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124 SEVEN MONTHS IN THE REBEL STATES I rode alone into the lovely Valley of Virginia, happy as usual and at peace with God. The country is called Virginia because nature there is of such virginal purity, and because the young women are nowhere more beautiful, more modest, or more natural than in this paradiasical valley. The Shenandoah, which is about 200 paces wide, runs along the valley, murmuring over the rocks, bordered by magnolias, oaks, beeches, walnut trees, and the splendid "willows," which are unknown in our country, and which we know only as maimed dwarves. These beautiful, large trees incline their heads so that they meet and thus form a high, beautiful, majestic hall over the murmuring, resonant stream. Here one rides along the wonderful edge of the woods and along cliffs, and there a farm home that has been burned indicates its former splendor. Curious people or beautiful women look out of the verandas of farm homes that are still standing, and children whom Rubens would have taken as models play by the road. The various chains of the Allegheny Mountains in the distance form the blue, misty background. On the first day I rode as far as Middletown, where I met a Rev. Dr. Deems from Wilson, North Carolina, a good, religious gentleman and an equally talented speaker. We joined each other after our first conversation, since destiny led us along the same road. He had been with the army to investigate the fate of his mortally wounded and captured son. A saddle bag on the minister's horse, with a ham in one half and in the other our bread, a fresh supply of which we obtained at the various farms, was the repository of our provisions, for this saddle bag contained all of the meals of the two of us, which we ate at beautiful springs in the shade while our horses were grazing, and we would light a fire in the flowering meadow to warm our limbs and to rejoice our hearts. Here I must remark that the Southern cavalry (also the artillery and the staffs) would immediately unsaddle their horses as soon as they came to a camping place and would either send them out to graze on fenced pasture or would INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA, ••• 125 order a few Negroes to take care of them. The officers' servants and some teamsters and convoy soldiers were Negroes, to be sure, but not a single Negro bore arms at that time. (One must judge accordingly all of the beautiful "lying true stories" in feuilletons, etc., where female spies, etc., hold forth in long observations about the mistreatment of Negro soldiers in the South.) These blacks were treated very well. When I once spoke of "Niggers," I was even admonished that it was preferable not to use this derogatory word for these people, who were of low intelligence, to be sure, but who were very useful, and I was told that it was a Yankee word. Thus we rode by way of Strasburg, Woodstock, Mount Jackson, New Market, Harrisonburg, and Mt. Crawford to Staunton, where my companion introduced me to the very modest family of the attorney Kayser in his home and aroused a sensation by preaching a fine sermon for which he had been given the text only an hour before beginning. This ride was so instructive and pleasant for me that I still have a feeling of sincere gratitude toward the Valley and the doctor. We finally went to Richmond, where general dejection prevailed, and therefore, after the retreat was over, the President proclaimed a day of general prayer and penitence, which General Lee announced to the army....25 In Richmond I parted with the amiable clergyman, my companion, took a bath, and put on clean clothes, a business, the full comfort of which one learns to appreciate only after months of dirtiness. To my great joy, my friend, Captain Ross, who likewise intended to leave the army, happened to come out of an opposite room a few days later when I was working with my door open. Von Borcke, who was still suffering very much with his wound, since his breathing was especially difficult, was the third member of the group each day until Mr. Lawley, who was diligently collecting 25 This proclamation of Ju1y 25, 1863 may be seen in James D. Richardson (ed.), Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy • .. (Nashville, 1906), I, 328. [3.128.78.41...

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