Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/353

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spent in the river washing our clothes, as already alluded to, we moved on to Frederick City.

And right here, before going farther let me give you, as I saw it, the position of this famous city, made so by Whittier's poem,

BARBARA FRIETCHIE,

no such scene as this poem is founded upon ever having occurred; General Jackson never seeing or hearing of such a character, and the troops in our army not being given to insulting females, the school boys' declamation to the contrary notwithstanding. It is situated in a valley reaching from the Potomac to the Pennsylvania line, and is bounded on the east and west by the blue billows of the Catocton mountains, already famous in the war, and the Linganore hills. It is said that General Braddock stopped here on his fatal westward way to Fort Duquesne, but its chief glory lies in the fact that here was born

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY,

who gave us our great national anthem, " The Star Spangled Ban- ner, ' ' and whose remains rest here. But let us proceed on our march. After blowing up the Monocacy bridge we filed through the town and soon struck the Boonesborough pike. Here it was that our pace was quickened, no one being allowed to leave the road to forage. What a contrast was our conduct to that of the opposing army, whose boast it was to live off the noncombatants, and especially is this true of

PHIL SHERIDAN,

who said that "a crow would have to carry his rations in his journey across the Valley of Virginia," such had been the wanton destruc- tion of the growing crops, barns, &c. But soon it leaked out that we were bound for

HARPER'S FERRY,

at which point some 11,000 men under command of General White were stationed. So after fording the Potomac again and reaching Virginia we pushed on, gaining the heights overlooking this historic town made famous by the

JOHN BROWN RAID

of Oct. 19, 1859, an d witnessed the surrender of White's command, with 11,000 prisoners, seventy-three pieces of artillery, and all of his