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1864
July 18
headquarters of Gen. Early, was on the farm of Mr. Higgs, adjoining that of Mr. Blair & the number of troops which bivouaced here seems to have been between one & two thousand. about 500 appeared at Beltsville in the vacinity of our friend Mr Calvert's place  Firing of a gun or two to induce our forces to believe they were enforcing there & then marching off towards the Montgomery road to join another detachment of the enemy leaving the people in an intense state of excitement. Our forces supposed them to be in the vacinity of Beltsville until the next day. A skirmish was said to have taken place there but it consisted only of the two or three shells thrown by the enemy to deceive us.  [[strikethrough? - remainder of the page excepting the last sentence has large X through it]] Miss W. told me her friend who had left her children in [[?]] & was so uneasy about them found them not only well but highly delighted by the visit of the rebels they had played upon the piano & amused them generally.[[/strikethrough?]] There were other forces operating in the [[end page]]

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1864
July 18
outskirts so that the total force in our vacinity seems to have been about 8000. Their duty seems to have been to create a diversion while the remainder of the 30 000 were carrying off bootty from Maryland. The numbers of men horses cattle &c. carried off [[was?]] immense. Horses & cattle in great numbers were driven to the barracades by the countrymen in our vacinity but were refused admittance by the guard who had orders to allow no one to enter the city & fell an easy prey to the enemy who had not even the trouble of seeking them. The excitement of our friends in N.Y & Phil while we could not be heard from has of course been intense  Gold rose to 290 & has gone down again. Went to buy stocking this afternoon found them 1,00 a pair.
19.  Went to drive with Mrs. Douglass. Her husband's sons have lost all their property, which was in slaves & they are entirely dependent upon her  She spoke of them with the greatest affection