to point, large numbers of negroes mixing with
them--anxious to assist their new found brotherhood, but wearing most
awkwardly their vested rights. Here and there a gray jacket would
appear for a moment--the pale and worn face above it watching with
anxious eyes the unused scene; then it would disappear again. This was
all. The Federals had full sweep of the city--with its silent streets
and its still smoking district, charred and blackened; where, for acre
after acre, only fragments of walls remained, and where tall chimney
stacks, gaunt and tottering, pointed to heaven in witness against the
useless sacrifice.

For two days this lasted. The curious soldiers lounged about the silent
town, the burned desert still sent up its clouds of close, fetid smoke;
the ladies of Richmond remained close prisoners. Then necessity drove
them out, to seek food, or some means to obtain it; to visit the sick
left behind; or to make charitable visits to those who might be even
less provided than themselves.

Clad almost invariably in deep mourning--with heavy veils invariably
hiding their faces--the broken-hearted daughters of the Capital moved
like shadows of the past, through the places that were theirs no
longer. There was no ostentation of disdain for their conquerors--no
assumption of horror if they passed a group of Federals--no affected
brushing of the skirt from the contact with the blue. There was only
deep and real dejection--sorrow bearing too heavily on brain and heart
to make an outward show--to even note smaller annoyances that might
else have proved so keen. If forced into collision, or communication,
with the northern officers, ladies were courteous as cold; they made no
parade of hatred, but there was that in their cold dignity which spoke
plainly of impassable barriers.

And, to their credit be it spoken, the soldiers of the North respected
the distress they could but see; the bitterness they could not
misunderstand. They made few approaches toward forcing their
society--even where billeted in the houses of the citizens, keeping
aloof and never intruding on the family circle.

For several days the water-approaches to the city could not be cleared
from the obstructions sunk in them; all railroad communication was
destroyed, and the whole population was dependent upon the slender
support of the wagon trains. Few even of the wealthiest families had
been able to make provision ahead; scarcely any one had either gold, or