Blue and Gray Weekly, No. 6

# Blue and Gray Weekly, No. 5, September 9, 1904

"Through the Lines; or, The Boys in Blue on a Raid," by Lieut. Harry Lee, is a Civil War serial following Captain Jack Clark's Union company, the Fairdale Blues, stationed at Shady Glen on the Potomac. Ordered by General McClellan to raid Confederate supply lines near Brentsville, the company encounters Colonel Stuart's cavalry burning Planter Trimble's plantation. Despite being outnumbered, Clark's men drive off the raiders.

The narrative's central plot emerges when a enslaved boy, Pete, arrives seeking help locating his master's daughter, Esther Champneys, missing since leaving Alexandria. Pete produces a letter suggesting Colonel Stuart abducted her after she refused his marriage proposal. Clark resolves to combine his raiding mission with rescuing the young woman, gaining his company's enthusiastic support. The serial depicts Union soldiers as honorable fighters defending civilians against Confederate depredation.