This was a fate
doubly sad to the sons of the heroic men who, under the designation of
the "Maryland Line," did so much in our Revolutionary struggle to secure
the independence of the States; of the men who, at a later day, fought
the battle of North Point; of the people of a land which had furnished
so many heroes and statesmen, and gave the great Chief-Justice Taney to
the Supreme Court of the United States.
Though Maryland did not become one of the Confederate States, she was
endeared to the people thereof by many most enduring ties. Last in
order, but first in cordiality, were the tender ministrations of her
noble daughters to the sick and wounded prisoners who were carried
through the streets of Baltimore; and it is with shame we remember that
brutal guards on several occasions inflicted wounds upon gentlewomen who
approached these suffering prisoners to offer them the relief of which
they so evidently stood in need.
The accumulation of Northern forces at and near Washington City, made it
evident that the great effort of the invasion would be from that point,
while assaults of more or less vigor might be expected upon all
important places which the enemy, by his facilities for transportation,
could reach. The concentration of Confederate troops in Virginia was
begun, and they were sent forward as rapidly as practicable to the
points threatened with attack.
It was soon manifest that, besides the army at Washington, which
threatened Virginia, there was a second one at Chambersburg,
Pennsylvania, under Major-General Patterson, designed to move through
Williamsport and Martinsburg, and another forming in Ohio, under the
command of Major-General McClellan, destined to invade the western
counties of Virginia.
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