Even the members of the Confederate Congress were uniformed and attached, in theory at least, to the Home Guards.
It was obvious even to the casual glimpse of a passing prisoner of war, that the City did not lack its full share of the class which formed so large an element of the society of Washington and other Northern Cities during the war--the dainty carpet soldiers, heros of the promenade and the boudoir, who strutted in uniforms when the enemy was far off, and wore citizen's clothes when he was close at hand.

There were many curled darlings displaying their fine forms in the nattiest of uniforms, whose gloss had never suffered from so much as a heavy dew, let alone a rainy day on the march.

The Confederate gray could be made into a very dressy garb.

With the sleeves lavishly embroidered with gold lace, and the collar decorated with stars indicating the wearer's rank--silver for the field officers, and gold for the higher grade,--the feet compressed into high-heeled, high-instepped boots, (no Virginian is himself without a fine pair of skin-tight boots) and the head covered with a fine, soft, broad-brimmed hat, trimmed with a gold cord, from which a bullion tassel dangled several inches down the wearer's back, you had a military swell, caparisoned for conquest--among the fair sex.
On our way we passed the noted Capitol of Virginia--a handsome marble building,--of the column-fronted Grecian temple style.

It stands in the center of the City.