rough
Maryland, swung through the streets of those towns where the Unionist
sentiment was strong, the women, standing in the porches, waved the
Stars and Stripes defiantly in their faces. But the only retort of
"the dust brown ranks" was a volley of jests, not always unmixed with
impudence. The personal attributes of their fair enemies did not
escape observation. The damsel whose locks were of conspicuous hue
was addressed as "bricktop" until she screamed with rage, and
threatened to fire into the ranks; while the maiden of sour visage
and uncertain years was saluted as "Ole Miss Vinegar" by a whole
division of infantry. But this was the limit of the soldier's
resentment. At the same time, when in the midst of plenty he was not
impeccable. For highway robbery and housebreaking he had no
inclination, but he was by no means above petty larceny. Pigs and
poultry, fruit, corn, vegetables and fence-rails, he looked upon as
his lawful perquisites.

He was the most cunning of foragers, and neither stringent orders nor
armed guards availed to protect a field of maize or a patch of
potatoes; the traditional negro was not more skilful in looting a
fowl-house;* (* Despite Lee's proclamations against indiscriminate
foraging, "the hens," he said, "had to roost mighty high when the
Texans were about.") he had an unerring scent for whisky or
"apple-jack;" and the address he displayed in compassing the
destruction of the unsuspecting porker was only equalled, when he was
caught flagrante delicto, by the ingenuity of his excuses. According
to the Confederate private, the most inoffensive animals, in the
districts through which the armies marched, developed a strange
pugnacity, and if bullet and bayonet were used against them, it was
solely in self-defence.

But such venial faults, common to every army, and almost justified by
the deficiencies of the Southern commissariat, were more than atoned
for when the enemy was met. Of the prowess of Lee's veterans
sufficient has been said. Their deeds speak for themselves. But it
was not the battle-field alone that bore witness to their fortitude.
German soldiers have told us that in the war of 1870, when their
armies, marching on Paris, found, to their astonishment, the great
city strongly garrisoned, and hosts gathering in every quarter for
its relief, a singular apathy took possession of the troops. The
explanation offered by a great military writer is that "after a
certain period even the