ed and adopted by the Secretary
of War and immediately sent out to the proper military authority in
that Department."

On April 16, 1891, by permission of the kindly authorities of the War
Department, search was made in the office of the Chief Engineer to see
if, by chance, these maps might have come to the War Department. No
trace or record was found and it seemed to be agreed that, considering
the circumstances of extreme secrecy attending the inauguration of the
campaign, it was unlikely that they should come there. Time, which so
often corroborates the truth, may possibly bring those maps to light.
At present I cannot trace them.

* * * * *

It is proposed to follow this volume with another, entitled "Civil War
Papers in Aid of the Administration," by Anna Ella Carroll, with notes
by the author.

CHAPTER I.

ANCESTRY AND OLD PLANTATION LIFE.

In looking at the map of Maryland we find that the configuration of
the State is of an unusual character. The eastern portion is divided
through the middle by the broad waters of Chesapeake Bay, leaving nine
counties with the State of Delaware on the long stretch between the
Chesapeake, Delaware Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean. Of late years the
great tide of population has set toward the western side of Chesapeake
Bay, leaving the widely divided eastern counties in a comparatively
quiet and primitive condition. But in the earlier history of our
country these eastern counties, with easy access to the Atlantic
Ocean, were of greater comparative importance to the State, and were a
Center of culture and of hospitality. It was in Somerset, one of the
two southernmost of these eastern counties, that Sir Thomas King,
coming from England about the middle of the eighteenth century,
purchased an extensive domain.

Landing first in Virginia with a group of colonists, he there married
Miss Reid, an English lady also highly connected and of an influential
family. The estate which he subsequently purchased in Maryland
embraced several plantations, extending from the county road back to a
creek, a branch of the Annemessex river, then and since known as
King's creek.

Standing well back and divided from the county road by extensive
grounds, Sir Thomas King built Kingston Hall, a pleasant and
commodious residence. An avenue of fine trees, principally Lombard
poplars and the magnificent native tulip tree, formed the approach to
the Hall, and its ga