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[311] and expectations were much more moderate than those commonly entertained by the Confederate public. He did not desire to permit the season for active operations to pass without endeavouring to inflict further injury upon the enemy; and as the works around Washington and Alexandria were too strong to be attacked, it was decided to find a new field of operations across the Potomac, somewhere between the Blue Ridge and the Federal capital.

When Lee crossed the Potomac, his army still continued to be divided into three commands-viz., the corps of Gen. Jackson, consisting of the divisions of Gens. A. P. Hill, Ewell, and his own division; and that of Gen. Longstreet, composed of the divisions of Gens. McLaws, Walker, Anderson, and Hood; and a division under Gen. D. H. till, which usually acted independently of either of the generals commanding corps. The cavalry, under Gen. Stuart, continued to cover the advance of the army. The scene of operations selected was the country between Washington and the range of hills bearing the name of South Mountain, and forming a continuation of the chain of the Blue Ridge on the northern side of the Potomac.

On the 5th September the army crossed the fords of the Potomac, and on the 6th Jackson's corps entered Frederick City (Maryland), situated on the right bank of the Monocacy River, a tributary of the Potomac. The divisions of Longstreet and D. II. Hill followed Jackson's corps across the Potomac, and the line of the Monocacy River was for a short time occupied by the Confederate forces.

At Frederick, Gen. Lee issued the following proclamation to the people of Maryland, to explain the reasons that had induced him to enter their territory, and to reassure their supposed preference for the Confederate cause:

Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, Near Frederick, Monday, Sept. 8th, 1862.
To the people of Maryland:
It is right that you should know the purpose that has brought the army under my command within the limits of your State, so far as that purpose concerns yourselves. The people of the Confederate States have long watched with the deepest sympathy the wrongs and outrages that have been inflicted upon the citizens of a commonwealth allied to the States of the South by the strongest social, political, and commercial ties, and reduced to the condition of a conquered province. Under the pretence of supporting the Constitution, but in violation of its most valuable provisions, your citizens have been arrested and imprisoned, upon no charge, and contrary to all the forms of law. A faithful and manly protest against this outrage, made by an illustrious Marylander, to whom, in better days, no citizen appealed for right in vain, was treated with contempt and scorn. The Government of your chief city has been usurped by armed strangers; your Legislature has been dissolved by the unlawful arrest of its members; freedom of speech and of the press has been suppressed; words have been declared offences by an arbitrary


1866.

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