horsemen were under command of Colonel J. E. B. Stuart, whom even then Johnston styled "the indefatigable," and who was also destined to a greater fame.

Thus far, the line of the Potomac had not been crossed. The soil of Virginia, which her inhabitants loved proudly to style "sacred," had felt the tread of no invading force. Popular notions hardly went beyond simply defending the capital; and not only many men who were supposed to be skilled in the calendar of state, but even the shepherds of the people, still flattered themselves with the hope that there would be no war-that all that was needed to quell the "rebellion" was an imposing display of force.* Meanwhile, volunteers, burdening all the railways that, from the North and East and West, converge on Washington, continued to accumulate on the Potomac. The insurrection that for a time had threatened to involve Maryland, and had broken out in open attack upon the first Federal troops that passed through Baltimore, had been subdued by the firm policy of the Administration, and direct railroad communication between the national capital and the North, for a time interrupted, had now been restored. By the middle of May, between forty and fifty regiments were encamped about Washington; and, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a large force was accumulating under General Patterson, which by its position menaced Harper's Ferry. The presidential call had been for seventy-five thousand volunteers for a term of three months; but through the persuasion of General Scott, who well knew that it was no three months' affair the Government had on its hands, a supplementary call for forty thousand men, to serve for three years or the war was made. An increase of the force of the Regular army was also ordered. These troops were raised with the greatest alacrity, and each

* "It was a favorite notion with a large class of Northern politicians (and the people too) that nothing but an imposing display of force was necessary to crush the rebellion." General Barnard: The C. S A and the Battle of Bull Run, p. 42.

4

State soon so greatly outran its assigned quota, that energetic measures had to be taken to stop recruiting, until Congress, having assembled in extra session on the 4th of July, authorized a levy of Five Hundred Thousand Men. Meantime, the frontier had not been passed; and the pickets lounging at the bridges that span the Potomac from Washington to the Virginia shore, and the gray-uniformed videttes on the southern bank, observed each other without any hostile meaning in their opposing eyes.

But when the day came that the popular vote on the question of secession was taken, the war, which had thus far "drifted," took definite shape. Though there were yet no tidings what the vote had been, there was, nevertheless, no room for illusion as to its scope and purport; and that night, the night of the 23d of May, the van of the "grand army" passed the Potomac. After midnight, fifteen thousand troops were transferred by the Long Bridge, by the Aqueduct, and by steamers to Alexandria, situate on the right bank of the Potomac, and four or five miles below Washington. The city of Alexandria, and the Heights of Arlington, opposite Washington, with the intermediate connecting points, were seized without opposition. A few troopers, that held the town as an outpost of the force at Manassas, were captured; the remainder galloped off to bear the weighty tidings. The bloodless initiation of operations was beclouded by but one event, the murder of the young Colonel Ellsworth, of the Fire Zouaves, who was shot by a citizen within a hotel of the town of Alexandria, while bearing away a Confederate flag, which he had hauled down from the cupola of the building. Powerful earthworks, as têtes-de-pont to the Long Bridge and Aqueduct, were immediately constructed by the engineers; and forts were laid out to cover the approaches to Alexandria and Arlington. These formed the initiation of the system of "Defences of Washington."* The active force south of the Potomac was placed under the command of Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell,

* Barnard: Report of Engineer Operations, p. 9.

and held a position threatening advance against the Confederates at Manassas, by the line of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Leaving it for the present in that attitude, I must now detail a series of initial operations in other parts of the theatre of war in Virginia.

The first of these operations is the affair, or, as it was at the time named, the battle, of Big Bethel,-an affair which, insignificant in itself, had a considerable moral effect in elating the Southern troops, and a correspondingly depressing effect upon the people of the North. This expedition, which is as remarkable for the crudity of its conception as for the blunders that marked its execution, was devised by General Butler for the purpose of capturing the Confederate posts at Little and Big Bethel, a few miles up the Peninsula from Fortress Monroe. The execution of the project was intrusted to one General Pierce, who, as it appears, had never been mustered into the United States service, and had no right to any command. The advance was made in two columns-the regiment of Duryea's Zouaves, followed by the Third New York Volunteers, under Colonel Townsend, on the right, by way of Hampton; and Bendix's New York regiment and a Vermont battalion on the left, by way of Newport News. The movement was begun during the night of the 9th of June, and it was designed to surprise the enemy before daylight next morning. The marches of the two columns were based on the showing of an old and incorrect map; and as from this the troops that had to move from Newport News were three miles nearer the point aimed at than the other column, it was arranged that they should start an hour after the others. The true state of the case, however, was, that they were four miles further; and just before daybreak the rear regiment of the left column, under Colonel Bendix, and the rear regiment of the right column, under Colonel Townsend (which had fol lowed Duryea's regiment at an interval of two hours), met a a junction of roads near Little Bethel; and the former, mistaking the latter for an enemy, opened a fusillade, by which Townsend's regiment suffered a loss of twenty-nine in killed

