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LEE'S ADVANCE INTO MARYLAND.

193

IX.

'MY MARYLAND'-LEE'S INVASION.

GEN. MCCLELLAN had already' been verbally charged with the command of the defenses of Washington; and was, upon fuller advices of Pope's disasters, invested' by the President and Gen. Halleck with the entire control, not only of those fortifications, but of "all the troops for the defense of the capital," in obedience to the imperious demand of a large majority of the surviving officers and soldiers. Pope's original army had in great part been demolished; while that brought from the Peninsula by McClellan had been taught to attribute the general ill-fortune not to the tardiness and heartlessness wherewith Pope had been rëenforced and supported by their leaders, but to his own incapacity, presumption, and folly. McClellan at once ordered a concentration of his forces within the defenses of Washington; where they were soon prepared to resist the enemy, but whither Lee had no idea of following them. Having been joined by D. H. Hill's fresh division, from Richmond, he sent that division at once in the van of his army to Leesburg; thence crossing the Potomac and moving on Frederick. Jackson followed with a heavy corps, consisting of A. P. Hill's, Ewell's, and his own divisions, embracing 14 brigades, crossing at White's Ford and moving on Frederick, which was occupied on the 6th, without resistance. Gen. Lee, with the rest of his army, rapidly followed, concentrating at Frederick; whence he issued the following seductive address:

1 Sept. 1. 2 Sept. 2.
VOL. II.-13

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"HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN
VIRGINIA, NEAR FREDERICK,
"Sept. 8, 1862.

"To the People of Maryland:

"It is right that you should know the purpose that has brought the army under my command within the limits of your State, so far as that purpose concerns yourselves.

"The people of the Confederate States have long watched with the deepest sympathy the wrongs and outrages that have been inflicted upon the citizens of a Commonwealth allied to the States of the South by the strongest social, political, and commercial ties, and reduced to the condition

of a conquered province.

"Under the pretense of supporting the

Constitution, but in violation of its most valuable provisions, your citizens have been arrested and imprisoned, upon no charge, and contrary to all the forms of law. this outrage, made by a venerable and illus"A faithful and manly protest against trious Marylander, to whom in better days no citizen appealed for right in vain, was treated with scorn and contempt.

"The government of your chief city has been usurped by armed strangers; your Legislature has been dissolved by the unlawful arrest of its members; freedom of the press and of speech has been suppressed; words have been declared offenses by an arbitrary decree of the Federal Exec

utive; and citizens ordered to be tried by military commissions for what they may dare to speak.

"Believing that the people of Maryland possess a spirit too lofty to submit to such a Government, the people of the South have long wished to aid you in throwing off this

foreign yoke, to enable you again to enjoy the inalienable rights of freemen, and restore the independence and sovereignty of your

State.

"In obedience to this wish, our army has come among you, and is prepared to assist you with the power of its arms in regaining the rights of which you have been so unjustly despoiled.

"This, citizens of Maryland, is our misstraint upon your free will is intended-no sion, so far as you are concerned. No reintimidation will be allowed within the limits of this army at least. Marylanders shall once more enjoy their ancient freedom of thought and speech. We know no enemies Sept. 5. Roger B. Taney, to wit.

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Sept. 2.

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among you, and will protect all of you in | tomac to replenish their wasted and every opinion. inadequate resources.

"It is for you to decide your destiny freely and without constraint. This army will respect your choice, whatever it may be; and, while the Southern people will rejoice to welcome you to your natural position among them, they will only welcome you when you come of your own free will.

"R. E. LEE, General Commanding."

The fond expectations which had prompted this address were never realized. The Marylanders had no gluttonous appetite for fighting on the side of the Union; still less for risking their lives in support of the Confederacy. All who were inclined to fighting on that side had found their way into the Rebel lines long before; there being little difficulty in stealing across the Potomac, and none at all in crossing by night to Virginia from the intensely disloyal, slaveholding counties of south-western Maryland. In vain was Gen. Bradley T. Johnson-who had left Frederick at the outset of the war to serve in the Rebel army-made Provost-Marshal of that town, recruiting offices opened, and all manner of solicitations to enlistment set forth. The number of recruits won to the Rebel standard while it floated over Maryland probably just about equaled its loss by deserters-say from 200 to 300.

The conduct of the Rebel soldiery was in the main exemplary. Hungry, ragged, and shoeless, as they often were, they rarely entered a house except by order, and never abused women; but cattle, horses, and everything that might contribute to the subsistence or efficiency of an army, were seized by wholesale, not only for present use, but thousands of animals were driven across the Po*Sept. 3.

