me week
contained glowing accounts of McNeil's exploits in Missouri, and
announced with much satisfaction an accession to Negley's Brigade in the
shape of Colonel Turchin. I quote the words: "He was received with great
delight, and will, no doubt, do good service, if allowed. It will be
remembered that he was court-martialed some time since, for punishing
guerrillas."

Atrocities have been so rife here of late, that even wholesale murder
and ravishment have a chance of being lost in the crowd: in any other
civilized land than this, that reminder might well have been spared.

Surely the Confederates in the Southwest have two prizes now before
them, well worth the winning; but in the front of battle Tarquin is
seldom found, and in the rout they must ride far and fast who would
reach his shoulders with the steel. The real perils of these men will
begin when the war is done; the hot Southern vendetta will cool
strangely, if all the three shall die in their beds.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE DEBATABLE GROUND.

There is one very vexed question, the importance of which, both in the
present and for the future, can hardly be over-estimated. It does not
depend on the vicissitudes, the duration, or even the termination of the
war: rather it will become more gravely complicated as prospects of
peace dawn clearer.

In which direction do the sympathies and interests of the _Border_
States actually tend? Let it be understood that the point to be decided
is--not whether the Democrats in those parts are politically stronger
than their Republican opponents; but whether the popular feeling
identifies itself with North or South; whether an uncoerced vote of the
majority would be in favor of or hostile to the Union; finally, on which
side of the frontier-line, in case of separation, the State would fain
abide.

It seems to me that only personal knowledge and experience can enable an
alien to form any accurate opinion on these points; even where the press
is not forced to grumble out discontent with bated breath, under terror
of martial law, party spirit runs so high as to render statements,
written or spoken, barely reliable; sound, deeply as you will, into
these turbid wells, it is a rare chance if you touch truth, after all.
So, of Tennessee, Missouri, or Kentucky, I will not say a word, but for
the same reasons I _may_ venture to hazard more than a guess at the
sympathies of Maryland.

Notwithstanding her superficial extent is