e hatred. There
were, of course, exceptions, and doubtless every officer
engaged on this disagreeable duty can bear testimony to
receiving at times a hospitality as generous as it was
unexpected, even from people whom duty compelled them to
despoil. But this was always from "_union men_," for it must
be confessed that a large proportion of the property-holders
on both the eastern and western shores of the Chesapeake
were as deeply in sympathy with the rebellion as their
brethren over the Virginia border.

"Perhaps the most disagreeable feature of this recruiting
duty was that Gen. Birney (Supt. of recruiting of negro
troops in Maryland) seldom saw fit to give his subordinates
anything but _verbal_ instructions. Officers were ordered to
open recruiting stations; to raid through the country,
carrying off slaves from under the eyes of their masters; to
press horses for their own use and that of their men, and
teams and vehicles for purposes of transportation; to take
forage when needed; to occupy buildings and appropriate
fuel; in short, to do a hundred things they had really no
legal right to do, and had they been called upon, as was
likely to happen at any time, for the authority under which
they were acting, they would have had nothing to show but
their commissions; and if, in carrying out these verbal
instructions from their chief, they had become involved in
serious difficulty, they had little reason to suppose that
they would be sustained by him.

"When it is remembered that slavery was at that time still a
recognized institution, and that the duty of a recruiting
officer often required him to literally strip a plantation
of its field hands, and that, too, at a time of the year
when the crops were being gathered, it is perhaps to be
wondered that the bitter feelings of the slave-owners did
not often find vent in open resistence and actual violence.
That this delicate and disagreeable duty was performed in a
manner to avoid serious difficulty certainly speaks well for
the prudence and good judgment of the officers and men
engaged in it.

"The usual method of proceeding was, upon reaching a
designated point, to occupy the most desirable public
building, dwelling-house, warehouse, or barn found vacant,
and with