choice, and to give all the aid in his power toward maintaining that independence which we have so dearly purchased; and under this impression, I did not hesitate to lay aside all personal considerations and accept my appointment.

I pray you to be assured that I receive with gratitude your kind wishes for my health and happiness, and reciprocate them with sincerity.

I am, gentlemen and brothers,

ELKTON, November 8th, 1798.

Very respectfully,'

Your most obedient servant,
G. WASHINGTON.

In the cemetery just back of the city of Fredericksburg, is an unfinished marble monument; around the base of an incomplete column some eight feet high lie the marble blocks once designed for finishing the structure; that column rests upon the grave of Washington's mother, and its curious history is thus briefly told.

A Southern gentleman of wealth and high social position became enamoured of a beautiful, self-willed, imperious, unscrupulous lady of Fredericksburg, who, with no affection for him, yet told him, if he would erect a certain designed kind of monument over the neglected grave of Mary Washington, she would become his wife.

With all the eagerness love could inspire, he set about his task. Marble from Italy, and cunning workmen from all parts of the country were soon upon the ground, and block after block assumed its place, until the impatient lover was beginning to count the days when the last stone should be lifted to its position, and this monument to the dead should also mark the period from which was to be dated the bliss of its devoted builder.

But alas, the familiar aphorism, that true love never runs smooth, was doomed to an exceptionally cruel illustration in the case before us. While the daydreams of the fond swain were making even this graveyard a paradise to the unsuspecting lover, the object of

1862.]

VALLEY OF THE RAPPAHANNOCK.

213

his adoration was quietly wedded to another, and was on her way to a distant part of the State before her dupe awoke from the stupor into which he was thrown by this sudden unvailing of his destiny.

Since then, and that was many years ago, no chisel has rung upon the marble, nor has another block been added to the pile. Rebel soldiers had used the monument as a target, and defaced it with their sacrilegious musketry, bruising it as the heart of its builder had been bruised-and just as wantonly.

The Valley of the Rappahannock, in the neighborhood of Fredericksburg, is very beautiful. It is only some three miles in width, but is perfectly level and the soil is exceedingly rich. It is shut in by high hills on the north and south, running parallel with the river. The city lies at the upper end of this valley and stretches back from the river to Marye's Hill. The railroad, froin Acquia Creek to Richmond, crosses the river at the lower end of the town, skirts the valley for two miles, and then finds its way southward, through an opening in the hills, near Hamilton's house, where Franklin was ordered to penetrate the rebel line, at the battle of Fredericksburg.

For months and months, at different times during the war, hostile armies occupied opposite sides of the river, and Rebel and Federal cannon frowned from numberless batteries along both ranges of hills-so planted as to command the river, Fredericksburg and the valley below.

Much of the time, these armies were merely watching each other, while plans were being matured for future operations. During such periods, though cannon would occasionally echo through the valley, and a random shot or shell drop or burst along the lines, the men would come down to the opposite banks of the river and talk with each other across the stream.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the

Union army, was its numerous bands of music, while the Confederates had scarcely any. The boys in butternut, however, seemed as fond of music as their adversaries in blue were, and would often gather at the brink, on their side of the river, to hear our bands. Such an incident is very prettily expressed in the following lines, entitled "Music in Camp. "

1. "Two armies covered hill and plain,
Where Rappahannock's waters

Ran, deeply crimsoned with the stain
Of battle's recent slaughters.

2. The summer clouds lay pitched like tents
In meads of heavenly azure;

And each dread gun of the elements,
Slept in its hid embrasure.

3. The breeze so softly blew, it made
No forest-leaf to quiver,

And the smoke of the random cannonade
Rolled slowly from the river.

4. And now, where circling hills looked down
With cannon grimly planted,

O'er listless camp and silent town
The golden sunset slanted.

5. When on the fervid air there came
A strain, now rich, now tender,
The music seemed itself aflame,

With day's departing splendor.

6. A Federal band, which eve and morn,
Played measures brave and nimble,
Had just struck up with flute and horn,
And lively clash of cymbal.

7. Down flocked the soldiers to the banks,
'Till margined by its pebbles,
One wooded shore was blue with "Yanks,
And one was gray with "Rebels.

8. Then all was still and then the band,
With movement light and tricksy,
Made stream and forest, hill and strand,
Reverberate with "Dixie. "

9. The conscious stream, with burnished glow,
Went proudly o'er its pebbles,

But thrilled throughout its deepest flow
With yelling of the Rebels.

DOES IT

PECU

CHANGE FROM GRAY TO BLUE-GENERAL FIELD NOT A HECTOR- ·
GENERAL ANDERSON AND WEST POINT-HIS OBSERVATIONS THEREON
AND UPON OTHER MATTERS "THE CLATTERING CAR"
PORTEND AN ATTACK ?-SOME OBSERATIONS THEREON-THE
LIAR INSTITUTION"-STRANGE MANIFESTATIONS-LIEUTENANT DECKER
--FALMOUTH-DILAPIDATION AND DECAY-CHIMNEYS-NO TOWNSHIPS
IN VIRGINIA-PHILLIPS AND LACY HOUSES-JUDGE COULTER AND HIS
WIDOW-MANUMISSION OF SLAVES DISALLOWED-LACY TAKES THE
ESTATE AND ITS HUMAN CHATTELS--GENERAL WADSWORTH RIDES
INTO CAMP-THE BOYS
FOR HIM-A PONTOON BRIDGE THE
TWENTIETH, TWENTY-THIRD AND THIRTY-FIFTH TAKE POSSESSION OF
FREDERICKSBURG -SOMETHING ABOUT THE CITY-CONTRABAND OF
WAR-RESIDUE OF BRIGADE AND GENERAL PATRICK CROSS RIVER-
FIRST CORPS-REPAIRING RAILROAD-A RECONNOISSANCE, AND WHAT
CAME OF IT-PICKET DUTY-ALARMS-CHEERS-DREAMS-ST. GEORGE'S
-FLAG OF TRUCE-MCDOWELL ANGRY-ADVANCE OF PICKETS--REBS
SPITEFUL-MESSRS. STEELE AND HASBROUCK-THE PRESIDENT-HOW
HE APPEARED ON HORSEBACK-ORDERS--COUNTERMAND—“ WAITING
MARCH"-A HALT.

GO

-

THE rebel forces encountered on our way to Falmouth, consisted of one regiment of infantry, one of cavalry, and a light battery, all under command of General Field. Our advance was led by General Augur's brigade, with Kilpatrick, then Lieutenant-Colonel of the "Harris Light Cavalry," and commanding the regiment, at the front. General Augur himself, with a section of artillery and the "Brooklyn Fourteenth" infantry, kept close on the heels of the cavalry; the 14th entering Falmouth after a wonderful march, without having left a single straggler behind. The loss in the cavalry was twenty-five men killed and wounded, and a number of horses.