Alexandria  was  more  gloomy  than  Baltimore.  The
pavements  were  rough  and  broken;  cobblestones  in
piles  alternated  with  mudholes  and  pitfalls.  Most
residences  were  closed  and  empty  and  beautiful  homes
deserted;  no  business  was  transacted  except  what  the
army  brought.  Those  who  had  fled  and  those  now  com-
ing from  over  the  Potomac  were  like  locusts.  They
destroyed  every  green  herb  and  even  ate  up  the  hedges

142


Camping  in  Washington

and  fences.  Grass,  foliage,  and  flowers  disappeared
before  army  movements.
Five  miles  to  the  Washington  dock  and  three  more
to  camp  on  the  Alexandria  side,  eight  in  all,  with  the
load  each  man  carried,  made  labor  enough  for  the  first
trial.  We  watched  southward  from  the  vicinity  of  E.
F.  Roberts' s  farm  and  had  for  a  single  brigade  a  wide
front  to  protect.
As  soon  as  I  received  the  War  Department  note,
making  me  a  brigade  commander,  I  visited,  selected,
and  brought  over  to  my  vicinity  from  their  several
camps  near  Washington  three  other  regiments — the
Fourth  Maine,  Colonel  Hiram  G.  Berry;  the  Fifth
Maine,  Colonel  Mark  H.  Dunnell,  and  the  Second  Ver-
mont, Colonel  Henry  Whiting  commanding.  The  lat-
ter was  a  graduate  of  the  Military  Academy.  My
lieutenant  colonel  was  absent,  so  Major  Staples  passed
to  the  head  of  the  Third  Maine  on  my  temporary  pro-
motion. Notwithstanding  the  usual  depletions  of  new
regiments,  my  command  was  at  this  time  above  three
thousand  strong.  McDowell  soon  sent  me  forward  as
far  as  Mrs.  Scott's  farm,  sometimes  called  "  Bush
Hill,"  four  miles  from  Alexandria.  The  Maine  regi-
ments held  the  country  to  the  south  of  the  Centreville
Pike,  and  Whiting's  Vermonters  had  a  handsome  po-
sition in  a  field  to  the  north  of  it.
