shade, and each moment expecting to see the flash and hear the crack of the rifle of the Southern guerilla. The tree frogs and lizards made a mournful music as we passed. The soil on which we travelled was soft and heavy. The sleepers, lying at intervals across the track, made the march terribly fatiguing. On all sides dark, lonely pine woods stretched away, and high over the hooting of owls, or the plaintive petition of the whip-poor-will, rose the bass commands of "Halt! Forward, march!”—and when we came to any ticklish spot, the word would run from the head of the column along the lines, "Holes," "Bridge-pass it along," &c.

As the night wore on, the monotony of the march became oppressive. Owing to our having to explore every inch of the way, we did not make more than a mile or a mile and a half an hour. We ran out of stimulants, and almost out of water. Most of us had not slept for four nights, and as the night advanced our march was almost a stagger. This was not so much fatigue as want of excitement. Our fellows were spoiling for a fight, and when a dropping shot was heard in the distance, it was wonderful to see how the languid legs straightened, and the column braced itself for action. If we had had even the smallest kind of a skirmish, the men would have been able to walk to Washington. As it was, we went sleepily on. I myself fell asleep, walking in the ranks. Numbers, I find, followed my example; but never before was there shown such indomitable pluck and perseverance as the Seventh showed in that march of twenty miles. The country that we passed through seemed to have been entirely deserted. The inhabitants, who were going to kill us when they thought we daren't come through, now vamosed their respective ranches, and we saw them not. Houses were empty. The population retired into the interior, burying their money, and carrying their families along with them. They, it seems, were under the impression that we came to ravage and pillage, and they fled, as the Gauls must have fled, when Attila and his Huns came down on them from the North. As we did at Annapolis, we did in Maryland State. We left an impression that cannot be forgotten. Everything was paid for. No discourtesy was offered to any inhabitant, and the sobriety of the regiment should be an example to others. Nothing could have been more effective or energetic than the movements of the Engineer Corps, to whom we were indebted for the rebuilding of a bridge in an incredibly short space of time.

The secret of this forced march, as well as our unexpected descent on Annapolis, was the result of Colonel Lefferts' judgment, which has since been sustained by events. Finding that the line along the Potomac was closed, and the route to Washington, by Baltimore, equally

impracticable, he came to the conclusion that Annapolis, commanding, as it did, the route to the Capital, must of necessity be made the basis of military operations. It was important to the government to have a free channel through which to transport troops, and this post presented the readiest means. The fact that since then all the Northern troops have passed through the line that we thus opened, is a sufficient comment on the admirable judgment that decided on the movement. It secured the integrity of the regiment, and saved lives, the loss of which would have plunged New York into mourning. Too much importance cannot be attached to this strategy. To it the Seventh regiment is indebted for being here at present, intact and sound.

On Thursday, April 24, this regiment reached Washington, having taken the cars at the junction. They were followed directly by their noble comrades of the march, the Massachusetts Eighth, and immediately moved into quarters.

While the troops under Butler and Lefferts were lying at Annapolis, great anxiety was felt regarding them at Washington. The lamented Lander was then at the capital, pleading for the privilege of raising a regiment for the defence of the government, but, for some inexplicable cause, General Scott had not yet accepted his services. With Baltimore in open revolt, and Annapolis doubtful in its loyalty, this anxiety about the troops become so urgent, that Lander was sent forward to Annapolis, with general directions to aid the troops with all his ability, and to direct Colonel Butler not to land his men until the kindly feeling of the citizens of Annapolis was ascertained.

Lander started on the mission, as he undertook everything, with heart and soul. He rode from Washington to Annapolis on horseback, without stopping for darkness, or any other cause save the necessary care of his horse, and reached Annapolis an hour after the troops had landed. Bringing his experience, as a frontiersman, who had seen hard service against hostile Indians on the plains, to bear on the position, Lander gave Colonel Butler such aid and advice as assisted greatly in bringing the soldiers forward with less danger and suffering than might otherwise have arisen during their march to the junction.

MARYLAND.

The attack by an armed mob upon the Massachusetts regiment had called the attention of the entire country to the State of Maryland, and her future course was the subject of deep feeling. Indirectly, Washington was, of course, menaced by her movements, and it became a matter of vital importance that she should be retained in the Union and

restored to her fidelity. Not here alone were keen eyes watching her future. England and France, in their eager thirst for dominion and their jealousy of America and her liberal institutions, scrutinized every action, with reference to their own future course. Second only to Washington, therefore, for the time, became the "Monumental City." From the 19th of April, the day when the banner of the Massachusetts Sixth was baptized in blood, until the 14th of June, all was suspense, and those who still retained their fealty were reluctant to express their loyalty from fear of personal violence. Then an election was held for members of Congress, and every district, save one, returned decisive majorities for unconditional Union men. The majority of the Legisla ture were unreserved in their expressions of disunion, and were secretly, if not openly, urging on the State to revolt. As early as December, 1860, Governor Hicks had been solicited to call a Convention for that purpose, and emissaries of the rebel government had labored with untiring zeal to spread secession sentiments among the people. The Governor, knowing the heart of the masses to be true, refused, and his decision came like a thunder-clap upon the Southern partizans who hoped to find him a pliant tool in their hands.

The proclamation of the President, of the 15th April, was tortured into a means of exciting popular clamor, and every effort was made to fan the fires of secession, until they should burst forth in fierce flame. Meetings were held for that purpose, and every possible means resorted to for its accomplishment. While very many of the wealthy and commercial classes of Maryland, and particularly of Baltimore, were in favor of disunion, eminent and influential citizens, some of whom were among the most distinguished public men of the State, and whose names are inseparably connected with its civil and political history, were committed irrevocably to the support of the government. In this cause the industrial classes-the working-men and the farmers -were true to the principles they had always professed. Whatever political parties they had sympathized with, it had been ever on the broad basis of the Union and the Constitution.

An illustration of this was given on the 18th of April, the day previous to the attack on the Massachusetts regiment. A party of secessionists had raised a rebel flag in the suburbs of Baltimore, and had a cannon with which they saluted it, but a vast crowd of workingmen from the neighboring foundries assembled, tore down the flag, and threw the cannon into the river. His Excellency, Thomas H. Hicks, Governor; John P. Kennedy, Secretary of State under President Fillmore; Reverdy Johnson, John R. Kenley, ex- Governor Francis Thomas, Hon. Henry Winter Davis, Edwin H. Webster, Alexander Evans, and many others boldly stepped forward, and planted them