KENTUCKY TAKEN IN BY THE CONFEDERACY. 617 right flank from Bowling Green, and | ers; and this Council proceeded to about to pounce upon and annihilate him. There was not a shadow of foundation for this story: the Rebels at Bowling Green were glad enough to keep still, and not expose their weakness, knowing well that Sherman might and would have crushed them, had he been aware of it; yet, without waiting to verify this absurd report, Gen. Schoepf faced about and raced two days toward the Ohio, as if for dear life, strewing the road with wrecked wagons, dead horses, baggage, etc., and leaving East Tennessee to her fate. The bitter disappointment and agony of her gallant sons in his army, who but now confidently supposed themselves about to see the old flag floating in triumph from the spires of Knoxville and Jonesville, can but faintly be realized. appoint Commissioners to negotiate George W. Ewing, How it happened that two of these persons-Messrs. Henry C. Burnett and Thomas B. Monroe-were, that same day, sworn in as Senators' from Kentucky at Richmond, it is not easy to understand; but it is of no consequence. They had probably been appointed, several days before, by On the 18th of November, the Kentucky Secessionists held a Convention at Russellville, in the south-Governor' Johnson. Suffice it that, ernmost of her counties, behind their principal camp at Bowling Green, and organized what they termed a 'Provisional' Government-perhaps from their inability to make any provision for its support. Geo. W. Johnson, of Scott county, was here chosen Governor; the party having had enough of popular elections, in which they never had any success or made a respectable figure. They chose, likewise, a "Legislative Council," which they clothed with ample pow Johnson being killed in the battle at Shiloh next Spring, he was somehow succeeded in his shadowy Governorship by Richard Hawes-a weak old man who, some quarter of a century before, had twice represented, as a Whig, the Lexington district in Congress. since then, Kentucky has been regularly represented in the Confederate Congress, though no popular election thereto was ever held on her soil, and no shadow of consent ever given by her to such delegation of power. Of late, her representatives in that Congress have been chosen by the Kentuckians serving in the Rebel armies; which, though not very regular, seems straightforward and businesslike. They represent bayonets; let them be chosen accordingly." 10 The Louisville Journal of Oct. 12th sharply said: "Hundreds of those exceedingly sensitive Kentuckians, who so eloquently proclaimed that they could never take up arms against the Southern States, inasmuch as those States were Kentucky's sisters, have now taken up arms for the • So announced next morning in The Norfolk conquest of Kentucky herself! Isn't that enough Day-Book. to make the devil laugh?" XXXVIII. THE POTOMAC-BALL'S BLUFF-DRANESVILLE. THE disaster at Bull Run, and the | months' men should not be disbanded amazing imbecility betrayed in allowing several of the regiments there routed to continue their panic-stricken, disorderly flight over the bridges into Washington, whence many soldiers, and even officers, dispersed to their respective homes, had dispelled all lingering illusions as to the capacity of Gen. Scott for the conduct of a great war. Though it was still deemed a military necessity to conceal the failure of his faculties, to excuse his blunders, and even, in some instances, to eulogize his abilities as well as magnify his services, the urgent, imperative need of replacing him by a younger and more vigorous commander was felt by every intelligent Unionist. It was he, Winfield Scott, and none other, who had precipitated a third of our forces, on or near the line of the Potomac, into a decisive conflict with seven-eighths of the Rebel strength in Virginia, in defiance of every dictate of prudence and of common sense. Neither the President, nor the Secretary of War, nor Gen. McDowell, nor the maligned and detested Radicals-who were naturally anxious that our 75,000 three 1 Gen. Scott, in commenting on Gen. Patterson's testimony in a deliberately written statement, made to the Committee on the Conduct of the War, says: "As connected with this subject, I hope I may be permitted to notice the charge made against me, on the floor of Congress, that I did not stop Brig. Gen. McDowell's movement upon Manassas Junction after I had been informed of and sent home without having been of the least positive service-had ever desired or expected any such conflict as this. It was Gen. Scott who had given the orders under which Gen. McDowell advanced and fought on Sunday, the 21st of July. Gen. Cameron, the Secretary of War, who was at Centerville during the preceding day, saw plainly that our regiments at the front were not so many as they should be, and returned hastily that evening to Washington to procure a countermand of the order for battle; but arrived too late to see Gen. Scott and obtain it. Badly as Patterson had behaved, he had reported, on the 18th, by telegraph to Scott, his flank movement to Charlestown; which, any one could see, left Gen. Johnston at perfect liberty to hasten, with all his available force, to the aid of Beauregard at Manassas. And, on the 20th-the day before Bull Run-he had telegraphed to Scott that