Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/143

Rh when fully manned. This ride from July 9th to July 13th was probably the longest ride taken during the war. It was one hundred and twenty hours in which the men never dismounted except to unsaddle and feed once every twenty-four hours, and of course they ate what they could pick up on the roadside, and slept in their saddles.

After crossing the river, Johnson's brigade followed Early to Winchester, and in a short time to Martinsburg. From that point General Early dispatched Gen. John McCausland with his own and Johnson's brigade to demand a contribution from Chambersburg, Pa., in retaliation for the burning of the houses of Hon. Alexander R. Boteler, Andrew Hunter and Edmund Lee at Shepherdstown and Charlestown a short time before. He sent a written demand on the authorities of Chambersburg for $100,000 in gold and $500,000 in greenbacks for the purpose of indemnifying these losers from Hunter's barbarities, or, in default of payment, he ordered the town to be burned. The expedition started on July 29th and reached Chambersburg on the 30th. McCausland then sought the town authorities, but they had fled. He then caused the court house bell to be rung to call together a town meeting to make his demand known to them. But the panic-stricken people would trust themselves in no conference with the "rebels." They did not believe, and they were not chary in saying so, that the rebels would never dare to burn their town; they were afraid to do so. This was really the tone assumed by the people of Chambersburg that morning. Finding delay useless and dangerous, McCausland set fire to the court house, which made a flaming beacon of fast-coming disaster, and in five minutes the whole town was in a blaze from twenty different points.

The Confederates were withdrawn from the burning town and started for Virginia. They moved up to Cumberland, but finding General Kelly there with a force too strong for them, turned off and recrossed the Potomac at