CHAPTER XX.
REVIEW OF THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN.
Confederate Expectations—General Lee’s Salutatory to the People of Maryland—The “Lost Despatch”—McClellan’s Movements—Turn in the Tide of War—A Miracle great as the throwing down of the Walls of Jericho—In Contempt of the Enemy the Confederate Army was dispersed—Harper’s Ferry a “Man-Trap”—It diverted the Army from the Main Issue—Lee and McClellan compared and contrasted—Tribute to the Confederate Private Soldier.
For conveying to the reader a comprehensive view of the military zodiac at the time we crossed the quiet Potomac, the 5th day of September, 1862, and an understanding of the logical sequence of the events following, something should be added here to the plain narrative of occurrences, and so I undertake a review of the Maryland campaign.
The Army of Northern Virginia was afield without a foe. Its once grand adversary, discomfited under two commanders, had crept into cover of the bulwarks about the national capital. The commercial, social, and blood ties of Maryland inclined her people to the Southern cause. A little way north of the Potomac were inviting fields of food and supplies more plentiful than on the southern side; and the fields for march and manœuvre, strategy and tactics, were even more inviting than the broad fields of grain and comfortable pasture-lands. Propitious also was the prospect of swelling our ranks by Maryland recruits.
At the head of the army of sixty thousand men encouraged, matured, and disciplined by victory stood the Confederate chief, challenging on its own soil the army that had marched to conquer the Southern capital. On the 7th he pitched his bivouac about Frederick City. On the 8th he made his salutatory to the people in these words:
“Head-quarters Army of Northern Virginia,
“Near Fredericktown, Md., September 8, 1862.
“To the People of Maryland: