We have also been struck by the fact that the richest single source of material for the Government’s memory has been almost ignored, and never organized or utilized systematically. This is the mass of information on all of the varied activities of the Government which is available in unclassified publications prepared in and for the Congress. For all practical purposes, this material is not even usefully available, in organized form, to members of Congress or its committees. Accordingly, HERO has decided to do something about this. We are in the process of developing what we call a “Defense Memory System.” This comprises the collection of all Congressional documents dealing with national defense, abstracting them, then indexing the abstracts so that queries on any aspects of national defense can be answered by going directly—via the index—to the abstract or abstracts which deal with the topic in question, and—if necessary—going to the basic document itself. What we are doing, essentially, is to apply to the conceptual field of non-technical, non-scientific policy-type information the same kind of modern storage and retrieval methods which have been so successfully applied to the physical sciences, to engineering data, and to hardware information. We are in the process of preparing a prototype of this system for demonstration next month to Congress and to possible private users of this historical data. In this project, then, we at HERO are not only making use of history, we are organizing it so that others can use it as well. Which is, I think, about as much as I can say about the uses of history. The Skirmish At Mile Hill By Col. A. B. Johnson U.S. Army (Ret.) Following the battle of Second Manassas General Lee brought his Army of Northern Virginia through Loudoun County for the first invasion of the North. One of Lee’s prime considerations for the movement through Loudoun is best described in a letter from Lee to President Davis dated September 4, 1862: “I did not think it advantageous to follow the enemy into his fortifications. If I had possessed the necessary ammunition I should be unable to supply provisions for the troops. I therefore determined to draw troops into Loudoun County where forage and provisions could be obtained.” White’s Ford, a low water crossing of the Potomac, offered his best access to the Maryland shore. (White’s Ford is not to be confused with present day White’s Ferry. The ford is about three miles upstream, and can be reached via Routes 661 and 656, east of Route 15). General J. E. B. Stuart’s cavalry was to screen the advance, and in doing so he sent Colonel T. T. Munford with the 2nd Virginia Cavalry toward Leesburg. Munford’s mission was to clear the enemy from the river crossings, and in so doing he was to strike the “notorious Means” who was thought to be at or near Leesburg.