When Lafayette passed through Baltimore _en route_ for Yorktown, a ball was given in his honor; his melancholy demeanor upon this joyous occasion, explained by the Marquis as due to his concern at the sufferings of his ill-clad soldiers, awoke such sympathy that next morning “the ball-room was turned into a clothing manufactory. Fathers and husbands furnished the materials; daughters and wives plied the needle at their grateful task.” “My campaign,” said the General upon his return, “began with a personal obligation to the citizens of Baltimore, at the end of it I find myself bound to them by a new tie of everlasting gratitude.” When, forty-three years later, Baltimore again welcomed Lafayette, one of the most touching incidents of his visit was his especial inquiry for Mr. and Mrs. David Poe,--grandparents of Edgar Allan Poe,--the one of whom had advanced Lafayette money from his private funds, and the other had herself cut out five hundred garments for his ragged troops. Mrs. Poe, with feeble body but unclouded mind, was yet alive to welcome the General, but her husband had preceded his venerable friend to the rest which comes after toil. Another foreigner well known in Baltimore was Pulaski, who completed here the organization of the legion in command of which he fell at Savannah. In the library of the Maryland Historical Society hang the now faded folds of “The crimson banner, that with prayer, Had been consecrated there, by the Moravian nuns at Bethlehem, before “The warrior took that banner proud, And it was his martial cloak and shroud.” Besides welcoming those from elsewhere, Baltimore gave to the war the best and bravest of her own. To aid Smallwood and Williams, Baltimore sent General Mordecai Gist, who as Major commanded the Maryland troops that covered the American retreat at Long Island. Another was John Eager Howard, who at Cowpens seized the critical moment, and turned the fortune of the day. At Guilford and at Eutaw Colonel Howard was equally conspicuous, and when peace came Maryland honored him by thrice electing him to the national Senate. “He deserves,” said General Greene, “a statue of gold, no less than Roman and Grecian heroes.” A third was Captain Samuel Smith, who held Fort Mifflin, the “Mud Fort on the Schuylkill,” for seven weeks, against powerful land and sea forces of the British, who were seeking to open the communication between Philadelphia and the Atlantic. It was largely due to the energy of General Smith that, in the second war with Great Britain, Baltimore escaped the fate of the national Capital. And with these officers went hundreds of lesser rank, to join New Englanders and fellow-Southerners in the common cause of Independence. [Illustration: COL. JOHN EAGER HOWARD. FROM THE PAINTING BY REMBRANDT PEALE.]