none too high. Taking into account that over 60,000 veteran soldiers, led by Lee, Longstreet, and Jackson, marched out of Frederick with spirits high and with confidence of victory, it may not at this day be affirmed that the alarm

1 O. R., vol. xix. part ii. p. 602; Taylor, Four Years with General Lee, p. 66. See Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, pp. 204, 284. Davis returned to Richmond.

2 O. R., vol. xix. part i. pp. 43, 145.

* But see Ropes, Story of the Civil War, part ii. p. 337.

which spread over the North was greater than men in such peril ought to feel. In Washington the anxiety was not so much for the safety of the capital, which was well fortified and garrisoned, as for the danger to the cause. Stanton's uneasiness showed itself in the fear that communication with the North might be cut off. "The President said he had felt badly all day" (September 8).1 Seward, an optimist by nature and by conviction, wrote to his wife: "It would seem as if a crisis in our affairs were at hand. It would be easy to predict a favorable result, but the old armies are fearfully reduced. The new regiments come in very slowly, and of course they will be quite unreliable at first."2 When Lee left Frederick and made directly for Pennsylvania, the farmers on the border sent away their women and children, then their cattle, and armed themselves for the protection of their homes against cavalry raids. The despatches from Governor Curtin at Harrisburg manifest concern for that capital: he called out 50,000 militia for the defence of the State. The words which came from Philadelphia were such as utter the citizens of a wealthy city in time of panic. All sorts of suggestions of little or no value were telegraphed to Halleck, to Stanton, and to the President, who had already done all they could. The peril in which Maryland and Pennsylvania lay could for the moment be averted only by McClellan and his army.

McClellan started his troops from Washington September 5, he himself following two days later. The necessity of reorganizing his depleted army and of covering Baltimore and Washington, together with his own habitual caution and his uncertainty as to the enemy's movements, caused him to pro

1 Warden's Chase, pp. 464, 466.

2 Sept. 10, Life of Seward, vol. iii. p. 128.

8 Nat. Intelligencer, Sept. 11. Old residents of Keedysville, Md., on the edge of the battlefield of Antietam, have related to me like occurrences in their section, which was strongly Union.

4 O. R., vol. xix. part ii. pp. 230, 250, 268, 279. S. H. Gay wrote from New York City: "There is the deepest anxiety here, and a most ominous state of affairs." -A. S. Hill papers, MS.