screened by the woods from Lewinsville, and a few hundred yards from the place, I sent forward, under Major Terrill, a portion of his command, stealthily to

of life, and yet contemplative-of a temper, indeed, which seems to take some of its color from that of the accidents of its surroundings in time and place."* On the 11th September a reconnois-reach the wood at a turn in the road, and sance was made to Lewinsville, four or reconnoitre beyond. This was admirafive miles from Camp Advance at the bly done, and the Major soon reported to Chain Bridge, by General William F. me that the enemy had a piece of artilSmith, commanding the brigade at that lery in position in the road just at Lewpost. He had with him the 79th High-insville, commanding our road. I directlanders, New York State Militia, battal-ed him immediately to post his riflemen ions of Vermont and Indiana volunteers, so as to render it impossible for the canand of the 1st United States Chasseurs, noneers to serve the piece, and, if possia cavalry company, and Griffin's West ble, to capture it. During subsequent Point battery-in all about 2,000 men. operations the cannoneers tried ineffectA topographical survey was accomplish-ually to serve the piece; and finally, ed, and the party was about returning in after one was shot through the head, the the afternoon, when they were attacked piece was taken off. While this was goby a body of the enemy-the 13th Vir- ing on, a few shots from Rosser's section, ginia Volunteers, 305 men; a section of at a cluster of the enemy a quarter of a Rosser's battery, Washington Artillery; mile off, put the entire force of the enemy and a detachment of the 1st Cavalry; in full retreat, exposing their entire colthe whole under command of Colonel J. umn to flank fire from our pieces. Some E. B. Stuart. The dispositions of the wagons and a large body of cavalry first enemy, who were favored by the ground, passed in hasty flight, the rifle piece and were skillfully made, their battery being howitzer firing as they passed; then placed so as to command the road over came a flying battery, eight pieces of arwhich the Union troops were returning. tillery (Griffin's), which soon took posiMy intention," says Colonel Stuart in tion about six hundred yards to our his report of the affair, "was to sur- front and right, and rained shot and prise them, and I succeeded entirely, shell upon us during the entire engageapproaching Lewinsville by the enemy's ment, but with harmless effect, although left and rear, taking care to keep my striking very near. Then passed three small forces an entire secret from their regiments of infantry at double-quick, observation. I at the same time care- receiving in succession, as they passed, fully provided against the disaster to Rosser's unerring salutation, his shells myself which I was striving to inflict bursting directly over their heads, and upon the enemy, and felt sure that, if ne- creating the greatest havoc and confusion cessary, I could fall back successfully in their ranks. The last infantry regibefore any force the enemy might have; ment was followed by a column of cavalfor the country was favorable to retreat ry, which at one time rode over the rear and ambuscade. At a point nicely of the infantry in great confusion. The field, general, and staff officers were seen exerting every effort to restore order in

* Correspondence of the London Times, Washington,

October 7-20, 1861.

VISIT OF PRINCE NAPOLEON.

11

their broken ranks, and my cavalry vi- The summer and autumn saw the ardets, observing their flight, reported that rival of several distinguished persons they finally rallied a mile and a half be- from the old world. In July, Prince low, and took position up the road, Jerome Napoleon visited New York in where they supposed our columns would his steam yacht, accompanied by his be pursuing them Captain Rosser, wife, the Princess Clotilde. He avoided having no enemy left to contend with, at ceremony on his travels, and interested his own request was permitted to review himself, as a cultivated student in many the ground of the enemy's flight, and lands, in the inspection of what the counfound the road ploughed up by his solid try had to show at this time best worthy shot and strewn with fragments of shells; of observation. Immediately presenting two men left dead on the road, one mor- himself at Washington, he was entertaintally wounded, and one not hurt taken ed by the President, visited the houses prisoner. The prisoner said the havoc of Congress, inspected the camps, and in their ranks was fearful, justifying what passed beyond the lines to the encampI saw myself of the confusion. Major ment of the enemy. He was accompaTerrill's sharpshooters were by no means nied by General McDowell, with an idle, firing wherever a straggling Yankee escort of cavalry, beyond Alexandria to showed his head, and capturing a lieutenant, (captured by Major Terrill himself,) one sergeant and one private, all belonging to the 19th Indiana (Colonel Meredith's). . Our loss was not a scratch to man or horse. We have no means of knowing the enemy's, except that it must have been heavy, from the effect of the shots. We found in all four dead and mortally wounded, and captured four. Of course they carried off all they could."

