Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[403] with the enemy on the 5th and 12th of August, in the vicinity of the Katocktin River and the village of Lowettsville, and each time brought back a few prisoners. One month later, September 11th, one of the new brigades of the army of the Potomac, commanded by General Smith, who was encamped on the right side of the river near the suspension bridge, was sent to make a reconnaissance in the direction of Lewinsville, a village situated between the two hostile lines of outposts. The object of this movement was to teach the inexperienced soldiers of General Smith to march and scout in presence of the enemy, to make topographical drawings of a district of which there was no correct map in existence, and to prevent the enemy from obtaining supplies in it. Having been informed of this movement, the Confederate general Stuart, who was then in command of the outposts on that side, started with a regiment of infantry, a detachment of cavalry, and a battery of artillery, for the purpose of surprising the Federals, whose force consisted of two thousand men and six guns. He deemed it more prudent, however, to attack them from a distance, and the fire of his artillery threw at first some confusion into their ranks. But the Federal guns soon obtained the advantage, and without coming to closer quarters both parties retired, each on his own side, with trifling losses.

Sometimes it was the Confederates who assumed the offensive; as, for instance, on the 15th of September a detachment of their cavalry, numbering about four hundred and fifty horses, boldly crossed the Potomac and came in turn to attack the Federal posts near Darnestown, between Poolesville and Rockville; but it was repulsed, and left about a dozen wounded behind.

Two months had elapsed since the battle of Bull Run. The Confederate chiefs, in view of the increase of the Federal forces at Washington, could no longer entertain the idea of an offensive campaign. The ardor with which they had fired the South, by pushing their outposts in sight of the capital, had swelled the number of their soldiers; the result which they had sought was accomplished. These outposts, having ventured very far from the main army, were then drawn back. On the 27th of September they evacuated a small work situated on an isolated height called Munson's Hill, which soldiers in the Union army were in the