verses. On the 30th of May General Beauregard had been compelled to fall back from Corinth, and on the 6th of June the Federal forces entered Memphis. They now held New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Memphis, on the Mississippi; and though Vicksburg still held out, and the Federal troops had to abandon the siege, the general result of the campaign was more than favorable to their arms. It was in the midst of the rejoicing at these successes that the great blow fell on the Chickahominy, reversing all their hopes of an early termination of the conflict.

The Federal authorities did not, however, despair. The Southern successes were only the signal for still more gigantic preparations, and determined efforts to overthrow the Confederacy. President Lincoln called for 300,000 additional troops; larger bounties were offered for recruits than had ever before been known in the history of any war; and the Federal legislation indicated the basis upon which the hostilities were thereafter to be carried on. A bill passed Congress, confiscating the slaves of all persons adhering to the Confederate Government. Another act directed slaves to be armed and enrolled as troops; and military commanders were authorized to seize and make use of any property, real or personal, belonging to Southern sympathizers, "necessary or convenient for their commands," without compensation to their owners. The war was thus to be conducted upon the hypothesis that the Southern States were not belligerents according to the laws of nations, but outlawed combinations beyond the pale of civilized warfare.

Immediate steps were now taken to retrieve the disasters on the banks of the Chickahominy; and, during the month of July, while General McClellan was still lying upon the hot shores of the James, fresh levies were rapidly hurried forward to Washington. That city became one great camp; the forces lately under Generals Banks, McDowell, and Fremont, were concentrated at the Capital; and large reënforcements having arrived from McClellan, a very considerable army was soon ready to take the field. This body was styled the "Army of Virginia,"

and was speedily sent forward in detached columns to Warrenton, Culpepper Court-House, and Fredericksburg, with a view to unite and advance upon Gordonsville. This force was placed under the command of Major-General John Pope, who was said to have declared that he had "never seen any thing of his enemies but their backs."

General Pope reached the headquarters of the army, on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, in a special car decked with streamers, and soon afterward, issued a general order, in which he said to the troops:

"I desire you to dismiss from your minds certain phrases, which I am sorry to find much in vogue among you. I hear constantly of taking strong positions, and holding them; of lines of retreat, and bases of supplies. Let us discard such ideas. The strongest position which a soldier should desire to occupy is the one from which he can most easily advance upon the enemy. Let us study the probable line of retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of itself. Let us look before and not behind. Disaster and shame lurk in the rear."

General Pope then issued what was styled his "expatriation order." This directed that all male citizens disloyal to the United States should be immediately arrested, the oath of allegiance proffered them, and if they took it, and "furnished sufficient security for its observance," they should be released. If they declined taking it they should be sent beyond the extreme Federal pickets, and if found again within his lines should be treated as spies and shot. "If any person," said this order, "having taken the oath of allegiance, as above specified, be found to have violated it, he shall be shot, and his property seized and applied to the public use." In addition, "all communication. with any person whatever living within the lines of the enemy," was prohibited; and "any person concerned in writing, or in carrying letters or messages, will be considered and treated as a spy." General Steinwehr also issued an order directing that the prominent citizens of his district should be arrested and detained as hostages for the good behavior of the inhabitants, and made

to suffer in their persons for the acts of partisans and “bushwhackers." If any of the Federal troops were "bushwhacked," one of the hostages should suffer death.

The uncompromising hostility thus officially announced toward the entire population by General Pope and his lieutenants, speedily became the rule of proceedings on the part of the troops. Wholesale depredations were made upon the property of the citizens, and they were utterly unable to obtain from the Federal officers either indemnity for the past or protection for the future. We refrain from entering into the disagreeable and repulsive details of these excesses of the troops-excesses which induced a writer in Blackwood's Magazine to declare that the war was being conducted "in a way that cast mankind two centuries back toward barbarism." A Federal writer thus describes the proceedings of the troops, and with his statement we dismiss the subject:

"The Army of Virginia has undergone a marked change in a very important particular. The new usage which has been instituted in regard to the protection of Confederate property, and the purpose of the Government to subsist the army, as far as practicable, upon the enemy's country, has produced a decided revolution in the feelings and practices of the soldiery, and one which seems to me very much to be regretted.