Gen. McClellan was early apprised of the disappearance of the Rebels from his front, and soon advised that they were crossing into Maryland. His several corps were accordingly brought across the Potomac and posted on the north of Washington; which city he left' in command of Gen. Banks, making his headquarters that night with the 6th corps, at Rockville. He moved slowly, because uncertain, as were his superiors, that the Rebel movement across the Potomac was not a feint. But his advance, after a brisk skirmish, on the 12th entered Frederick, which the Rebels had evacuated, moving westward, during the two preceding days, and through which his main body passed next day. Here he was so lucky as to obtain a copy of Lee's general order, only four days old, developing his prospective movements, as follows:

"HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN

"VIRGINIA, September 9, 1862. "The army will resume its march tomorrow, taking the Hagerstown road. Gen. Jackson's command will form the advance; and, after passing Middletown, with such portion as he may select, take the route toward Sharpsburg, cross the Potomac at the most convenient point, and, by Friday night, take possession of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, capture such of the enemy as may be at Martinsburg, and intercept such as may attempt to escape from Harper's Ferry. "Gen. Longstreet's command will pursue the same road as far as Boonsborough, where it will halt with the reserve, supply, and baggage trains of the army.

"Gen. McLaws, with his own division and that of Gen. R. H. Anderson, will follow Gen. Longstreet; on reaching Middletown, he will take the route to Harper's Ferry, and, by Friday morning, possess himself of the Maryland Heights, and endeavor to capture the enemy at Harper's Ferry and vicinity.

"Gen. Walker, with his division, after

'Sept. 7.

MCCLELLAN'S BLUNDER AT FREDERICK.

accomplishing the object in which he is now engaged, will cross the Potomac at Cheek's Ford, ascend its right bank to Lovettsville, take possession of Loudon Heights, if practicable, by Friday morning; Key's Ford on his left, and the road between the end of the mountain and the Potomac on his right. He will, as far as practicable, cooperate with Gen. McLaws and Gen. Jackson in intercepting the retreat of the enemy.

“Gen. D. H. Hill's division will form the rear guard of the army, pursuing the road taken by the main body. The reserve artillery, ordnance and supply trains, &c., will precede Gen. Hill.

"Gen. Stuart will detach a squadron of cavalry to accompany the commands of Gens. Longstreet, Jackson, and McLaws, and, with the main body of the cavalry, will cover the route of the army, and bring up all stragglers that may have been left behind.

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The commands of Gens. Jackson, McLaws, and Walker, after accomplishing the objects for which they have been detached,

will join the main body of the army at

Boonsborough or Hagerstown.

"Each regiment on the march will habitually carry its axes in the regimental ordnance wagons, for use of the men at their encampments, to procure wood, &c. "By command of Gen. R. E. LEE.

"R. H. CHILTON,

"Assistant Adjutant-General. "Maj.-Gen. D. H. HILL, Com'ding Div."

McClellan had thus, by a rare stroke of good fortune, become possessed of his adversary's designs, when it was too late to change them, and when it could not be known to that adversary, at least until developed by counteracting movements, that he had this knowledge, and was acting upon it. Lee had ventured the hazardous maneuver of dividing his army in a hostile country, and placing a considerable and treacherous, though fordable, river between its parts, while an enemy superior in numbers to the whole of it hung closely upon its rear. Such strategy must have been dictated by an ineffable contempt either for the capacity of his antagonist or for the most obvious rules of war.

195

clear not only that Harper's Ferry
was Lee's object, and that Jackson's
corps and Walker's division were ere
this across the Potomac in eager
quest of it, but that only McLaws's
corps-20,000 men at the utmost-
was now between our whole army
and the coveted prize.
Our corps
happened then to be mainly concen-
trated around Frederick; but Frank-
lin's division-nearly 17,000 strong
-was some miles southward, and
thus nearer to Harper's Ferry, and
in front of McLaws. Had McClellan
instantly put his whole army in mo-
tion, marching by the left flank on
parallel roads leading directly toward
the Potomac and the Ferry, and
sending orders to Franklin to ad-
vance and either force his way to the
Ferry or engage whomsoever might
attempt to resist him, assured that
corps after corps would follow swift-
ly his advance and second his at-
tacks, McLaws must have been
utterly crushed before sunset of the
14th, and Harper's Ferry relieved by
midnight at farthest. That, instead
of this, McClellan should have ad-
vanced his main body on the road
tending rather north of west, through
Turner's Gap to Boonsborough and
Hagerstown, rather than on roads
leading to Crampton's Gap and to
the Potomac, is unexplained and in-
explicable.

