Maryland, as usual, contributed her large proportion of volunteers to the defense of the country.  All men capable of bearing arms rapidly mustered into companies and hastened to put themselves at the disposal of the government.

The lower counties of Maryland were left comparatively unprotected.  Old men, women, children and negroes were all that remained in charge of the farms and plantations.  Yet remote from the scenes of conflict and hitherto undisturbed by the convulsions of the great world, they reposed in fancied safety and never thought of such unprecedented misfortunes as the evils of the war penetrating to their quiet homes.

But their rest of security was broken by a tremendous shock.  The British fleet under Admiral Sir A. Cockburn suddenly entered the Chesapeake.  And the quiet, lonely shores of the bay became the scene of a warfare scarcely paralleled in atrocity in ancient or modern times.

If among the marauding band of licensed pirates and assassins there was one name more dreaded, more loathed and accursed than the rest, it was that of the brutal and ferocious Thorg—­the frequent leader of foraging parties, the unsparing destroyer of womanhood, infancy and age, the jackal and purveyor of Admiral Cockburn.  If anywhere there was a beautiful woman unprotected, or a rich plantation house ill-defended, this jackal was sure to scent out “the game” for his master, the lion.  And many were the comely maidens and youthful wives seized and carried off by this monster.

The Patuxent and the Wicomico, with the coast between them, offered no strong temptation to a rapacious foe, and the inhabitants reposed in the fancied security of their isolation and unimportance.  The business of life went on, faintly and sorrowfully, to be sure, but still went on.  The village shops at B——­ and C——­ were kept open, though tended chiefly by women and boys.  The academicians at the little college pursued their studies or played at forming juvenile military companies.  The farms and plantations were cultivated chiefly under the direction of ladies whose husbands, sons and brothers were absent with the army.  No one thought of danger to St. Mary’s.

Most terrible was the awakening from this dream of safety, when, on the morning of the 17th of August, the division under the command of Admiral Cockburn—­the most dreaded and abhorred of all—­was seen to enter the mouth of the Patuxent in full sail for Benedict.  Nearly all the able-bodied men were absent with the army at the time when the combined military and naval forces tinder Admiral Cockburn and General Ross landed at that place.  None remained to guard the homes but aged men, women, infants and negroes.  A universal panic seized the neighborhood and nothing occurred to the defenseless people but instant flight.  Females and children were hastily put into carriages, the most valuable items of plate or money hastily packed up, negroes mustered and the whole caravan put upon a hurried march for Prince George’s, Montgomery or other upper counties of the State.  With very few exceptions, the farms and plantations were evacuated and left to the mercy of the invaders.