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prosecution of the war. Outside of the Cabinet, at whose board the plan was reported to have been well received, it met with the most strenuous objections.

In these distresses and embarrassments of the Government, the bellicose elements of the North, resenting all prospects of peace, became more exacting than ever, and even accusatory of the authorities at Washington. The more violent New York papers demanded a vigorous military move ment on the part of the Government before the meeting of Congress. They accused the Administration of supineness of policy and uncertainty of purpose; and they, even, did not hesitate to charge that the Presiden and his Cabinet were conniving with "the rebels," and had consented to become parties to a negotiation for peace. These heated and ungenerous expressions did not stop here. Personalities were freely indulged in. The President was vilely abused for not having recalled Mr. Harvey, the min ister to Portugal, because he had corresponded with the South Carolina authorities during Mr. Buchanan's administration; and' Gen. Scott, who was sacrificing for the Northern objects of the war, all that remained to him of the years and honours of a long life, was not spared from an atrocious libel charging him with having offered premiums to treason in procuring the restoration to the United States service and the promotion to a lieutenant-colonelcy of Major Emory, a Marylander, who had formerly resigned his command on the Indian frontier.

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These dissatisfied utterances, although they may have been but little annoying, personally, to the Government, were significant of other most serious troubles to be apprehended in the conduct of the war. They gave evidence of a sentiment in the North, at once fanatical and formidable, resolved to push the war beyond the avowed objects of the Government, and to resist any termination of it short of the excision or abolition of slavery in the South. This sentiment had, in fact, already become clamorous and exacting. A war short of the abolition of slavery was denounced as a farce, and its mission of defending the Union was openly exchanged in the mouths of fanatics for that of achieving "the rights of humanity."

In the mean time indications were obvious enough of the common intention of the belligerents to make the first great battles of the war in Virginia. Here was to open the first great chapter of Carnage-on a theatre at once wide and brilliant ;-filled with the array of armies of two powerful peoples, which brought from their wealth and long seasons of prosperity all that could invest war with destructive power and dramatic display;-occupying a territory noble and inspired in historical memories -the name of which," Virginia," had ever been a word of magic pride throughout the breadth and length of a continent;—and engaging in the Issues of its imposing drama the liberties, or, at least, the independence of more than eight millions of men.

On the lines of the Potomac, Gen. Scott had gathered one of the largest armies that had ever been seen in America. Nothing was left undone to complete its preparations; in numbers it was all that was desired; and it was provided with the best artillery in the world. All the regulars east of the Rocky Mountains, to the number of several thousand, collected since February, in the city of Washington, from Jefferson Barracks, from St. Louis, and from Fortress Monroe, were added to the immense force of volunteers that had been brought down to the lines of the Potomac. The following is the estimate of the force of this army at this time, obtained from official sources: Fifty-five regiments of volunteers, eight companies of regular infantry, four of marines, nine of regular cavalry, and twelve batteries, forty-nine guns. It was placed at the command of Gen. McDowell, who came to this important post of action with the reputation of the greatest and most scientific general in the North, but who was to run, indeed, a very short career of Yankee popularity.

On the Confederate side, preparations for the coming contest were quite as busy, if not so extensive. At the beginning of June, Gen. Beauregard was in consultation with President Davis and Gen. Lee, at Richmond, while, by means of couriers, they held frequent communication with Gen. Johnston, then in command near Harper's Ferry. The result was, that a military campaign was decided upon, embracing defensive operations in North Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, and the concentration of an army, under Beauregard, at the Manassas Gap railroad junction, and in the immediate locality. The position taken by Gen. Beauregard was one of great strength; and probably no better for defensive purpose could be found in the whole State of Virginia. It was about midway between the eastern spur of the Blue Ridge and the Potomac below Alexandria; the right wing stretched off towards the waters of the Occoquan through a wooded country; the left was a rolling table-land readily commanded from the successive elevations until it broke into a rough and intricate country that no army could pass without the greatest difficulty. The intervening country was commanded by Beauregard's army so perfectly that there was scarcely a possibility of its being turned. A small stream, called Bull Run, ran in this locality, nearly from west to east, to its confluence with the Occoquan River, about twelve miles from the Potomac, and draining a considerable scope of country, from its source in Bull Run Mountain, to within a short distance of the Potomac at Occoquan. At Mitchell's Ford, the stream was about equi-distant between Centreville and Manassas, some six miles apart. There were a number of other fords; but the banks of the stream were rocky and steep.

