aid to the only man whom he felt could save the army and the government. In company with General Halleck he went at half-past seven o'clock in the morning (Sept. 2) to General McClellan's house in Washington.

"Will you," asked the President, "dare you take the command in such a dangerous crisis?”

McClellan, notwithstanding the many affronts which had been put upon him, promised to do what he could to save the army. He at once rode to the front and set about the task of reorganizing the troops. His old comrades received him with shouts of welcome, and every soldier felt again the confidence which Pope had never inspired them with. That general had

FITZ JOHN PORTER.

come among them with the proud boast that he had always seen the backs of his enemies, yet he had done little else than show his own since he took command of them.

General Pope, at his own request, was sent back to the West, and the Army of Virginia was united with the Army of the Potomac. During his short but disastrous campaign General Pope had

lost about thirty thousand men, while the Confederate loss had not been more than half as many. General Lee claimed that he had taken nine thousand prisoners, thirty pieces of artillery, and about twenty thousand stand of arms. General Pope asserted that his failure was due to want of help from Washington and especially to the conduct of General Fitz John Porter, who, he said, "from unnecessary and unusual delays, and frequent and flagrant disregard for my orders, took no part whatever, except in the battle of the 30th of August." Pope afterward made charges against Porter, who was tried by a court-martial, and in January, 1863, that officer was dismissed from the service and "forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit under the Government of the United

1862.]

LEE IN MARYLAND.

277

States." General Porter's friends denied the justice of this, and claimed that he was made a sacrifice to satisfy the politicians at Washington. This would seem to be true, for in 1880 a new investigation was made of the charges against him, and they were proven to be false.

General Lee's campaign had been thus far very successful. Only three months had passed since he took command of the army for the defence of Richmond, then menaced by a force considerably larger than his own. Yet in that short time the positions of the two armies had been completely reversed: instead of Richmond being menaced, it was now Washington, and the great force which had threatened the Confederate capital was on the defensive behind its earthworks. More than that-another army, scarcely inferior to his own in numbers, had been driven back from position to position until its disorganized masses had been merged with the Army of the Potomac. No Union soldiers remained between Washington and Richmond, and the Confederates were free to gather the rich harvests of the Shenandoah Valley and of all northern Virginia. It is not to be wondered at that the Confederacy rejoiced at the tidings of Lee's successes, and that the friends of the Union were anxious and despondent.

Lee knew that it would be useless to attack the strong defences of Washington, so he determined to move up the Potomac and cross that river into Maryland, which State he believed was ready to rise in aid of the Confederacy if an opportunity were given. He therefore marched to Leesburg, and between the 4th and 7th of September the whole Confederate army crossed the Potomac by the fords near there, and encamped not far from Frederick in Maryland. A proclamation was at once issued in which he told the inhabitants that it was his mission to aid them in "regaining their rights" and "to restore the independence and sovereignty of their State." But Lee soon found out his mistake; the people of Maryland did not look with any favor on the " army of liberation," who were probably as ragged and dirty a force as ever marched. "Thousands," says Lee, "were destitute of shoes;" some wore gray uniforms and some butternut, some had caps and some felt hats. The sight of these ragged and filthy soldiers, veterans though they were of many a hard-fought field, did not excite

any enthusiasm among the people of Maryland, and the stirring notes of "Maryland, my Maryland "* fell upon deaf ears. Lee's recruiting offices were empty, and he lost more men by desertion than he gained for his ranks.

The advance guard, led by Stonewall Jackson, entered Frederick City on the morning of Saturday, September 6, and left there on the following Wednesday. Their reception, says an account written at the time by a United States army surgeon, who was there in charge of a hospital, "was decidedly cool; all the stores shut, no flags flying, and everything partook of a churchyard appearance." But a story has since been told that many Union flags were flying over the town when Jackson marched in, and that he ordered them all to be hauled down. Among those so treated was one on the house of an old woman named Barbara Frietchie, who patriotically displayed her flag again, hanging it by its staff from her attic window. But the story is best told by Whittier, in his stirring poem called "Barbara Frietchie."

"Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,

Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;

Bravest of all in Frederick town,

She took up the flag the men hauled down;

In her attic window the staff she set
To show that one heart was loyal yet.

Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.
Under his slouched hat left and right
He glanced: the old flag met his sight.
'Halt!' the dust-brown ranks stood fast.
'Fire!' out blazed the rifle-blast.

It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.
Quick, as it fell from the broken staff,
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf;
She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.
'Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag,' she said.

* See Appendix, page 567.

1862.]

BARBARA FRIETCHIE.

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;

The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word:
'Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!' he said.
All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet.

All day long that free flag tost

Over the heads of the rebel host."

279

It is almost too bad to spoil so pretty a story, but a regard for the truth of history makes it necessary to say that it is probably only a fable. There was such a person as Barbara Frietchie living in Frederick at the time, but she was bedridden. and helpless, and could "only move," writes her nephew in 1879,* "as she was moved, by the help of her attendants." She died about three months afterward (Dec. 18, 1862), aged ninetysix years. Her nephew says also that Stonewall Jackson's troops did not pass her house at all in the march into Frederick, but entered by a back street; and this is corroborated by General Ewell of the Confederate army, who was present. But it makes little difference whether the story is true or not; the patriotic Barbara Frietchie of Whittier's genius will live in the hearts of all true Americans as long as the nation shall survive.

*Southern Historical Society's Papers, Vol. VII., No. 9.

CHAPTER XXIV.

SOUTH MOUNTAIN.-ANTIETAM.

MCCLELLAN MARCHES AGAINST LEE.-WELCOME IN FREDERICK.-A FORTUNATE DISCOVERY.— STONEWALL JACKSON GOES TO HARPER'S FERRY.-BATTLES OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN AND CRAMPTON'S GAP.-FALL OF HARPER'S FERRY.-LEE HARD PRESSED.-HIS POSITION NEAR SHARPSBURG. THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.-DEATH OF GENERAL MANSFIELD.-HOOKER WOUNDED.-SUMNER HOLDS HIS GROUND.-BURNSIDE ATTACKS ON THE LEFT.-LEE RECROSSES THE POTOMAC.-A DRAWN BATTLE.-GOOD-BY, SAMMY.-I'M A BOLD Sojer Boy.— JEB STUART IN PENNSYLVANIA.-MCCLELLAN FOLLOWS LEE.-Superseded BY BURNSIDE. -MCCLELLAN'S FAREWELL.-A QUESTION FOR GENERAL HALLECK.

AS

S soon as it was known that Lee had crossed the Potomac, General McClellan moved against him with about eightyseven thousand men, leaving General Banks in command of the defences of Washington. As it was not known whether Lee intended to march toward Baltimore or into Pennsylvania, McClellan had to advance cautiously in such a way as to guard both Washington and Baltimore. But his movements, careful as they were, did not suit the authorities in Washington, who were still troubled with their old fears for the safety of the capital, and Halleck kept telegraphing his belief that the movement into Maryland was only a feint to draw the army away toward Pennsylvania, and that it was Lee's plan to turn McClellan's left flank and get between him and Washington. On the 12th of September McClellan reached Frederick, two days after Lee had left.

A gentleman who witnessed the entrance of the Union troops from the top of a house says the sight was magnificent -nothing but moving masses of men and gleaming bayonets being visible as far as one could see. The people gave them a reception very different from that given to the Confederates: flags were displayed everywhere, stores and houses were opened, and the tired soldiers were fed with the best of food. When McClellan rode in, cheers were given on every side, handkerchiefs were waved and bouquets thrown, and men, women, and children crowded around his horse with wishes for his welfare and success. Such a welcome was very inspiring to both officers and men, for it showed that most of the people were still loyal to the Union.