“The next morning the Confederates entered Martinsburg.  Here the general was welcomed with enthusiasm, and a great crowd hastened to the hotel to greet him.  At first he shut himself up in a room to write dispatches, but the demonstration became so persistent that he ordered the door to be opened.  The crowd, chiefly ladies, rushed in and embarrassed the general with every possible outburst of affection, to which he could only reply, “Thank you, you are very kind.”  He gave them his autograph in books and on scraps of paper, cut a button from his coat for a little girl, and then submitted patiently to an attack by the others, who soon stripped the coat of nearly all the remaining buttons.  But when they looked beseechingly at his hair, which was thin, he drew the line, and managed to close the interview.  These blandishments did not delay his movements, however, for in the afternoon he was off again, and his troops bivouacked on the banks of the Opequon."* (* Battles and Leaders volume 2 pages 622 and 623.  Major Hotchkiss relates that the ladies of Martinsburg made such desperate assaults on the mane and tail of the general’s charger that he had at last to post a sentry over the stable.)

September 13th.

On the 13th Jackson passed through Halltown and halted a mile north of that village,* (* On September 10 he marched fourteen miles, on September 11 twenty, on September 12 sixteen, and on September 13 twelve, arriving at Halltown at 11 A.M.) throwing out pickets to hold the roads which lead south and west from Harper’s Ferry.  Meanwhile, McLaws and Walker had taken possession of the heights to the north and east, and the intrenched camp of the Federals, which, in addition to the garrison, now held the troops who had fled from Martinsburg, was surrounded on every side.  The Federal officer in command had left but one brigade and two batteries to hold the Maryland Heights, the long ridge, 1000 feet high, on the north shore of the Potomac, which looks down on the streets of the little town.  This detachment, although strongly posted, and covered by breastworks and abattis, was driven off by General McLaws; while the Loudoun Heights, a portion of the Blue Ridge, east of the Shenandoah, and almost equally commanding, were occupied without opposition by General Walker.  Harper’s Ferry was now completely surrounded.  Lee’s plans had been admirably laid and precisely executed, and the surrender of the place was merely a question of hours.

Nor had matters progressed less favourably elsewhere.  In exact accordance with the anticipations of Lee and Jackson, McClellan, up till noon on the 13th, had received no inkling whatever of the dangerous manoeuvres which Stuart so effectively concealed, and his march was very slow.  On the 12th, after a brisk skirmish with the Confederate cavalry, his advanced guard had occupied Frederick, and discovered that the enemy had marched off in two columns, one towards Hagerstown, the other towards Harper’s Ferry,