us nativities of volunteers roared their
national ballads. "St. Patrick's Day," intermingled with the weird
refrain of "Bonnie Dundee," and snatches of German sword-songs were
drowned by the thrilling chorus of the "Star-Spangled Banner." Then some
stentor would strike a stave of--

"John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave,"

and the wild, mournful music would be caught up by all,--Germans, Celts,
Saxons, till the little town rang with the thunder of voices, all
uttering the name of the grim old Moloch, whom--more than any one save
Hunter--Virginia hates. Suddenly, as if by rehearsal, all hats would go
up, all bayonets toss and glisten, and huzzas would deafen the winds,
while the horses reared upon their haunches and the sabres rose and
fell. Then, column by column, the masses passed eastward, while the
prisoners in the Court-House cupola looked down, and the citizens peeped
in fear through crevices of windows.

Being unattached to the staff of any General at the time, and therefore
at liberty as a mere spectator, I rode rapidly after the troops, passed
the foremost regiments, and unwittingly kept to the left, which I did
not discover in the excitement of the ride, till my horse was foaming
and my face furrowed with heat drops. I saw that the way had been little
travelled, and inquiry at a log farm-house, some distance further,
satisfied me that I had mistaken the way. Two men in coarse brown suits,
were chopping wood here, and they informed me, with an oath, that the
last soldiers seen in the neighborhood, had been Confederate pickets. A
by-road enabled me to recover the proper route, and from the top of a
hill overlooking Culpepper, I had a view of the hamlet, nestling in its
hollow; the roads entering it, black with troops, and all the slopes
covered with wagon-trains, whose white canopies seemed infinite. The
skies were gorgeously dyed over the snug cottages and modest spires;
some far woods were folded in a pleasant haze; and the blue mountains
lifted their huge backs, voluming in the distance, like some boundary
for humanity, with a happier land beyond. Here I might have stood, a few
months before, and heard the church bells; and the trees around me might
have been musical with birds. But now the parsons and the choristers
were gone; the scaffold was erected, the axe bare, and with a good by
glance at the world and man, some hundreds of wretches were to drop into
eternity. We have all read of the g