Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/142

 138 Southern Historical Society papers.

Hooker and Washington. He captured wagon trains, the nearest being but four miles from the capitol at Washington, burning many, and carrying two hundred away, greatly retarding the progress. He burned bridges, and cut wires and received and sent conflicting messages to his great delight. He fought Kilpatrick at Hanover, he delayed two corps in their advance, and after his three brigades drew two cavalry divisions, and reached Dover in Pennsylvania, July ist, with horses and men in an exhausted condition, but with the utmost satisfaction.

At Chambersburg, General Lee issued an address, to his army in which commending their spirit and fortitude, and forbidding injury to private property, 'and reminding them that civilization and Chris- tianity forbade retaliation against their foes; he said: "It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suffered, without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose abhorance has been excited by the atrocities of our enemies, and offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose favor and sup- port our efforts must all prove in vain."

At Chambersburg, on the 28th, General Lee learned from a cav- alry scout that Hooker had crossed the Potomac, and moving north- west was approaching the South Mountains in Pennsylvania. As Hooker was without his cavalry at Chancellorsville, so General Lee in Pennsylvania was greatly embarrassed by the absence of his main cavalry force. Stuart was not there, as Lee had designed, to cover his own movements, and keep him informed of the movements of all parts of Hooker's forces,

A PERSONAL INCIDENT.

A personal incident finds its place at this'point. After the death of Jackson and his burial at Lexington, Va., by the wish of the staff, I was the escort of Mrs. Jackson and her babe of seven months, to her father's home in lower North Carolina. Returning to Rich- mond, I learned of Lee's advance into Pennsylvania, and received appointment to the staff of General Ewell, Jackson's successor in command of the Second Corps. By rail I went to Staunton, and there I found my mount and rode to Winchester. Crossing the Potomac at Williamsport, I was among the last of the invaders to reach Pennsylvania soil. It was not so much the courage of a soldier as the thoughtlessness of youth which led me to ride on alone,