Johnston had actually departed on that errand.' Though Gen. Scott remained nominally in chief command until the last day of Octo ber, he was practically superseded the reenforcement sent thither from Winchester, though urged to do so by one or more members of the Cabinet. Now, it was, at the reception of that news, too late to call off the troops from the attack; and, beside, though opposed to the movement at first, we had all become animated and sanguine of success; and it is not true that I was urged by anybody in authority to stop the attack; which was commenced as early, I think, as the 18th of July." GEN. MCCLELLAN IN COMMAND AT WASHINGTON. forthwith by the formation of a new military department of Washington and of north-eastern Virginia, which Gen. George B. McClellan was summoned, by telegraph, from that of Western Virginia to preside over. This change was officially announced on the 25th of July; on which day Gen. McClellan arrived at Philadelphia, and there received a most enthusiastic ovation. He proceeded next morning to Washington. Gen. McClellan found the army intrusted with the defense of the capital reduced, by defeat, desertions, and the mustering out of most of the three-months' men, to 50,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, and 650 artillery, with 30 field-guns. The city was protected, on the Virginia side of the Potomac, by hastily-constructed but substantial earthworks, on which some heavy guns were mounted. But, if the Rebels had chosen to ford the Potomac a few miles above, either Washington or Baltimore lay at their mercy, provided they could defeat this army in the open field. They did not, however, see fit to risk so bold a movement; though military critics believe that, for the two weeks succeeding their victory at Bull Run, it might have been attempted with reasonable prospect of success. They could probably have thrown across the river a force nearly or quite equal in numbers to that which defended Washington, whereof at least 5,000 would necessarily have been retained in the earthworks on the Virginia side; while the prestige of their recent victory, and the consequent demoralization of our troops, secured to the Rebels decided advantages, which 'Aug. 4th. 'July 30th, 1861. 619 each succeeding week was morally certain to diminish. They did not, however, attempt to cross the Potomac in force, nor even to provoke another battle on its south bank; but, having advanced their lines, soon after their victory, to Munson's Hill, a few miles from Alexandria, they only remained there until a night attack had been planned on our side; when, promptly forewarned by traitors, they hastily withdrew to Fairfax. It does not appear that the main body of their army ever deliberately took position this side of Centerville. Gen. McClellan commenced' by ordering the officers and men of his army out of Washington, where too many, especially of the former, had hitherto been indulged in idling away their time, to the neglect of their du ties and the damage of their morals. Col. Andrew Porter, of the 16th regulars, was appointed Provost Marshal to carry this order into effect. The organization of the Army into brigades was soon afterward' effected; and these brigades were ultimately formed into divisions. But the formation of army corps was, for some reason, postponed and delayed, until finally it was peremptorily directed by the President. Meantime, the patient, loyal, earnest North, soon recovering from the shock of its astounding discomfiture, had been soberly but resolutely rais ing new regiments and new batteries for a more determined and more energetic prosecution of the struggle forced upon it by slaveholding treason. Every State, county, and township, addressed itself zealously to the work of recruiting and equipping; so that, by the middle of October, Gen. Mc- | pelled an advance of our lines-the Clellan found himself at the head of fully 150,000 men-an army superior in numbers, in intelligence, and in the essential quality of its material, to any ever led into battle by Napoleon, and by far the largest and most effective which had ever been seen on this continent. It was not only far better drilled and fitted for service than that with which Gen. McDowell had advanced to Centerville and Bull Run, but it was better constituted, in that its members-not one of them a conscript-had enlisted for a term of years, after all sixty-day hallucinations had been dispelled, and with a full knowledge that they were to encounter the hardships, the perils and the privations of protracted and inexorable war. light troops covering the Rebel front retiring whenever pressed. Lewinsville was reöccupied by our army on the 9th, Vienna on the 16th, and Fairfax Court House on the 17th of October; the Confederates recoiling without firing a shot to Centerville and Manassas. On the 16th, Gen. Geary, under orders from Gen. Banks, in Maryland, advanced to and captured Bolivar Hights, overlooking Harper's Ferry. Leesburg, the capital of Loudoun county, Va., was mistakenly reported evacuated by the Confederates on the 17th; Gen. McCall, with a considerable Union force, moving up the right bank of the Potomac to Dranesville, whence his scouts were pushed forward to Goose Creek, four miles from Leesburg. On the 19th and 20th, McCall made two reconnoissances in the direction