The panic which followed the defeat must be traced to internal defects; to the utter absence of coherence or cohesion in the masses of militia; to the want of confidence of men in their officers, of officers in themselves and in their men; to the sudden apparition of a new and undefined terror in place of the confidently expected triumph. The mass easily became a jumbled crowd of individuals, because it had never been an army. As to the general plan of campaign, it was certainly a fatal mistake that our army clung to the banks of the Potomac a long month after it should boldly have seized upon Centreville and Manassas; and equally so, that a force of nearly eighty thousand should have been wasted by breaking it up into three fractions, destined to stand still on exterior lines, watching the enemy concentrate on the key-point.

But the mortifying and humiliating disaster was necessary, by crushing the shell at once, to show us in a moment our weakness and utter want of solidity. Disguised until the rebellion had developed and established its strength, the disease would have been incurable. Laid bare at a stroke, the reaction set in at once, and the life of the nation was saved.

Trust in every thing and everybody around the capital was for the moment destroyed. Major-General George B. McClellan, who had been successful in his operations in Western Virginia, an accomplished officer, well known in the army, and possessing the confidence of the lieutenant-general, was at once summoned to Washington, and assigned to the command of all the troops for its defence. At the end of July, he found a few scattered regiments cowering upon the banks of the Potomac. The militia went home. The North rose. Four months later, the Army of the Potomac counted two hundred thousand soldiers ready for their work.

The sharpness with which Colonel Sherman criticised the conduct of some of the officers and men of his brigade at Bull Run, both in his official report and in his free conversations, made him many enemies; but the vigor he had displayed on the field, added to the influence of his brother, the Honorable John Sherman, led the Ohio delegation in Congress to recom

mend his promotion. He was commissioned as a BrigadierGeneral of Volunteers on the 3d of August, 1861, to date back to the 17th of May, as was the custom at that time. For a short time after this he had command of a brigade in the Army of the Potomac, but early in September, upon the organization of the Department of Kentucky, he was transferred to that theatre of operations, and ordered to report, as second in command, to Brigadier-General Robert Anderson, who was placed at the head of the department.

CHAPTER III.

THE SECESSION JUGGLE IN KENTUCKY.

THE legerdemain by which the extreme Southern States were juggled out of the Union to feed the ambition of their leaders, had proved eminently successful. A Confederate dictionary had been made, in which slavery was called "the South;" rebellion, "secession;" the execution of the laws, "coercion ;" and the desires of the conspirators, "the Constitution." A Confederate logic had been constructed, in which a system of postulates was substituted for the old-fashioned syllogism, and every thing taken for granted which it was impossible to prove. Only let it be granted that where thirteen or more parties have entered into an agreement with each other, any one of them can rightfully withdraw from the arrangement whenever he chooses, without the consent of the others, and you can prove any thing. A man whose mind is so organized that he can believe that, can believe any thing. And the Southern people were carefully taught to believe it.

It followed, of course, that while those States which chose to "secede" could not rightfully be "coerced" to remain in the Union, those States which chose to stay must be forced to secede.

Unexpectedly, Kentucky chose to stay. Then the inventors of the Confederate dictionary and the Confederate logic put their heads together and hatched a new lie. They called it Neutrality.

It meant that Kentucky was to be neutral until the rebellion should become strong enough to swallow her at a mouthful. She was to arm herself to resist invasion from the South or

from the North. The governor, Beriah Magoffin, a secessionist, organized the State militia in the interest of his faction, and issued a proclamation declaring that Kentucky would remain neutral. A few prominent gentlemen, still retaining an attachment for the Union, suffered themselves to be lulled to rest by the tranquil sound of the new word. Their names had great weight at Washington. The unconditional Union men were few in numbers and weak in influence. The Government could not make up its mind what to do. The secessionists prepared for war.

Governor Magoffin called a special meeting of the Legislature, and urged that body to assemble a State Convention to consider the crisis. The Legislature met on the 28th of April. Two days afterwards the governor issued a proclamation declaring in effect that Kentucky would assume a position of belligerent neutrality, and would defend herself against invasion from any quarter. On the 22d of May, the Legislature resolved that the governor's proclamation of neutrality was not a true exponent of the views of the people. The State Militia law was so amended as to require the State Guard to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. On the 24th of May, the last day of the session, the Senate passed resolutions declaring that "Kentucky will not sever connection from the National Government, nor take up arms for either belligerent party, but arm herself for the preservation of peace within her borders, and tender their services as mediators to effect a just and honorable peace." The resolutions were lost in the House by a vote of forty-nine to forty-three. The secessionists began to be seriously alarmed. Their fears were not diminished when the result of the election for members of Congress, held on the 1st of July, showed a majority for the Union candidates of more than fifty-five thousand.

The Legislature met again on the 3d of September. In the mean time, the Government had authorized Lovell H. Rousseau to raise a brigade in Kentucky for the United States service, and the Confederate troops, under Polk, had just invaded the State and occupied Hickman and Chalk Bluffs. General Grant,

who had been watching the progress of affairs, immediately took the responsibility of occupying Paducah. The secessionists, headed by the governor, loudly demanded that both belligerents should withdraw their forces. They hoped to frighten the Government of the United States into compliance, while the rebel authorities, being under no obligation to listen to them, should absorb the State. On the 11th, the Legislature, by a vote of 71 to 26, requested the Governor to order the Confederate troops to evacuate the State. A series of test resolves was at once introduced, declaring that the neutrality of Kentucky and the rights of her people had been invaded by the so-called Southern Confederate forces, requesting the governor to call out the military force of the State to expel the invaders, and invoking the assistance of the United States to that end. In the Assembly, the vote stood sixty-eight to twenty-six. On the 13th, the governor vetoed the resolutions. The Legislature promptly repassed them over his veto, by more than a two-thirds vote.

The Confederate tactics changed at once. The men who had declared they must go with their State found they were under no obligation to stay with their State. The men who had protested that it was a crime to coerce a State to remain in the Union, discovered that it was their sacred duty to coerce Kentucky to leave the Union. Buckner and Breckinridge fled, and at once took commands as general officers in the Confederate service. They were followed by their fellow-conspirators, and by all whom their arguments or promises had seduced.

On the 17th of September, Buckner seized a railway-train, and moved from Bowling Green upon Louisville. An accident to the train delayed him within forty miles of the city, and by the time he was ready to move again, Rousseau's brigade and a battalion of Home-guards was ready to oppose him; so he abandoned the attempt.

In compliance with the call of the Legislature, and by order of the President, Brigadier-General Robert Anderson assumed command of the Military Department of Kentucky on the 21st