Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-07-21

have, Indeed, ventured up TO the very mouth
of our Washington oitadels" To this effect he
writes
whatever may have been the reason, j, indeed there
be one why the rebels should have been allowed 10 make
so extensive and destructive RAID tits fact that we cam
not and ought disguise from Ourselves that they
have indeed ventured up 10 the yerg mouth OF our
iDgton cadels, and that almost have they bearded the
lien in his den the Douglas in his hall They hare been
here, and they haze left thar traces behind"
He proceeds therefore to describe these " ira
ces" in the devastating path Of the invading
horde" lying in the direction of Fort Lincoln.
as follows
Leaving Fort Lincoln ard proceeding out the Bladens
burg road every thing the same quiet aspect
fields look though they had been passed ny oe
vastang horde far less sacrieGious hands hsd ever
been laid upon them On way we met seVera onion
| soldiers tired aud faint"
These "Union soldiers" .ere doubtless tired
and faint from the yigor with which they had
marched on Washington as the enemy approached
the city on Monday OF Tuesday last. The repor-
ter proceeds
Making tracks along the Bladensburg road by no
means difficult to residences which have re-
ceved memorable Wits from rebel deachments. Here
stands one for instance 1t is fine capacious wooden
farm house. standing considerably back from the main
road Ii you make your visit to it ia easy and familiar
and instantly beet by two bull dogs whose actions
betray distant affinity to incipent hydrophoba This ad
guard having performed their duties to admiration
and being safely passed. you at length able to attain
the main building, which, however, bears no traces OF
having been visited by unfriendy scouts The proprietor
however assures that this On Tuesday at the
respectable hour Of five O'clock, small party OF rebel
cavalry rode up the door and requested glasses Of milk
for the party The of these Lieut. Ford goth
| regiment Virginia cavalry, VIM l. Jacksons corps,
Breckinridge's division; Capt J. ID. Meal, and Lieut.
thA aaE fou had
mants memory They acknowledged tclhoM reservation
that they aere Contederae soldiers, and they hhe@ase
auerred that their only mission roas 70 procure the gentle
stinutant Of glass 81 mik all round"
What audacity is here These invaders, it
seems, lack nowedged without reservation" that
they were Confederate soldiers, and, with perjured
art, rivallipg the duplicty of Simon before the
walls of Troy, they masked their fell designs on
the capital of the nation by Covering that their
only mission was to procure the gentle stimulant
of glass of milk"
The alarming magnitude of the insurgen forces
operating on the line of the railroad in this direc.
ton more clearly appears in such statements as
the following, made by the same loyal reporter for
the Chronicle:
:" the rebel vsters at this vicinity had been a con
dition damage there is doubt they could hIUe occa
st0ned c0nStdeTd6fe loss. The neds with
rich harvests, and several hundred head Of cattle
grazing IN the adjoining grounds Under the force of cir
cumsances however they said to have behaved them
selves very respectfully
The rebel yisiters and ALL SAID that If the Yam
KEGS dared to come as to Richmond to
Washington the ladies would take them prsOners-wo-
who, worth two three hundred thousand dol
lars, mpelled TO work like common laborers in
the open field. Indeed, from the way which infor
mant spoke Of his late visitors, whom he nvounarly and
under protest entertained it TO be argued that they hold
tho NpF,L fhl
they look upon The past war policy eete and unequal
to the requirements Of the hour Their visit OF about
an hours length and being refreshed by unimsd glasses
Of mk they made rctrca., and doubtless had good time
| Of for the rest OF the eDsning.'
After reading thus far in this bucolic report of
our loyal neighbor we fell into fit Of musing, our
minds being sorey puzzled to account for this pro-
pensity of the bibulous Southerners to refresh
themselves with "unlimited glasses of milk" as a
tonic or stimulant preliminary to the deadly as
sault they meditsted on the capital. By what be-
nignant influences, ask, it that these bloody
men, fifty thousand strong, Eve have Mr.. Wilke-
sons word for it, were turned from the pillage
and sack of Washington to engage in predacious
raids on the diaries of Maryland? Did mother
Nature re-assert her power over these rugged spi-
rts, and bring back to their famished lips the pri-
mitve tastes Of childhood, that they might be ar
rested in their wild career against the capital by
the oryeDticemens of the milk pan and the cream
| Jug? We know it was sudden rush Of tender re-
membranes of youth and innocence and love which
held in check the hand Of Medea, in the classic
page of Apollonius Rhodius, as she raised that
hand aloft in the act of meditated sefdestruction,
aud who shall say that it not the gentle slim
ulant of glass of milk all round to use the Ian
guage of the Chronicles reporter, which diverted
these myrmidons of JEFF Davis from their " sacri-
legous" assault on the central sest Of the national
life IL this view should commend itself to sub
jective and contemplative minds, we have only to
suggest that hereafter, in turning our eyes up
wards to bless the propitious stars, we should, in
memory of our last great dcliverancc, avert our
gaze from flaming Mars (who did SO little for us
in our last extremity and concentrate all loyal
admiration and worship on the Milky Way, which
We may piousy suppose to have Grained inhu-
ence down" on the minds and hearts Of our enc.
mics reyivipg in their mouths such taste for the
lactesl secretions Of the vaccine udder that in
stead Of sating their passions in the frantic strife
of war, they were content to soothe their sanguin-
airy thirst with unlimited glasses Of milk"
N. B.-We have but single request to make Of