of Leesburg, encountering no enemy, and being assured by those he met that the Rebels had abandoned that town some days before. Thus advised, Gen. McClellan, on the 20th, directed the following dispatch to be sent to Gen. Stone, at Poolesville, Md., where he was watching and guarding the line of the Potomac from the Maryland side of the river: Gen. McClellan held his first grand parade at the close of September, when 70,000 men of all arms were assembled, maneuvered, and reviewed; a larger army than had ever before been concentrated on any field in America. Apprehensions were expressed that the Rebels would improve this opportunity to attack some portion of our lines; but they were not strong enough to warrant such a venture. Still, regiment after regiment, battery after battery,was poured "Received October 20, 1861, from Camp Griffin. from the North into Washington, and "Gen. McClellan desires me to inform you thence distributed to the several campsterday, and is still there; will send out heavy that Gen. McCall occupied Dranesville yesassigned them on either side of the terday, and is still there; will send out heavy assigned them on either side of the reconnoissances to-day in all directions from Potomac, until the mere bulk of our that point. The General desires that you quiescent forces, the necessity for this movement has the effect to drive them keep a good lookout on Leesburg, to see if ground whereon to station them, com Gen. McClellan, in his carefully elaborated "Report," says: "By the 15th of October, the number of troops in and about Washington, inclusive of the garrison of the city and Alexandria, the city guard, and the forces on the Maryland shore of the Potomac below Washington, and as far as Cumberland above, the troops under the com away. Perhaps a slight demonstration on mand of Gen. Dix at Baltimore and its dependencies, were as follows: DEVENS CROSSES AT BALL'S BLUFF. 621 your part would have the effect to move pursue them as far as he deems prudent, and will destroy the camp, if practicable, before returning. He will make all the observations possible on the country; will, under all circumstances, keep his command well in hand, and not sacrifice them to any supposed advantage of rapid pursuit. Devens will return to his present position, "Having accomplished this duty, Col. unless he shall see one on the Virginia side, hold until reënforced, and one which can be near the river, which he can undoubtedly successfully held against largely superior numbers. In such case, he will hold on and report. Gen. Stone at once ordered Col. Devens, of the 15th Massachusetts, to transfer two flat-boats from the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, opposite Harrison's Island, to the river at that point, and therewith to ferry over his regiment to the island; which was promptly done. About dark, in obedience to a verbal order, Devens sent Capt. Philbrick, with fifteen or twenty men, across to the Virginia shore, which he ascertained was not pick-gling eted by the enemy, and ascended the steep bank known as BALL'S BLUFF, which here rises about one hundred and fifty feet to the level of the adja- "HEAD-QUARTERS CORPS OF OBSERVATION, "SPECIAL ORDer No. "Col. Devens will land opposite Harrison's Island, with five companies of his regiment, and proceed to surprise the camp of the enemy discovered by Capt. Philbrick in the direction of Leesburg. The landing and march will be effected with silence and rapidity. Col. Lee, 20th Massachusetts volunteers, will, immediately after Col. Devens's depart ure, occupy Harrison's Island with four companies of his regiment, and will cause the four-oared boat to be taken across the island to the point of departure of Col. Devens. One company will be thrown across to occupy the hights on the Virginia shore, after Col. Devens's departure, to cover his return. "Two mountain howitzers will be taken silently up the tow-path, and carried to the opposite side of the island, under the orders of Col. Lee. “Col. Devens will attack the camp of the enemy at daybreak, and, having routed, will "CHAS. P. STONE, Brig.-General." "Great care will be used by Col. Devens to prevent any unnecessary injury of private property; and any officer or soldier strag from the command, for curiosity or plunder, will be instantly shot. "CHAS. P. STONE, Brig.-General." Col. Devens accordingly comafter midnight, and had his five commenced crossing his force a little panies formed on the top of the bluff so soon as it was light enough to find his way thither. Col. Lee likewise crossed about a hundred men, and took position this side of him. Scouts, dispatched right and left, returned and reported that they could find no enemy. Advancing, so soon as it was light, to the supposed Rebel camp reported to him the night before, Col. D. found it no camp at all, but an optical illusion, created by moonlight glimmering through a row of trees and presenting the appearance of a row of tents. Having advanced to within a mile of Leesburg without discovering a trace of an enemy, Col. D. halted in a wood, unperceived, as he supposed, by any foe, sent a messenger to Gen. Stone, and awaited further orders. At 7 A. M., a body of riflemen appeared on his right, but fell back when approached; when Rebel cavalry became visible on the road to Leesburg. Col. Devens hereupon, |