the
sacred soil of Virginia, the mother of presidents, the home of
Washington, Patrick Henry, Jefferson, and Madison, and of how many
others famous in our history. O Virginia, what a contrast is there now!
the blood of thy boasted chivalry struggling manfully stains the ground;
thy soil is ground to powder under the heel of the hated mudsils of the
North; thy fertile plains and beautiful valleys are trodden down by
armed men; the fierce contest, and desolation and want have come to
every household; and the cry arises for thy sons that are not!

The headquarters of Gen. McClellan were two or three miles north of
Knoxville, a little village on the Potomac, about three miles below
Harper's Ferry. The day that we were there, the General was absent on
his way to meet Mrs. McClellan, and though the telegraph wires ran to
headquarters, nothing was there known of the foray Stuart had begun
early that morning from Hancock, in the rear of our forces; not till
evening, and until his arrival at Chambersburg did the news arrive. If
the telegraph wires had been laid, or the signal corps so stationed as
to have given warning of the inception of this movement, these bold
rebels could not have advanced so far, but would have been compelled to
retreat as they came. Between the General's headquarters and the river
were the famous sixth cavalry of regulars and some batteries of
artillery. He had no guard in the direction of Pennsylvania toward the
northeast, where Stuart's cavalry passed on their way to the Potomac.
The camp itself was not well placed, and was soon changed. In going from
it we rode through a most beautiful country by the side of an officer of
the sixth cavalry, and listened to his enthusiastic account of scouting
in front of our lines, in the footsteps of the retreating enemy, over
the very roads we were travelling safely and without concern; and yet we
were not many miles from the foe, and within reach of the marvellous
flight of the minie ball, which some lurking rifleman might aim from the
other side of the Potomac. These cavalry soldiers and horses have had a
terribly hard time of it. The horses of the sixth were more broken down
and thinner than in the artillery or baggage trains. Two squadrons had
lately been part of the force sent on a reconnoisance to Leesburg; and
upon the return of our troops it had been the duty of our companion,
then in command, to bring up the rear and drive in the infantry
stragglers. Some t