Federal Hill, Baltimore, Md. From a sketch made on day of occupation. |
[230]
The column was formed and the march began.
We had gone forward but a few rods when a most violent thunder-storm set in, with furious wind and gusts.
The flashes were incessant, and the thunder rolled almost a continuous volley.
At one moment the flashes of lightning would light up everything with an intense brilliancy, and in the tithe of a second the darkness was equally intense.
In that storm nobody could hear us. In the darkness nobody could discern the column, and nobody knew that we were there.
As I looked back from my horse, while the column slowly wound up the hill, the effect of the rolling thunder and playing lightning that made for an instant the point of every bayonet a glittering torch, was gloriously magnificent.
The whole scene affords an excellent opportunity for verifying the descriptions of the newspaper reports published at the time of my entrance into the city.
I quote the following from the Baltimore Clipper of the next morning, May 14, 1861:--
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