shouts from fifty thousand
throats reverberated up and down the banks of the river, to be echoed
back from the mountains and die away among the hills and highlands
of Maryland. Men stopped midway in the stream and sang loudly the
cheering strains of Randall's, "Maryland, My Maryland." We were
overjoyed at rejoining the army, and the troops of Jackson,
Longstreet, and the two Hills were proud to feel the elbow touch of
such chivalrous spirits as McLaws, Kershaw, Hampton, and others in the
conflicts that were soon to take place. Never before had an occurrence
so excited and enlivened the spirits of the troops as the crossing
of the Potomac into the land of our sister, Maryland. It is said the
Crusaders, after months of toil, marching, and fighting, on their
way through the plains of Asia Minor, wept when they saw the towering
spires of Jerusalem, the Holy City, in the distance; and if ever Lee's
troops could have wept for joy, it was at the crossing of the Potomac.
But we paid dearly for this pleasure in the death of so many thousands
of brave men and the loss of so many valuable officers. General Winder
fell at Cedar Mountain, and Jackson's right hand, the brave Ewell,
lost his leg at Manassas.

The army went into camp around Frederick City, Md. From here, on the
8th, Lee issued his celebrated address to the people of Maryland, and
to those of the North generally, telling them of his entry into their
country, its cause and purpose; that it was not as a conqueror, or an
enemy, but to demand and enforce a peace between the two countries.
He clothed his language in the most conservative and entreating terms,
professing friendship for those who would assist him, and protection
to life and the property of all. He enjoined the people, without
regard to past differences, to flock to his standard and aid in the
defeat of the party and people who were now drenching the country in
blood and putting in mourning the people of two nations. The young men
he asked to join his ranks as soldiers of a just and honorable cause.
Of the old he asked their sympathies and prayers. To the President of
the Confederate States he also wrote a letter, proposing to him
that he should head his armies, and, as the chieftain of the nation,
propose a peace to the authorities at Washington from the very
threshold of their Capital. But both failed of the desired effect. The
people of the South had been led to believe that Maryland was anxious
to cast her