He had done more. He had committed another grave error, which has
received but little public attention, but which told with disastrous
effect upon the Union cause in Northern Virginia. That section of the
State, as is well known, contained many true Union men. Previous to
Patterson's entry into Virginia, they had been proscribed and severely
treated by the secessionists. Many had been impressed by the rebel
troops; the 'Berkeley Border Guard' had dragged many a peaceable
Unionist from his bed at night to serve in the ranks of Johnston's army.
But many others had been able to keep their true sentiments wholly to
themselves, and had feigned sympathy with secession; while many more had
fled from their homes across the Potomac, and sought refuge in loyal
Maryland, where they hung around the Federal camps, vainly urging an
early advance, that they might go home and take care of their families
and their crops. Thus was Berkeley County completely shackled, and a
reign of terror fully established. And on that bright morning of the 2d
of July, as the Federal army marched over the 'sacred soil,' the cleanly
cut grain fields, with their deserted houses, told plainly of
secessionist owners, who could stay at home and cut their grain while
the rebels were in force, but who fled before the advance of Union
troops, and deserted their homes; while the fields of standing grain,
with the golden kernels ripe and almost rotting on the stalks, and the
cheerless-looking houses, tenanted only by women and children, told as
plainly of the poor Unionists, driven from home and family by the
'Border Guard' who so bravely 'defended the sacred soil.' With the
advance of the Union army came back hundreds of Union refugees from
Maryland; poor, half-starved men crept out to the roadside from their
hiding-places, and told the Union troops that they now first saw
daylight for several weeks; and the lonely yet brave women displayed
from their hovels the Union flags, the true 'Red, White, and Blue,'