e final work of
preparation goes on with great spirit, and is soon completed. There are
still no signs of the approach of the enemy except what we observe
about us in a sort of expectant air among the officers, and in the _qui
vive_ of the whole garrison. The skirmishers have all been driven in
however, and we are liable at any moment to be startled by the roar of
the enemy's artillery, opening an assault.

While affairs were thus culminating in the fort, an exciting spectacle
was presented outside. For several days previously we had seen,
whenever we went down to the river-side to bathe, or to draw water from
the well, a stream of people with farm and household properties, coming
in by the Carlisle and river roads, and pouring across the long bridge
into Harrisburg. By day or night this living stream seemed never to
cease. Men, women and children, white and black, some in carriages,
some in wagons, some on horseback, some on foot, hurried along. Their
horses and cattle they drove before them. A portion of household
furniture--such evidently as could be hastily removed--went jolting
along in heavy field wagons into which it had been hurriedly tumbled.
Loads of hay and grain, of store goods, and of whatever property of
house or field was thought to be in danger of appropriation or
destruction by the rebels was taken with them. Some had come from
beyond Mason and Dixon's line, as was evident from the color and style
of their servants. Of the unmistakable genus "Contraband" there was a
large assortment also. They came along in straggling companies, their
personal goods and small stock of cabin wares usually tied up in
bundles and slung upon a stick across the shoulder. In fact the whole
valley was literally pouring itself out northward, and in wild
confusion. If in that motley crowd of fugitives there was one brave
heart worthy to enjoy the free institutions which the starry banner
symbolizes, he must have hung his head in shame as he passed under the
shadow of the fort whose protection he sought, where he himself should
have been, one of ten thousand ready at command to be hurled against
the invaders. Time enough had elapsed since the danger first threatened
for the removal to a place of safety of the greater part of the
property which the enemy most coveted, and the subsequent marshaling of
the farmers for defensive battle. But relying on the hope of the enemy
being turned back before he could reach them, they had consul