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them at the risk of bringing on a battle. He ordered the posting of gunsso as to command the road for half a mile or more, all to be accuratelytrained on the track by the light of day, and ready to be discharged at anymoment. Infantry companies were stationed to fire into the trains, if theartillery failed to stop them. Pickets were posted out two or three miles,with orders to fire signal-guns as soon as the first troop-laden train shouldpass. About 1 o’clock at night we heard the rumbling of an approach-ing train. The long roll was beat; the men assembled at their assignedpositions and insilence awaited thesound of the sig-nal-guns. A nerv-ous cavalrymanwas the vedette. Asthe train passedhim (it was theregular mail) hethought he sawsoldiers in it, andfired. Pop ! pop !pop! came downthe road from suc-cessive sentries.
Primers were in-serted and lan-yards held taut, to be pulled when the engine should turn a certain pointfour hundred yards distant from the battery. By great good luck ColonelWilliam S. H. Baylor, commanding the 5 th Virginia regiment, was withsome of his men stationed a little beyond the point, and, seeing no troopsaboard the train, signaled it to stop. It did so, not one hundred yards beyondwhere the artillery would have opened on it. When the first excitement wasover, he demanded of the conductor what troops, if any, were on board, andwas told there was “one old fellow in uniform asleep on the mail-bagsin the first car.” Entering that car with a file of soldiers, he secured thethird prisoner of war taken in Virginia . It proved to be Brigadier-GeneralW. 8 . Harney, of the United States army , on his way from the West toWashington, to resign his commission and go to Europe rather than engagein a fratricidal war. He surrendered with a pleasant remark, and was takento General Harper’s headquarters, where he spent the night. On his assur-ance that he knew of no troops coming from the West, Harper ordered usall to quarters. Next morning General Harney was paroled to report inRichmond , and was escorted to a train about to leave for Winchester. Hewas a fine-looking old soldier, and as he walked down the street to the depothe saw all our forces except the cavalry. He was accompanied socially bytwo or three of our generals and a swarm of staff-officers. He cast hisglance over the few hundred men in sight, and turning to General Harper,I heard him inquire, with a merry twinkle in his eye, “ Where is your army
MARYLAND HEIGHTS. LOUDOUN HEIGHT8.
HARPER’S FERRY, LOOKING DOWN THE POTOMAC .
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN FROM THE HILL ABOVE THE TOWN.
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