During Gen. Robert E. Lee's 1863 invasion of the North, four thousands of Confederates marching through this narrow part of Maryland could splash across the Potomac River in the morning and cross the Mason and Dixon Line by afternoon, with a rate of march exceeding thirty miles a day. William Christian wrote to his wife that the army was paying back people there for some of the damage they had done in the South, yet he found that once among them he could not bring himself to molest them. As a diversion from the march, some men broke ranks for local farms and held milking contests, trying to aim milk into a canteen. Gen. Jubal A. Early recalled that the army was then in the enemy's country and obtained supplies entirely from country people, mills, storehouses, and farmers under a regular system ordered by General Lee, with due regard for the inhabitants' own wants and certificates given in all cases, while marauding and indiscriminate plundering were expressly forbidden and effectively prohibited.
