Europe, with a speedy discovery that all the weapons worth anything were firmly held by the arsenals of the several kingdoms, but that the Old World was a curiosity-shop of old muskets, which could be had by the United States for twice the real value of new and effective weapons. Every inventor in America felt the spur of the emergency with results which changed the infantry tactics of all the armies of the world; but the first consequences were peculiar. The Ordnance Department of the army was wisely conservative at all times, by reason of the numberless experiments forced upon it, but had latterly become almost fanatically so in opposition to breech-loading rifles and carbines and in favor of the smooth-bore musket. A sort of barrier seemed to be put in the way of needed improvement, and the advocates of a new military era, including the inventors, appealed to the President. Specimens of new rifles and cannon came to him by the dozen, with a large variety of new shell, pistols, torpedoes, and gunboats. More than once, when the special features of a new rifle interested him, he took the trouble to try it himself. Very early on one morning of that Summer, while investigating a brace of promising breech-loaders, assisted by the writer, he and his secretary barely escaped arrest for unlawfully shooting at a mark within the limits. of the great camp into which the capital had been transformed. The patrol of volunteers ran away at a very good rate as soon as they discovered whom they had undertaken to arrest, and the President looked after them; remarking:

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Well, they might have stayed and seen the shooting."

He was painfully aware that the army with which the war was to be fought and won was yet to be developed out of the mass of excellent materials at his disposal, and every report of every movement or attempted movement assured him that the successful commanding generals and their immediate subordinates had yet to be discovered. The governors of the several States, under various limitations and provisions of law, controlled the issue of all commissions up to the grade of colonel.

General officers, however, could be appointed only by the President, and nobody in America as yet knew much about generals. A vague idea was prevalent in the popular mind that a fine stump speaker, a first-rate lawyer, or even a man who had been captain of a militia company, and knew something about drill, would probably do well as a brigadier. In fact, a man who was to command half a dozen regiments at a time did not really need to know much about mere company matters, such as belonged to an orderly sergeant. The President did not share in this idea, for he had seen one volunteer army march itself to pieces during the Black Hawk War, and had noticed how much more in place its first commanders seemed when they afterward re-enlisted as privates. While, therefore, he was struggling with questions of arms, ammunition, and the like, he was also busily sifting the long lists of names put before him of candidates for military pay and honors. There were so many trials and fail

ures as he went along, that when, at last, General Grant took command of the armies, his first recommendation was for the retirement of more than a hundred generals to whom he would not intrust a division or a brigade.

A number of good officers were sufficiently indicated by the records of the regular army, and these were so rapidly transferred to higher grades in the volunteer service as temporarily to almost cripple the older body. The first engagements were also a help, and the successes in Western Virginia were so fully in accord with the expectations previously entertained concerning General George B. McClellan, that his selection for the foremost position immediately followed. By his appointment and by that of John C. Frémont as major-generals of the regular army, the greatest of all the problems to be solved by President Lincoln was provided with representative men. This was the question, What are the relations between this war and the African, and what is to be the effect of it upon slavery ?"

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General Frémont had been the candidate of the Republican Party for President in 1856; he was now placed in a position of vast power and responsibility, and a host of men were fully in accord with him when he declared doctrines, and attempted to take action for which the remaining population of the free States was not prepared, and against which all the wavering people of the doubtful border States would necessarily react strenuously. A proclamation issued by General Frémont declared martial law over specified areas of his district, and

threatened death to all armed enemies found within the lines. He also declared confiscation of the real and personal property of persons taking up arms against the Government, and the freedom of any slaves owned by them. Mere confiscation of lands or money did not threaten half of the political storm to be let loose by any assault upon the sacred right to own human beings, but Frémont became at once the representative man of the extreme anti-slavery wing of the Republican Party. The President incurred the most caustic criticism from many of his oldest friends and supporters when he overruled the declarations of the general commanding the Western department. He did so, however, and disagreements upon that and other subjects led to a change of commanders before the end of October.

There seemed to be good reasons for believing that no mistake had been made in the selection of General McClellan for a position which speedily took the form of second in command under the President, the Constitutional commander-in-chief. He was admirably fitted for the great undertaking of bringing into working order the vast mass of men and war materials so lavishly placed at his disposal. He assumed the command on July 27th, 1861, and surrounded himself, aided by the President, with the very flower of the educated and trained officers of the regular army. The vitally important department of the quartermaster-general in particular speedily acquired a marvellous efficiency, while the Ordnance Department proved that its conservatism did not disable it from the performance of what to

outside military critics bore almost the semblance of magic.

The President's hand was everywhere felt, and it was only a little while before many of the men who felt it began to murmur that it was too busy, and that he ought to delegate to others more perfectly the work which he had selected them for. There

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would have been more reason in the murmurs and in their newspaper echoes, if there had yet been any means afforded him for proving the wisdom of his selections. Only active and prolonged campaigning could do that, and this had not yet come. was slow in coming, and the slowness aided the further processes of selection. Mr. Lincoln adopted for his guidance the rule" by their fruits ye shall know them," and applied it to his subordinates with a watchfulness of which, perhaps, they were not altogether mindful. Day after day and night after night he gave tireless study to his maps of the several military positions, connecting with each the voluminous despatches supplied by the War Office. He read books on military science and the histories of other wars. He took into counsel not only General McClellan, but also the best military scholars whom he could call to his assistance, and yet there were journalists who testified to their own capacities by asserting that a newly-graduated West Point cadet knew more about war than he.

At the very outset of military operations a rapidly increasing difficulty began to present itself. The days of theorizing upon the slavery question had passed away. The African bondsmen in every dis