Gen. Beauregard was fresh from the glories of Sumter. A brief account of this man, who was, indeed, the central figure in the early period of the war, will be interesting here. He was now forty-five years

old. His family was of French extraction, and had settled in Louisiana in the reign of Louis XV. In 1838, he was graduated at West Point, taking the second honours in a class of forty-five. He entered the Mexican war as a lieutenant, obtained two brevets in it, the last that of major; and was subsequently placed by the Government in charge of the construction of some public buildings at New Orleans, as well as the fortifica tions on and near the mouth of the Mississippi. About the beginning of the year 1861, he was appointed superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point; but the appoinment was revoked within forty-eight hours by President Buchanan, for the spiteful reason, as is alleged, that Senator Slidell of Louisiana, the brother-in-law of the nominee, had given offence by a secession speech at Washington. Subsequently, Major Beauregard resigned his commission in the service of the United States, and was appointed by Gov. Moore of Louisiana, Colonel of Engineers in the Provisional Army of the South; from which position, as we have seen, he was called by President Davis to the defence of Charleston.

Gen. Beauregard was singularly impassioned in defence of the cause which he served. He hated and despised "the Yankee;" and it must be confessed was the author of some silly letters in the early part of the war, deriding the power of the enemy. That the South would easily whip the North was his constant assertion, even if the first "had for arms only pitch-forks and flint-lock muskets." Of the army which Gen. Scott was marshalling on the borders of Virginia, he wrote that the enemies of the South were "little more than an armed rabble, gathered together hastily on a false pretence, and for an unholy purpose, with an octogenarian at its head!"

Beauregard's personal appearance could scarcely escape notice. He was a small, brown, thin man, with features wearing a dead expression, and hair prematurely whitened. His manners were distinguished and severe, but not cold; they forbade intimacy; they had the abruptness without the vivacity of the Frenchman; but they expressed no conceit, and were not repulsive. He had ardour, a ceaseless activity, and an indomitable power of will. His notions of chivalry were somewhat stilted, and he had fought his first battle with an interchange of courtesies that induced a Frenchman to exclaim in Paris: "Quelle idée chevalresque ! On voit que vous avez profité, vous autres Américains, de l'exemple Français. Ce Général Beauregard port un nom Français!"

It is not to be wondered that Gen. Beauregard, with the eclat of the first victory of the war, and the attractions of a foreign name and manners, should have been the ladies' favourite among the early Southern generals. He was constantly receiving attentions from them, in letters, in flags, and in hundreds of pretty missives. His camp-table was often adorned with presents of rare flowers, which flanked his maps and plans, and a bouquet

frequently served him for a paper weight. There was perhaps a little tawdriness about these displays in a military camp; but Gen. Beauregard had too much force of character to be spoiled by hero-worship, or by that part of popular admiration, the most dangerous to men intent on great and grave purposes-the flattery and pursuit of women.

Beauregard's army in Northern Virginia was then known as the Army of the Potomac. In the latter part of July, its effective force was enumer ated as 21,833 men and twenty-nine guns. But there was within reach of it the Army of the Shenandoah, numbering little less than nine thou sand men.

This latter force was commanded by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, a native of Virginia, who had distinguished himself in the Mexican war, and at the commencement of the present hostilities was at the head of the quartermaster's department in the United States Army with the rank of brigadiergeneral. Of the operations of his army in the Shenandoah Valley it is necessary to make a brief sketch, as these operations were a necessary part of the early campaign of the Potomac, and an obvious prelude to the great battle of the 21st July we are proceeding to relate.