On the other hand, General McClellan reported to the Secretary of War that Griffin's battery silenced the enemy's battery, while Adjutant Ireland of the 79th regiment, reported the retreat of the enemy under a well directed fire from the left wing, while the right captured a Major of Colonel Stuart's cavalry regiment. The lowest estimate of the enemy's loss, he added, was four killed, two wounded, and one prisoner. "Our men," said General McClellan in his despatch, "behaved most admirably under fire."

the Confederate pickets before Fairfax Court-House, where he was received by Colonel Stuart, and conducted thence by way of Centreville to Manassas. There he was entertained by Generals Beauregard and Johnston, and after a day spent in the camps and reviewing the troops, returned to Washington without extending his journey further in the rebel States. He then rejoined the Princess at New York, visited the western prairies, Niagara and Canada, and about the middle of September left New York in his yacht for Boston and Halifax on his return to Europe. His journey was thought to have some political significance from his relationship to the Emperor Louis Napoleon, though it was probably only of importance in this way in the information of the country which an intelligent observer carried to a European court, where it was thought his influence was not unfriendly to the North. The correspondence of a member of the party with the Opinion Nationale of Paris, was noticeable for its candid criti

cism of public events during the Prince's visit to the United States.

As the Union army gained strength, and symptoms of an approaching movement in the ranks began to be evident, the enemy, apparently well advised of the condition of affairs in the camps, recalled their advanced pickets and receded from some of their posts of observation in the immediate neighborhood of Washington. Munson's Hill, in the vi cinity of Alexandria, their occupation of which had been something of a scandal to the army in its front, was thus evacuated by them on the morning of the 28th of September, when the position was formally taken possession of by the Union troops. On their arrival they were surprised at the slight construction of works which had been represented to the public as of a really formidable character. A correspondent who visited the spot immediately after its abandonment by the enemy, thus describes the scene on the summit of the hill. "Everybody, was laughing. The utter absurdity of the works as means of defence, their smallness, meanness, insignificance, touched everybody's sense of the ludicrous. The enclosure comprises about four acres, around which earth is roughly thrown to a height of perhaps four feet. Of course there is no ditch, no glacis-nothing, in fact, to give it the character of a fortifi

A few days before the departure from New York of Prince Jerome Napoleon, several other visitors, also distinguished by relations to the French throne, arrived at the city. The new party included the Prince de Joinville, son of Louis Philippe, who came to place his son, the Duke de Penthievre, a youth of sixteen, in the United States naval school at Newport. He also brought with him his two nephews, sons of the late Duke of Orleans the Count de Paris and the Duke de Chartres. Presently proceeding to Washington, the two young Princes tendered their military services to the Government, were accepted, and duly commissioned with the rank of Captain, were assigned to the staff of General McClellan. It was expressly stipulated by them that they would receive no pay for their services. Their motive in attaching themselves to the army was undoubtedly to secure the military experience which the organization of the large force before Washington was so well calculated to yield, and to gain for themselves, by actual service, that prestige of reputation in war which no nation values more highly than the French. It was a valued tribute also to the national cause, that the representatives of so dis-cation of any kind. It is not even regutinguished a house, with a possible future in the politics of Europe, should, in so marked a manner, identify themselves with its interests. The Princes remained in the service, faithfully fulfilling the obligations they had assumed, and were with the army through the winter, in the forward movement in the spring, and in the battles before Richmond, in which they were honorably distinguishable armament. At such a distance as ed, to the close of the campaign.

lar in form, but coils loosely and waveringly about the ground, as a huge snake might enfold it. In every respect it looks a squirmy piece of work. There are no embrasures for guns, but upon two of its projections are mountedwhat! guns? No, indeed, but old logs, with a black circle painted in the middle of the sawed part to represent a formid

that of Bailey's Roads, the deception

FORTS AROUND WASHINGTON.

