Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 2.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[308] necessary. It was also in want of provisions, equipments, shoes and ammunition; the roads were crowded with lame soldiers, and the gaps made by sanguinary fights they had not been able to fill up. In short, by carrying the war into the territory of the enemy, Lee would be deprived of the great advantages which the defensive had hitherto secured his cause. It is true that he did not look upon Maryland as a hostile country. Being a slave State, Southern politicians considered her as belonging by right to their Confederacy, and military men relied upon meeting with the same sympathy which had so powerfully aided them in Virginia. Emigrants from Maryland who had taken refuge in the ranks of Lee's army had induced this general to believe, notwithstanding his perspicacity, that thousands of volunteers would rally around him as soon as he should appear on the soil of their State, and that this region, yet untouched by the horrors of war, would revictual his army much more effectually than the distant depots of Richmond. Besides, in view of the great army which was being reorganized in Washington, an invasion of Maryland was probably the only means of protecting Virginia. By menacing the Northern States, Lee could prevent the Federal government from reinforcing the army of the Potomac, and the qualities of which his generals and soldiers had just given proofs were an inducement for him to tempt fortune. If he had met with no other adversaries than those he had just conquered, if he had only had General Halleck's or Mr. Stanton's strategy to baffle, a great victory, the siege, and perhaps even the capture, of Washington, might have crowned his daring enterprise. On the other hand, in order to sustain the courage of the Southern people, who were beginning to suffer cruelly, it was necessary to throw the charges of the war upon the enemy's territory, so that the North should behold in her turn her crops destroyed, her cattle carried off and her farms burnt to ashes. It was even thought that her warlike ardor would not be able to stand such an ordeal. The unanimous sentiment of the army was in favor of this invasion as the reward of its labors. In short, the position of the Confederates toward Europe rendered it advisable for them to seize an opportunity to strike a blow which should resound on the other side of the Atlantic. The reader has not forgotten that