In the latter part of May, Gen. Johnston assumed command of the Army of the Shenandoah, and, after a complete reconnoissance of Harper's Ferry and environs, he decided that the place was untenable, and, therefore, determined to withdraw his troops to Winchester. At this time Gen. Patterson was advancing, with a strong force, from Pennsylvania and Maryland into Virginia, and it was supposed that an attempt would be made by that general to form a junction in the Shenandoah Valley with Gen. McClellan, then advancing towards Winchester from the western parts of Virginia. To prevent this junction Gen. Johnston abandoned Harper's Ferry, on the 13th of June, after first burning the railroad bridge and such buildings as were likely to prove most useful to the enemy.

The Confederates retired to Winchester, but had scarcely arrived there when information was obtained that the Federals were still advancing; and Gen. Jackson-afterwards known as the immortal "Stonewall" Jackson-with his brigade, was sent to the neighbourhood of Martinsburg, to aid Stuart's cavalry in destroying what they could of the Balti more and Ohio Railroad stock, and thus check the enemy's movements. On the 2d of July, however, Patterson succeeded in crossing the Potomac at Williamsport; the river being scarcely waist-deep there. Jackson fell back to Falling Waters, on the main road to Martinsburg, a running fire being kept up. A detachment of Federal troops was then sent forward to reconnoitre, and Jackson was encountered in a position where he had formed his men in line of battle, with four guns directly on the turnpike along which the enemy was advancing. For half an hour Jackson succeeded in maintaining his ground; but, at last, was compelled to fall back

AFFAIR AT RICH MOUNTAIN.

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slowly, and finally to retire, when about to be outflanked, scarcely losing a man, and bringing off forty-five prisoners.

Jackson having rejoined the main army under Johnston, at Winchester, Patterson fell back towards the river. The design of this Federal com mander appears to have been little more than a series of feints to detain Johnston in the Valley of the Shenandoah, and to prevent the union of his forces with those of Beauregard, then strongly encamped on the plains of Manassas. But the design was transparent to Johnston, and, indeed, was turned upon the enemy, for the more skilfully executed feint movement of Johnston completely deceived the enemy to the last moment.

But while Johnston was thus keeping in check Patterson's column at the head of the Shenandoah Valley, an important event, and one of no little disaster to the Confederate cause, was to occur in Northwestern Virginia-as was designated that portion of the State beyond the western ridges of the Alleghany Mountains. It was designed by the Federal Government not only to secure this region, but to use it as a base from which to project columns of invasion into the Valley of Virginia and the rich counties of the Southwest.

THE AFFAIR OF RICH MOUNTAIN.

An army under Gen. George B. McClellan was to be used for this purpose. Its advanced regiments had already penetrated far in upon the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; had driven a small force from Philippi; had occupied that town and Grafton, and had pushed forward, by country roads, from Wheeling and the Ohio River to Buckhannon, in Upshur County. The movements of McClellan were now directed towards Beverley, with the object of getting to the rear of Gen. Garnett, who had been appointed to the command of the Confederate forces in Northwestern Virginia, and was occupying a strong position at Rich Mountain, in Randolph County.

But the unskilful distribution of the Confederate forces and their inadequate numbers contributed to the success of the enemy. The strength of Gen. Garnett's command was less than five thousand infantry, with ten pieces of artillery, and four companies of cavalry. The disposition of these forces was in the immediate vicinity of Rich Mountain. Col. Pegram occupied the mountain with a force of about sixteen hundred men and some pieces of artillery. On the slopes of Laurel Hill, Gen. Garnett was intrenched with a force of three thousand infantry, six pieces of artillery and three companies of cavalry.

The plans of the enemy promised a complete success. Gen. Rose crans, with a Federal column of about three thousand men, was to gain,