one the best he knew how, but the task was beyond his ability,
and he was glad enough to be relieved of his command, which was assumed
once more by McClellan, who still retained a great deal of his
popularity with the rank and file. Pope's division had been styled the
Army of Virginia, but the name was now dropped, and the consolidated
forces adopted the title of the Army of the Potomac, by which it was
known to the close of the war.

The success of the Confederates had been so decisive that the Richmond
authorities now decided to assume the aggressive and invade the North.
It was a bold plan thus to send their principal army so far from its
base, and General Lee did not favor it, but the opportunity was too
tempting for his superiors to disregard. One great incentive was the
well-founded belief that if the Confederacy gained a marked advantage,
England and France would intervene and thus secure the independence of
the South.

The neighboring State of Maryland was viewed with longing and hopeful
eyes by Lee and his army. It was a slave State, had furnished a good
many men to the Confederate armies, and, had it been left to itself,
probably would have seceded. What more likely, therefore, than that its
people would hasten to link their fortunes with the Confederacy on the
very hour that its most powerful army crossed her border?

THE CONFEDERATE ADVANCE INTO MARYLAND.

The Confederate army began fording the Potomac at a point nearly
opposite the Monocacy, and by the 5th of September all of it was on
Maryland soil. The bands struck up the popular air, "Maryland, my
Maryland," the exultant thousands joining in the tremendous chorus, as
they swung off, all in high spirits at the belief that they were
entering a land "flowing with milk and honey," where they would find
abundant food and be received with outspread arms.

Frederick City was reached on the 6th, and two days later Lee issued an
address to the people of Maryland, inviting them to unite with the
South, but insisting that they should follow their free-will in every
respect. The document was a temperate one, and the discipline of the
troops was so excellent that nothing in the nature of plundering
occurred.

But it did not take Lee long to discover he had made a grievous mistake
by invading Maryland. If the people were sympathetic, they did not show
it by anything more than words and looks. They refused to enlist in the
rebel army, gave Lee the "cold should