13

might very easily have remained unde- "Fort Richardson;" that known as Fort tected. In the middle of this wretched Albany, "Fort Albany;" that near the 'fort,' the remains of a hastily-constructed end of Long Bridge, "Fort Runyon;" hut still stood; but, with the exception the work next on the right of Fort Albaof a few trees, it contained nothing else. ny, "Fort Craig ;" the work next on the Behind it, on the slope of the hill, were a right of Fort Craig, "Fort Tillinghast ;" group of irregular shanties, thrown to- the work next on the right of Fort Tilgether for the protection of troops. Their linghast, "Fort Ramsay;" the work next number was sufficient for the accommoda- on the right of Fort Ramsay, "Fort tion of about one regiment, certainly not Woodbury:" that next on the right of more. A considerable quantity of straw Fort Woodbury, "Fort De Kalb;" the and a few forgotten rations lay about. work in rear of Fort Corcoran and near The usual offensive odors of a rebel Vir- the canal, "Fort Haggerty;" that known ginia camp were heightened in this case as Fort Corcoran, "Fort Corcoran ;" by the stench from a dead and decaying that to the north of Fort Corcoran, horse, which the rebels apparently had "Fort Bennett ;" that south of Chain not energy enough to remove, but left to Bridge on the height, the height, "Fort Ethan rot among them." Allen;" that near the Chain Bridge on An enumeration of the military works the Leesburg road, "Fort Marcy;" that in the vicinity of Washington, in the on the cliff north of the Chain Bridge, General Orders issued by General Mc-"Battery Martin Scott;" that on the Clellan on the 30th of September, will height near the Reservoir, "Battery afford some idea of the organized labor Vermont;" that near Georgetown, "Batperformed by officers and men of the tery Cameron;" that on the left of Tenarmy in the brief period of two months-nallytown, "Fort Gaines;" that at Tenduring which, it should be remembered, nallytown, "Fort Pennsylvania;" that the hastily collected levies were being at Emory's Chapel, "Fort Massachureceived, armed, equipped, and instruct-setts;" that near the camp of the 2d ed in the elements of military service. Rhode Island regiment, "Fort Slocum;" The toil thrown upon the engineering department was immense in this work of encircling the capital, on both sides of the Potomac, with a chain of mutually supporting fortified posts and intrenchments. The following names were given to these works in the "order" alluded to. The work south of Hunting Creek, "Fort Lyon;" that on Shuter's Hill, "Fort Ellsworth;" that on the left of the Seminary, "Fort Worth;" that in front of Blenker's brigade, "Fort Blenker;" that in front of Lee's House, "Fort Bard;" that near the mouth of Four Mile Creek, "Fort Scott" that on Richardson's Hill,

that on Prospect Hill, near Bladensburg, "Fort Lincoln;" that next on the left of Fort Lincoln, "Fort Saratoga ;" that next on the left of Fort Saratoga, "Fort Bunker Hill;" that on the right of General Sickles' camp, "Fort Stanton ;" that on the right of Fort Stanton, "Fort Carroll ;" that on the left towards Bladensburg, "Fort Greble."

A grand review of artillery and cavalry, on the 8th of October, described in the reports of the day as the grandest spectacle of the kind ever witnessed on this continent, was accepted by the public as an indication of the strength and

spirit of the national army on the Potom- once, by the blessing of God, united. ac, and its rapidly advancing efficiency prosperous, and happy, is now afflicted for the early resumption of hostilities. Six thousand cavalry and one hundred and twelve guns, with an artillery force of fifteen hundred men, appeared in this spectacle, at which President Lincoln, the Secretary of State, the Prince de Joinville, and other celebrities were *present. General McClellan was on the field with his staff. General Stoneman conducted the review, the artillery being commanded by General Barry, and the cavalry by General Palmer. The area for the movements embraced about two hundred acres.

with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him, and to pray for His mercy-to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though justly deserved; that our arms may be blessed and made effectual for the reëstablishment of law, order, and peace throughout our country, and that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned, under His guidance and blessing, by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original excellence; Therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, do appoint the last Thursday in September next as a day of Humiliation, Prayer, and Fasting for all the people of the Nation, and I do earnestly recommend to all the people, and especially to all Ministers and Teachers of religion of all denominations, and to all heads of families-to observe and keep that day according to their several creeds and modes of worship, in all humility, and with all religious solemnity, to the end that the united prayer of the Nation may ascend to the Throne of Grace, and bring down plentiful blessings upon our own country.'

In accordance with the resolution of the recent Congress, President Lincoln, on the 12th of August, had issued the following Proclamation for a National Fast-Day: "Whereas, a Joint Committee of both Houses of Congress has waited on the President of the United States, and requested him to recommend a day of Public Humiliation, Prayer, and Fasting, to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnities, and the offering of fervent supplications to Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States, His blessings on their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace; And whereas, It is fit and becoming in all people at all times to acknowledge and revere the Supreme Government of God, to bow in humble submission to His chastisements, to confess As the appointed day approached, the and deplore their sins and transgres- recommendation was seconded by various sions in the full conviction that the fear Proclamations of Governors of States, of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Mayors of cities, and Pastoral Letters and to pray with all fervency and con- and forms of prayer issued by the clergy. trition for the pardon of their past All breathed a serious, reverent spirit, offences, and for a blessing upon their and were calculated to impress upon the present and prospective action; And heart of individuals a sense of the calamwhereas, When our beloved country, ity which had befallen the land, and at