It took nearly two weeks to effect the release of these Turners, and when it was done the certificate of release, signed by General Winder, the Commandant of the post at Richmond, was rejected by the Federal authorities as evidence of the release of the prisoners, and the personal presence of the Turners was demanded in Washington before the release of the Fredericksburg party. This took time, but it was finally accomplished, and the Fredericksburgers were permitted to leave their prison pen and again "breathe the air of freedom." They were sent down the Potomac river on a steamer to Marlborough Point, from which landing they walked to town to greet their families and friends. There was great rejoicing on their return, and the whole population turned out to meet them and give them a cordial welcome. Of that party of nineteen not one of them is living to-day. The "last one to cross the river" was Mr. Abraham Cox, who died December 28, 1898, eighty-six years of age. But the unkindness of the military authorities and their harsh treatment of our citizens, by the order of General Pope, did not cease with the arrest and incarceration of the nineteen gentlemen above mentioned. Among other things, the Federal Provost Marshal of Fredericksburg was charged with too much leniency to the citizens and was removed; Col. Scriver was falsely charged with furnishing the destitute with food, and was ordered to stop it at once, if he had done so, and not to repeat it, and the stores and places of business were closed, it was said, to prevent the citizens from obtaining supplies. General Pope's plan seems to have been, as he declared, to subsist his army as much as possible on the country and to starve the old men and women into submission to his demands. In this, however, he was not sustained by the Washington authorities, and especially by President Lincoln. This condition of things in Fredericksburg continued only for a short time. The campaign, inaugurated by General Pope, which resulted in the Second Battle of Manassas and so disastrously to the Federal army, was speedily followed by the advance of the Confederate army into Maryland, the capture of Harper's Ferry, with General Nelson A. Miles's whole force of eleven thousand prisoners and immense military supplies, by General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, aided by General Wm. Barksdale, on the Maryland Heights, and General John B. Floyd, on the Loudoun Heights, and the fierce and bloody, but undecided, struggle between General Lee and General McClellan at Sharpsburg.