The South Mountain' range of hills, which stretch north-eastwardly from the Potomac across Maryland, are a modified continuation of Virginia's 'Blue Ridge,' as the less considerable Catoctin range, near Frederick, are an extension of the 'Bull Run' range. Between them is the valley of Catoctin creek, some ten The order above given rendered it miles wide at the Potomac, but nar

rowing to a point at its head. Seve- | six of his brigades, under Anderson,

ral roads cross both ranges; the best being the National Road from Baltimore through Frederick and Middletown (the chief village of the Catoctin Valley), to Hagerstown and Cumberland.

Lee, having divided his army in order to swoop down on Harper's Ferry, was compelled by McClellan's quickened and assured pursuit, based on the captured order aforesaid, to fight all our army with half of his own-reversing the strategy usual in this quarter; for, if McClellan's advance were not impeded, Harper's Ferry would be relieved. So, Gen. Pleasanton, leading our cavalry advance on the road to Hagerstown, encountered some resistance at the crossing of Catoctin creek in Middletown; but, skirmishing occasionally with Stuart's cavalry, pressed on, backed by Cox's division of Burnside's corps, to find the enemy in force before TURNER'S GAP of South Mountain, a few miles beyond.

This gap is about 400 feet high; the crests on either side rising some 600 feet higher; the old Hagerstown and Sharpsburg roads, half a mile to a mile distant, on either side, rising higher than the National Road, and materially increasing the difficulty of holding the pass against a largely superior force.

Lee, in his eagerness to grasp the prize whereon he was intent, and in his confident assurance that McClellan would continue the cautious and hesitating movement of six or seven miles a day by which he had hitherto advanced from Washington, had pushed Longstreet forward on Jack son's track to Hagerstown,' whence *Sept. 13.

had been sent to cooperate with McLaws against Maryland Heights and Harper's Ferry. This left only D. H. Hill's division of five brigades to hold Turner's Gap and the adjacent passes, with such help as might be afforded by Stuart's cavalry; Stuart having reported to Hill, on the 13th, that only two brigades were pursuing them. He was undeceived, however, when, at 7 a. м. next morning, Cox's division of Burnside's corps advanced up the turnpike from Middletown, preceded by Pleasanton's cavalry and a battery, and opened on that defending the Gap; while by far the larger portion of the Army of the Potomac could be seen, by the aid of a good field-glass, from a favorable position on the mountain, either advancing across the valley or winding down the opposite heights into it.

Hill reports his division as but 5,000 strong; and even this small force had been somewhat dispersed in pursuance of the orders of Lee and the erroneous information of Stuart. The brigade of Gen. Garland, which was first pushed forward to meet our advance, was instantly and badly cut up, its commander being killed; when it retired in disorder, and was replaced by that of Anderson, supported by those of Rhodes and Ripley, who held the pass firmly for hours against the most gallant efforts of Cox's Ohio regiments. But, meanwhile, our superior numbers, backed by desperate fighting, enabled us steadily to gain ground on either side, until the crest of the heights on the left of the pass was fairly ours, though one of our batteries. had

Sept. 11.

BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN.

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meantime been all but lost; its gun- | only Reno's division on our side, and

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Hill's on that of the Rebels, had been engaged. But, at 2 P. M., Hooker's corps came up on our side, and took the old Hagerstown road, leading away from the turnpike on our right, with intent to flank and crush the Rebel left. At 3 P. M., our line of battle was formed, with Ricketts's division on the right; King's, commanded by Hatch, in the center, with its right resting on the turnpike, and Reno's on the left; and a general advance commenced, under a heavy fire of artillery.

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The rattle of musketry ceased at noon, and for two hours only the roar of cannon was heard; the combatants on either side awaiting the arrival of rëenforcements. Hitherto,

19 Hill, in his official report, says:

"Maj.-Gen. Longstreet came up about 4 o'clock, with the commands of Brig.-Gens. Evans and D. R. Jones I had now become familiar with the ground. and knew all the vital

Meantime, Hill had sent pressing messages to Longstreet, at Hagerstown, for help; and two brigades had already arrived; as Longstreet himself, with seven more brigades, did very soon afterward; raising the Rebel force in action thereafter to some 25,000 or 30,000 men. Longstreet, ranking Hill, of course took command; little to the satisfaction of Hill, who evidently thinks he could have done much better.10

The enemy's advantage in position was still very great, every movement on our part being plainly visible to them; while we could know nothing of their positions nor their strength, except from their fire and its effect. Our men were constantly struggling up rocky steeps, mainly wooded, where every wall, or fence, or inequality of ground, favors the combatants who stand on the defensive. The disparity in numbers between those actually engaged was not very great-possibly three to two-but then, our men were inspirited by the

points; and, had these troops reported to me, the result might have been different. As it was, they took wrong positions; and, in their exhausted condition after a long march, they were broken and scattered."

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