requiring from him any guarantee for the faithful performance of his duties, when the services of competent public officers were available, and by involving the Government in a vast number of contracts with persons not legitimately engaged in the business pertaining to the subject-matter of such contracts, especially in the purchase of arms for future delivery, had adopted a policy highly injurious to the public service, and deserves the censure of the House.' This resolution produced a message from the President, in which he took the whole responsibility of the acts of Mr. Cameron on his own shoulders, justifying his conduct by the emergency of the times, and asserting that he was unaware that a dollar of the public funds thus confided without authority of law to inefficient persons had been either lost or wasted. This was a bold statement. The lavish and wasteful expenditure of public money and the frauds of contractors were sufficiently notorious throughout the Northern States, and were facts which even the most violent partizans did not attempt to deny.

The attention of men was, however, so completely engrossed by the struggle in which they were engaged, that much of what would have created alarm and anger in more peaceful times was passed over amid the excitement of the news from the seat of war. The liberties and privileges of American citizens were outraged with impunity, and almost without remark or remonstrance. Mr. Gilchrist, who had been arrested and confined on suspicion of treason at Fort Warren, was discharged unconditionally without trial, after months of imprisonment; and this illegal act on the part of the Government passed almost unnoticed. Verily the Federals, in their anxiety to bring back what they termed the rebellious States under the authority of a

to concentrate their divisions on the Williamsburg Road. The attack was to be made by Hill's division, supported by Longstreet; whilst Huger was directed to effect a diversion on the right by advancing by the Charles City Road, and taking the enemy in flank; and G. Smith's division was at the same time to occupy a position at the junction of the New Bridge and Nine-miles Road with the object of attacking the right flank of the Federal column engaged with Hill's division, and keeping a watch lest any attempt should be made by M'Clellan's right wing to cross the Chickahominy. Such were the dispositions made by General Johnston; but the rain, which it was hoped would materially assist the Confederates by causing a rise in the river, and thus separating General M'Clellan's army, so far interfered with the plan as to impede and render partially nugatory General Johnston's dispositions. A terrible storm raged during the night of the 30th, the roads became almost impassable; and although by great exertions three divisions of the army reached the positions. assigned to them in proper time, yet General Huger's division was delayed by the mud and swollen streams, and failed in fulfilling the part allotted to it. Hour after hour did General Longstreet wait. At length, despairing of Huger's arrival, at 2 P.M. he ordered Hill to advance to the attack.

What, meanwhile, was the position of the Federals? The same remarkable storm on the night of Friday the 30th had passed over their camps; it was a night not to be forgotten by those who witnessed the continuous flashes of lightning and heard the incessant roll of the thunder, precursors to the tumult of the battle on the following day. The advance corps, under General Keyes, bivouacked in the woods and cleared spaces in the vicinity

Constitutional Government, were fast permitting that Government to disregard all the checks and restraints which withheld it from the possession of absolute power. The whole attention of the country was concentrated on the progress of the war, and especially on the movements of the army of the Potomac; and leaving for the time the scene of General Jackson's exploits in the Shenandoah Valley, we must return to General M'Clellan's camp on the Chicahominy.

CHAPTER II.

OPERATIONS BEFORE RICHMOND.

THE army of the Potomac had reached the Chicahominy, and measures were taken for effecting its passage. This stream, destined to become famous in history, is of itself insignificant in appearance.* Narrow and sluggish, it flows during a part of its course in a south-easterly direction, almost parallel with the Pamunkey, and finally enters the James River. In dry weather it is fordable in several places; but the adjoining country, for a short distance on either bank, is usually of so swampy a character as to render the fords valueless for the passage of any considerable body of troops. Along either side of the stream a thick jungle of trees, calculated to afford cover for sharpshooters, and also materials for restoring and constructing bridges, hides its current from view. Previous to the destruction of the bridges by the retreating Confederates, the Chicahominy had been crossed by several, in its upper course at Meadow Bridge (about six miles from Richmond), by the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railway; lower down, by the Mechanicsville Road, only four miles from the city; still further down, by the Cold Harbour Road at Newbridge; further still, by the West Point Railway, near Despatch Station;

* About the breadth of the Medway above Maidstone.