Page:History of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry in the War Between the States.djvu/87

Rh officials who provided such luxuries for our Yankee brothers.

It was about sunset that the bugles called us to horse, and we resumed our northward march. We found the number of our prisoners embarrassing, and with the wagon-train our progress was slow. To what point we were tending no one save our General knew. The country over which we passed was entirely new to us. The next morning's sun, peeping through clouds, found us still moving slowly on. Knowing that we had crossed the line of march of General Meade's army, we were satisfied that they were now between us and our infantry. This weary day was passed without halting, and as night approached we learned that the head of the column was fighting. We now reached Westminster, and our twenty-four hours' march was rewarded with an ample supply of rations for man and horse, much of it appropriated without orders from the large railroad depot at this place. A quiet night's rest here after forty-eight hours spent in the saddle greatly refreshed us.

The march was resumed at dawn next morning. An order detailing a squad of men and an officer from each regiment to collect horses for our dismounted men satisfied us that we had passed from Maryland, and had entered the State of William Penn, whose armed sons we had so often seen upon the soil of our native Virginia. The time had come to pay back in some measure the misdeeds of men who, with sword and fire, had made our homesteads heaps of ruin, and, in many instances, left our wives and children not a horse, nor cow, nor sheep, nor hog, nor living fowl of any kind. Soon a country store was reached and trooper after trooper escaping from the ranks quickly filled it with Confederates, who, without asking the price, were proceeding to help themselves to any and every article they needed or fancied. The first field officer, however, who discovered what was going on, rode quietly up and cleared the store, compelling the men to put back what they had taken, and posted a guard to remain until the command had passed.