He Did Me The Honor To Take Me To The Top Of Federal
Hill, A Suburb Of The City, On
Which he had raised great earthworks
and planted mighty cannons, and built tents and barracks for his
soldiery, and to
Show me how instantaneously he could destroy the
town from his exalted position. "This hill was made for the very
purpose," said General Dix; and no doubt he thought so. Generals,
when they have fine positions and big guns and prostrate people
lying under their thumbs, are inclined to think that God's
providence has specially ordained them and their points of vantage.
It is a good thing in the mind of a general so circumstanced that
200,000 men should be made subject to a dozen big guns. I confess
that to me, having had no military education, the matter appeared
in a different light, and I could not work up my enthusiasm to a
pitch which would have been suitable to the general's courtesy.
That hill, on which many of the poor of Baltimore had lived, was
desecrated in my eyes by those columbiads. The neat earth-works
were ugly, as looked upon by me; and though I regarded General Dix
as energetic, and no doubt skillful in the work assigned to him, I
could not sympathize with his exultation.
Previously to the days of secession Baltimore had been guarded by
Fort McHenry, which lies on a spit of land running out into the bay
just below the town.
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