"Unless these innovations are guarded by far more stringent safeguards against irregular and unauthorized plundering, we shall let loose upon the country, at the close of the war, a torrent of unbridled and unscrupulous robbers. Rapid strides toward villany have been made during the last few weeks. Men who at home would have shuddered at the suggestion of touching another's property, now appropriate remorselessly whatever comes in their reach. Thieving, they imagine, has now become an authorized practice, and, under the show of subsisting themselves, chickens, turkeys, hams, and corn have become a lawful plunder, with little discrimination as to the character or circumstances of the original owner.

"It is to me a very serious and unfortunate state of facts,

when soldiers will rush in crowds upon the smoke-house of a farmer, and each quarrel with the other to get the best and greatest share. I blush when I state that on the march, through a section of country, every spring-house is broken open, and butter, milk, eggs, and cream are engulphed, almost before the place is reached by the men. Calves and sheep, and, in fact, any thing and every thing serviceable for meat or drink, or apparel, are not safe a moment after the approach of the army. Even things apparently useless are snatched up, because, it would seem, many men love to steal.

"At a place where I not long ago spent a night, scarcely an article to which the fertility of a soldier could suggest the slightest use remained to the owner upon the following morning. There had been soldiers there, you might wager. Pans, kettles, dish-cloths, pork, poultry, provisions, and every thing desirable had disappeared. The place was stripped, and without any process of commissary or quartermaster. So it has been in innumerable instances. Many a family, incapable of sustaining the slightest loss, has actually been deprived of all.

"I not long ago saw a dozen soldiers rushing headlong through a field, each anxious to get the first choice of three horses shading themselves quietly under a tree. The animals made their best time into the farthest corner of the field, with the men close upon them; and the foremost ones caught their prizes and bridled them as if they had a perfect immunity in such things. A scene followed. A young lady came out and besought the soldiers not to take her favorite pony. The soldiers were remorseless and unyielding, and the pony is now in the army.

"I know a case where a family were just seating themselves to dinner, when some of the soldiers being that way, they went in and swallowed every thing. That was not all; but whatever in doors and out of doors the soldiers wanted was readily appropriated, and the proprietor of the place told me sorrowfully that they had ruined him-he never could now get out of debt. I hardly regretted his misfortune so much on his account as for the influence of this thieving upon the soldiers. I was really grati

fied to hear his little boy say, 'Pap says he wouldn't vote the secession ticket again if he had the chance.' His patriotism was evidently drawing too heavily upon his fortunes, and I was rejoiced to find him in an inquiring state of mind. But unless a check is given to this promiscuous and unauthorized plundering, the discipline and value of the army will be destroyed; and when the enlistments have expired we shall let loose a den of thieves upon the country."

It is said that General Pope subsequently issued an order declaring such proceedings unauthorized; but the Federal forces had accomplished their work. The land was green when they came, but they left a desert behind them. The fences were burned, the forests felled, the farm lands turned into common, and fathers of families began seriously to dread that their children would starve. When the writer of this page passed through Culpepper in August, it was as much as he could do to procure food for himself and forage for his horse.

General Pope advanced through Culpepper toward the Rapidan, and had as yet encountered no enemy. His right extended to the foot of the Blue Ridge, and his left toward the confluence of the Rappahannock and Rapidan. This was the state of things in Culpepper in the last days of July.

CHAPTER IX.

CEDAR RUN.

WHILE General Pope thus advanced toward the Rapidan, seriously threatening with his large force the Central Railroad at Gordonsville, General McClellan was still with a considerable

This was probably in consequence of General Order No. 107 from the United States War Department, issued August 15th, that "no officer or soldier might, without proper authority, leave his colors or ranks to take private property, or to enter a private house for the purpose, under penalty of death."