nt of the
Coast Survey, had been painted about 1840 by Captain Williams of the
Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., a son-in-law of Mr. G. W. P. Custis,
and therefore a brother-in-law of General Lee. The picture at the
Arlington house was given to Mrs. Colonel Abert, who loaned it to
Mr. Custis. When the civil war began she verbally donated it to
my wife, who was Mr. Hassler's grand-daughter, and was therefore
considered the most appropriate depositary of it, asking her to get
it if she could. But before she got actual possession of it, the
Arlington house was occupied by our troops and Mr. Stanton ordered the
picture to be presented to Professor Agassiz for the National Academy
of Sciences. On hearing of this, I ventured to mention the matter
to Mr. Stanton, with a brief statement of our claims upon the picture.

"Sir," said he, "that picture was found in the house of a rebel
in arms [General Robert E. Lee], and was justly a prize of war.
I therefore made what I considered the most appropriate disposition
of it, by presenting it to the National Academy of Sciences."

The expression "house of a rebel in arms" was uttered with such
emphasis that I almost felt like one under suspicion of relations
with the enemy in pretending to claim the object in question.
It was clearly useless to pursue the matter any further at that time.
Some years later, when the laws were no longer silent, the National
Academy decided that whoever might be the legal owner of the picture,
the Academy could have no claim upon it, and therefore suffered it
to pass into the possession of the only claimant.

Among the notable episodes of the civil war was the so-called raid
of the Confederate general, Early, in July, 1864. He had entered
Maryland and defeated General Lew Wallace. This left nothing but
the well-designed earthworks around Washington between his army
and our capital. Some have thought that, had he immediately made
a rapid dash, the city might have fallen into his hands.

All in the service of the War and Navy departments who were supposed
capable of rendering efficient help, were ordered out to take part
in the defense of the city, among them the younger professors of the
observatory. By order of Captain Gilliss I became a member of a naval
brigade, organized in the most hurried manner by Admiral Goldsborough,
and including in it several officers of high and low rank. The rank
and file was formed of the workmen in the Navy Yard, mos