The National tribune., 1902-07-24

woods, broken by an occasional clearing
of-for the most pait-wornout fields. Un'
der the Winters demand for house timber
and fuel. the tlees had disappeared as far
as the eye could reach: the fields, where
they had not been beaten hard by parade
and drill. showed the neglect of cultivation
which attends the neighborhood of a hos
tile army, and had no interest as land
scape. The court town was a shadow OF
a village. without trade or society. We
We're glad to bid ii all good-by as we went
to Charlottesville in the last of April;
but in 10 days We We're back again, to
waste month of invaluable campaigning
weather.
The sound of cannOnading near Fred
erickSburg, 10 miles away, was not un-
welcome break upon this tedium. 1t set
loose the tongue of rumor, that imaginative
dame whose wild inventions We're not con
fined IN the ear of the newspaper corre-
spoDdent, but afforded food for strange
plans of campaigns marked out and fought
in the knots which gathered in regimental
tents of rank and file.
Then came sudden summons of few
picked infantry regiments to Join scout
ing party with Pleasonton's cavalry. Then
few days more of quiet and ennui. when,
at Sundown of Saturday, June Is. the
corps was hurriedly set in motion north
ward. In grand strategy the foot soldier,
even though he be an officer. is but pawn
upon the cheSS-board, moved hither and
thither by an incomprehensible master. He
contents himself, therefore, while history
is being organized. with reflections upon
his personal comfort. or Inconvenience of
body and mind; and that al-night march
comes back to my memory as an eyasper
ating race which might perfectly well have
been postponed to daylight. over wornOut
corduroy roads. whose projecting log ends
tr1pped up the sleepy man, whose holes
Jolted the wagons into bitches whence all
hands must lift them, and which were
very apt to be altogether wanting when
struggling creeks or marshy places dis
posed us TO be most lenient toward their
general shortcomings. But what seemed to
US a nefarious plot of some evil-disposedI
officer 10 harass helpless footmen was but
an inevitable feature of hurried move
ment of Hooker's army to intercept an in
vasion of the North by Lee. That heavy
firing at the Falmouth crossing of the
Rappahannock was a feint of Hooker's,
made to learn the meaning OF the ominous
quiet in the Fredericksburg intrenchments,
and the cavalry and infantry battle of Bev-
erly Ford, in which the picked regiments
had met the Confederate Stuart. was an
other phase of the same investigation, both
of which showed that Lee was gatheringI
his resources for an offensive campaignl
Maryland or Northern Virginia, the Shen-
andoah Valley.
On that Saturday whose evening set us
on foot to DumfrieS. Lees advance. under
Eweli, had invested the Union General
Milroy at Winchester, well down the Shen-
andoah Valley, and on the morrow the
larger part cf A1iiroy's command. some /
1900 men, were captives TO the enemy and
the passage into Maryland was open. The
rest of Lees forces were following hard |
upon Ewell. but their movements were so
closely yeiled behind the Blue Ridge that
tie Army of the Potomac was. for the
most of June, cropping in the dark. uncer-
tain whether its opponent would emerge
through the mountain gaps into the Man
assas plain or would try once more the
tempting farming country of southern
Maryland. Hence our movements seemed
htful and capricious TO those of us whose
business it WAS to obey orders. Today WEI
were Fastening breathlessly forward: to-
morrow we fingered by the roadside or in
the fields
The latter days of June found my frag-
ment OF the army at Leesburg, near Ed
wards Ferry. on the Potomac. 1t was q
restful picture upon which we looked from
the lOrdly hill to whose keeping with some
old fieldworks of rebel construction. nv
regiment was assigned. A pretty village.
in whose yards we saw roses as we passed.
and which the breath of war had ap-
parently touched but lightly, if at all, with
church spires from which issued on our
single Sundays stay the tones of bells on
whose wings our homesck souls werei
straightway carried TO New England: wide
stretching grpen fields. with an occasional
grazing COW which had marvelously es-
capped the forager. as if for the purpose Of
preserving a pastoral completeness to the
landscape: even the groups of tents seemed
To belong there. and only the distant sound
OF cavalry battle around Upperville. a
dozen miles to the westward, on that Sun
day afternoon, reminded us of the dread
ful business which brought us here Hap
piness is the result OF contrasts. and we re,
membered that the day OF our arrival had
been one of misery. We had marched |
through tarrid Summer heat and sitting
dust: we had waded Goose Greek in de-
fault Of bridge. and fierce tempest of
rain and hail had completed our soaking
as we issued from the stream: we hadi
biyouacked IN orr drenched garments. with |
out blankets, with small aud ineffectual
fres, and IN the face of the searching wind
which usually follows thunder. storms. Sol
1t was pleasant TO be physically comfort
able. even under the trifiing Inconvenience
or having DIR baggage so far away that
changes of underclothes were out of the
question. as they continued to be for somel
three weeks.
While we fingered here, Lee boldly de-
termincd the course of the Summer cam
paign.
LEE 1NyADEs MARYLAND.
On Monday, June 22, EwelPs two divi-i
sions crossed into Maryland at the Sharps-
burg and Wllliamsport fords, and a week
later the rear-guard, under Longstreet |
passed the river at the same points. AsI
soon ms tldinss of these movements reached
Hooker, he marched his army over Ed
wards Ferry. and we were once more mon
loyal soil. What a superior world i'll
seemed to our not too prejudced eyes,
Ihe season was one of perfect fOla ge
Heavy and frequent rains had fallen, toI
the great disturbance, indeed. of the farm
ers; for the wheat fields were ready forl
the reaper and already the grain was be-
ginning TO be lodged in tangled masses
But our uncOmmerciai eyes beheld only thel
freshness of the many-tintel fields thel
roads free from dust, which wound through
picturesque landscapes. and the trim
houses and huge and well-flled barns.
Cherries were ripe; we couli vary our dry
army diet with bread and butter from the
hands OF housewives; our Insinuating for
ayers persuaded the thrifty farmer folks
who. m the midst Of their glow of graft
tude at our intervention betwixt their
hearthstones and the cruel invader, were
never unwilling 10 turn an honest penny
TO bring forth hidden delicacieS: in the
phrase OF Confederate raider, I'VE had
right smart of apple butter. and right
smart of COW butter" and. as we ap-
preached the villages which had been en-