On the morning of the 25th of June we crossed the Potomac at Williamsport.  Here was shouting and yelling.  Hats went into the air, flags dipped and swayed, the bands played “Maryland, My Maryland,” while the men sang “All Quiet on the Potomac To-night.”  We were now in the enemy’s country, and scarcely a shot was fired.  We had lost Stuart.  “Where was he?” “Stewart has left us.”  These and like expressions were heard on all sides.  That bold and audacious cavalier, in a sudden fit of adventure, or hardihood unequalled, had crossed the Potomac in sight of the spires of Washington, almost under its very guns, and had frightened the authorities out of their wits.  Every citizen that could possibly get out of the place was grabbing his valuables and fleeing the city on every train.  The Cabinet officers were running hither and thither, not able to form a sensible or rational idea.  Had it been possible to have evacuated the city, that would have been done.  A Confederate prison or a hasty gibbet stared Staunton in the face, and he was sending telegrams like lightning over the land.  Lincoln was the only one who seemingly had not lost his head.  But Stuart pushed on toward York and Carlisle, while Ewell had carried fear and trembling to Philadelphia and Baltimore.  Mead was marching with the energy of despair to head off Lee and his victorious troops.  Longstreet halted at Chambersburg and awaited developments.  The troops lived in clover.  The best of everything generally was given freely and willingly to them.  Great herds of the finest and fattest beeves were continually being gathered together.  Our broken down artillery horses and wagon mules were replaced by Pennsylvania’s best.  But in all, duly paid for in Confederate notes given by our Commissaries and Quartermasters.

At Hagerstown, Hill’s troops came up with those of Longstreet, both moving on to Chambersburg, and there remained until the 27th.

General Lee had issued an address to the people of Maryland setting forth the reasons and causes of his army invading their country, offering peace and protection, and calling upon them to repair to his standard and throw off the tyranny and oppression that were bearing them down.  He claimed to come, not as a conqueror, nor as one in pursuit of conquest, but as a liberator.  But the people seemed to be in a state of lethargy, and to take little interest in the contest one way or the other.  Guards were placed at all homes where such protection was asked for, and their fields of grain and orchards, as well as their domestic possessions, were sacredly guarded.

It was the general plan of Lee not to fight an aggressive battle in the enemy’s country, but to draw the army of the North away from his lines of communities, and fight him on the defensive at favorable points.

Ewell had been sent on towards Carlisle and York, both those places being promptly delivered to the Confederates by the civil authorities.