The

and wounded before the contretemps was discovered.* enemy at Little Bethel, getting the alarm, took flight, and the expedition then advanced on Big Bethel. This position, as it appears, was occupied as an outpost of Magruder's main body at Yorktown, and was held by a force of eleven hundred North Carolina and Virginia troops, under Colonel D. H. Hill, then in command of the First North Carolina regiment. The position was rather advantageous for defence, being covered by a swampy creek, and further strengthened by some guns placed under cover. It was liable, however, to be easily turned by the right. General Pierce displayed a great incompetence in his dispositions; but it happened that there was one man there who saw the course of action suited

to the case. Lieutenant-Colonel Warren suggested that a regiment should be sent round on each side to take the position in flank, and when these became engaged, those in front, lying in shelter in a wood, should attack. This operation, if carried out, would probably have been successful. But the regiment that was to make the movement on the enemy's right, instead of being directed by a detour through the woods, was advanced right across an open field, in front of the position, whereby it became exposed to an artillery fire. It happened, too, that the left company became separated from the rest of the regiment by a thicket; and Colonel Townsend not being aware of this, and seeing the glistening of bayonets in the woods, concluded the enemy was outflanking him, and so fell back to his first position. The regiment that had gone round on the other flank found itself in a difficult situation, where being exposed to pretty severe fire, it was found hard to bring the men up; and Major Winthrop, aid to General Butler, a young man of superior culture and promise,

* Lieutenant-Colonel, afterwards Major-General, Warren, at that time attached to Duryea's Zouaves, states in his evidence before the War Committee that "the two regiments, when they arrived on the ground, finding things not at all as they had been instructed, were justified in firing on each other." Report on the Conduct of the War, vol. iii., p. 384.

+ Hill: Report of Big Bethel.

was killed while rallying the troops to the assault. Lieutenant Greble, of the regular artillery, who had handled his guns very skilfully and caused the enemy to withdraw a battery posted to command the road leading to Bethel, was also killed; and the aggregate loss was found to be about a hundred men. General Pierce then ordered a retreat, and the regiments marched off as on parade. Colonel Warren, who alone protested against the retreat, voluntarily remained on the ground, and together with Dr. Winslow, of his regiment, brought off the wounded. While he yet remained on the ground, the Confederates abandoned the position; and the reason for this step assigned by Colonel Hill is, that he feared re-enforcements would be sent up from Fortress Monroe.* The affair of Big Bethel really proved nothing, except that an attempt, involving failure in its very conception, had failed. Yet it was magnified as a great victory by the South; was put forth as a test of what was called "relative manhood;" and produced throughout the North a deep feeling of mortification and humiliation.+

This feeling was kept alive by a trivial fiasco which occurred shortly after in General McDowell's department. General Schenck had been ordered to make a reconnoissance up the Loudon and Alexandria Railroad to Leesburg; and setting out with a few hundred troops, upon a train of cars, he proceeded upon that novel kind of reconnoissance. The excursion was made uninterruptedly until the train neared Vienna, thirteen miles from Alexandria, when, turning a curve, it was suddenly opened upon by two guns planted near the track, the fire killing and wounding some twenty men. The troops immediately sprang from the cars and took to the woods; and the engineer having detached the locomotive, made all speed to Alexandria, leaving the excursionists to get back as best

* Hill: Report of Big Bethel.

+ Colonel Hill, in a bombastic report published at the time, spoke of repulsing "desperate assaults," and pursuing "till the retreat became a rout," etc., etc.; while he himself was retiring without any reason whatever. This fustian found ready credence at the South.