Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1869-09-03

r.
line for each subsequent insertion will be
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GEN. GEARY'S ACHIEVEMENTS IN LoUDoUN
COUNTY, VA-The Philadelphia Age is VEN
tiatne Gen. Gcary war record. from the first
chapter of which we gather the following incl
dents Of that "waIriOr's" gallant achievements
on his perlous march though Loudoun:
"Geafy's initial campaign was, II We mistake
not, 10 lS6l-2, IN command OF a Pennsylvania
regiment, the Twenty eighth, on short hne OF
operations from the Potomac TO the Manassas
Gap railroad. He never ventured far, Tor
Mosby was in front. He, and what may be
termed his staff, would seem to have been spe-
cialIy selected with reference to the region
whittier they were sent. Geary, ii he could
have mad the choice, could not have found q
spot where he had more private wrongs to
avenqe than in the IIOudoun Valley, where he
once lived and traded, &c. lie had many ten
der and other grievances about Leesburg, and
to IIeesburg he and his fifteen hundred were
sent According to his own account, although
the main armies were operating tar away, his
little path was beset with dangers and he van
aushcd tloodlessly many a foe. On the Goth
of September, 1851, We read that he had "a
tremendous fight at the Point OF Rocks, at
which, says the Record, none of the Federal
troops were hurt. On the 10th OF October,
there was skrmish, the details OF which are
spread over many pages of official report, the
loss being four killed and seven wounded, and
the capture of an old rusty gun. But it
was there that occurred an incident, which
though preserved on record, deserves,
one would think, the hmners art
II il Of the poetry of war. Colonel Geary,"
saws "Putnams Rebellion Record" was
slightly wounded in the leg, in the fore.
part of the engagement. His soldiers would
not be satisfied till he took off his boot and
showed them where it was. Captain Bertram
too, had very narrow escape, ball passing
completely through his pantaloons Vol I'LL,
D. 209.) What a scene for loyal painter =
Geary' S soldiers, pausing in the full career OF
victory, gathering round their fallen chief and
taking of, or, more decorously, rolling up his
trousers, Capt. Bertram standing by with his
mutilated breeches Then, too, we read, for it
is a cheerful story, that on the 2Sth OF January,
1862, there were private theatricals got up by
the Geary regiment, the curtain rising precisely
at eight to the "Toodles, the entertainment
closing with "Bombastes Furioso," 1--WE quote
literally happily adapted to the present con,
lition of the country" Then Leesburg fell
without fight, and Gen. Geary signalized the
event by printing a newspaper called The Ad-
vance Guard, copy OF which Is now before US,
devoted to puffs of the Colonel and "Hostctters
Stomache Bitters, and then late In March,
for it was cautious advance, Mlddleburg was
occup led and the rwenty-eighth' reached
Uppervie, and the conquerers rested ON their
laurels, Colonel Geary, with characteristic in
stinct taking possession tor his headquarters OF
the best house in the village, driving into the
4 tho Hnhl vi
The little town OF Uppervllle, and the beau
tiful neighborhood of which it is tie centre,
remembers the soiouru OF Geary's liberating
regiment with singular affection. No one is so
idly sentimental as to imagine that war wheth-
er before or after victory, can be conducted
without suffering, and harsh processes; but
it ia one thing to do what is painfully neces-
sary, and another to be spiteul and vexati-
Gus to a conquered and non,combatant popuIa-
ton. 1t is no part OF civilized war, even
against rebels, to seize articles OF furniture, to
carry off private stocks of wine, TO drag about 4
aged men causelessly arrested, and to trighten
and bully women and children. Tradition
grievously wrongs Geary's band, With some
most honorable exceptions, 1t this was not his
s,vle NJ conquest during the two months when
he covered Upperville. Nay, there were
minors of darker deeds. a poor oiu piau,
named Hutchison, upwards OF seventy years o'
a~o was indiscrcet enough to bring from dis-
tsnt Confederate camp a small mail OF private
Istters from absent relatives 1t tell into Col
Gearv's hands aud the same, or the next day,
tho old mans dead body was found, his gray
hair dabbled in blood, shot to death IN the
streets of his native town. ~,
''To this scene of sorrow, there was luui-
crous ending, which no one can think OF win
gravity, and with AL alusion to which we dis
miss the subject for the present. 1t was IN
june, 1862, the period of the Peninsula cam
naiep, and of the Confederate combined move
ment against General Mcclellan. NOBODY
Thought or cared much about Gsary and his
contiDgeut-but he was very anxious ABOUT
himself. and the official records given by Ten
eroI Mcclellan, show that Geary's dispatches
from the upper country largely contributed to
yfr Lincoln panic about Washington and to
WcDowell's iii. advised detection. Geary ac
tnaIv imagined that Stonewall jackson with
~ o0o or 80 900 men, was coming after HIM,
at the very moment when more than hundred
miles away. Jackson was on his march to Rch,
mond. He thought as little about our hero
as does the angry lion rushing to combat OF the
av that huzzes round his TAIL and on the very
5sv that Jackson's legiOns struck the Union
ricbt wing at Beaver dam, hundreds OF miles
.ysav in the east, SnickersVille and Pumpkin
town fresl not imaginary places, witnessed the
retreat of the gallant Twenty: eighth westward
" through the passes Of the Blue Ridge. mus
ended Geary's initial campaign,