of the Army of the Potomac, who superseded General Scott, so far as the responsibility of active service was concerned, though he retained his nominal position and pay as a lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief of the army of the United States. General McClellan had become immensely popular by his successes in Northwestern Virginia, in the affair of Rich Mountain and the pursuit of General Garnett, consequently the substitution of General McClellan for General McDowell was hailed throughout the country with great gratification.

General Dix was placed in command of the Department of Maryland, and General Banks superseded General Patterson in command on the Upper Potomac ; then followed a general disorganization of McDowell's army, the three-months' men returning home, except a few companies who volunteered to stay a short time longer, in anticipation of an attack on Washington by the Confederates, and now and then a company who remained by joining some of the three years' regiments.

At Fortress Monroe, also, several of the regiments left for home, their time having expired, but most of them reënlisted in a few days for three years.

To the brave man, defeat is only an argument for renewed exertion; and so it was with the people of the North. Their defeat at Bull Run put new life into their slumbering ranks, and in less than three days over sixty thousand fresh men were accepted at the War Department for three years' service; besides several batteries of artillery. The response from every quarter was truly patriotic.

In the mean time, the prize money offered by President Davis to privateers was an additional inducement for depredations upon the high seas, and among the most powerful and industrious of that craft was the daring privateer "Jeff. Davis," and the saucy, reckless "Sumter," both of which penetrated Northern waters to a degree

beyond what was requisite for the safety of Northern bound vessels.

The brig John Walsh, of Philadeldphia, from Trinidad for Falmouth, England, was captured by a privateer, who, after firing a shot across her bows causing her to heave to, lowered a boat with eight men, all well armed, and went on board. The privateer was sailing under the French flag, which was hauled down as soon as they boarded the John Walsh, and the Confederate flag run up. The officers in charge of the boat on reaching the deck demanded the ship's papers, and then declared the brig a prize to the Southern Confederacy. The captain and all hands, nine men and a boy, were taken on board the privateer, and a prize crew corresponding in number was put on board the John Walsh, and ordered South. They soon ascertained their captor to be the brig "Jeff. Davis," Captain Coxetteer, of Charleston, two hundred tons, seventy men, and five guns. The next day being Sunday, they held religious services on board in the forenoon, and in the afternoon captured the schooner S. J. Waring, of Brookhaven; and on the following day captured schooner Enchantress, of Newburyport; and the next day boarded the ship Mary Goodell, Captain McGilvrey, from New York for Buenos Ayres, and took five of her crew and nearly all her water; but as her cargo was of no value to them, it being British property, and the ship too large to get into the Southern inlets, the pri vateer concluded to put the captured officers on board of her, and let her go. They were therefore transferred to the ship. The privateer supposed that the ship would continue her voyage, and thus prevent the news from reaching the United States, but as soon as the privateer was out of sight, the ship bore away for Portland, having on board Captain Fifield of the John Walsh, Captain Smith of the S. J. Waring, and Captain Devereux of the schooner Enchantress.

The S. J. Waring had a prize crew put on board, and ordered south; and on the night of the 16th, when fifty miles south of Charleston, the steward, William Tillman, colored, killed three of the prize crew with a hatchet. The other two were released on promising to assist in working the vessel. Tillman, with the aid of the rest of the crew, except one named Donald McLeod, who refused to assist in recapturing the vessel, brought her into New York.

The John Walsh had six months' stores on board, all of which were taken except enough to last the prize crew, which was selected to correspond with the crew on the ship's papers, to deceive the Federal cruisers.

All the crew were taken from the Enchantress except the negro cook. Two men and a passenger were left on board the schooner S. J. Waring with the prize crew.

The privateer run down in every case under the French flag, and set the Confederate flag on boarding. She left Charleston on the 28th of June. The John Walsh was her first prize.

They also captured the brig Mary E. Thompson, of Searsport, Me., while on her passage from Bangor for Antigua, with a cargo of lumber, ransacking the vessel, taking from her every thing that suited their fancy, such as her only boat, oars, spare rigging, &c.; and after putting on board four prisoners previously taken from other vessels, released her.

CHAPTER XV.

Then Nature must teach us the strength of the chain
Which her petulant children would sever in vain.

AUGUST 1. General McClellan commenced the reorganization of the army, and issued an order requesting the editors of all newspapers in the loyal States and District of Columbia to refrain from publishing, either as editorial or correspondence, or from any point, any matter that might furnish aid and comfort to the enemy. The rebels left Harper's Ferry, and fell back to Leesburg.

The privateer Petrel was sunk by a broadside from the United States frigate St. Lawrence, off Charleston, S. C. The Petrel came boldly out of Charleston harbor, and probably mistaking the St. Lawrence for a merchant vessel, fired two shots at her; when the St. Lawrence returned the fire, and the first discharge sunk her, cutting her completely in two. Five of her men were drowned, but the remaining thirty-six were saved, and put on board the United States gunboat Flag, and taken to Philadelphia. The rebel vessel was formerly the revenue cutter Aiken, which was seized by the South Carolina authorities in December, 1860, and under her new commission named the Petrel.

August 2. The war tax and tariff bill passed Congress; five hundred thousand men were to be immediately raised and equipped, for three years' service or during the war.

The rebellion in the West. Battle of Dug Springs, Missouri. a force of six thousand men, were

General Lyon, with encamped at Pond

Spring, ten miles west of Springfield, when the terrible news of the disastrous defeat at Bull Run reached him, which inspired him with new courage, and a fresh desire to recover in the West whatever might have been lost in the East. On Thursday morning, the first day of August, intelligence was brought that Ben McCulloch, with fifteen thousand men, was encamped near Tirrell Creek, twelve miles southwest of Springfield. General Lyon immediately ordered all the regiments of infantry and the batteries of artillery and the cavalry to march southward and unite for an attack on the enemy.

About sundown the tents were struck, the baggage loaded, and in a short time thereafter the notes of the "Assembly" rolled over the prairie, and the troops commenced their march. Their course lay through the open prairie for some miles, and then entered the woods; and a more devious route than that pursued by them that night was never before made, not excepting the journeyings of the children of Israel through the wilderness; first to the north, then to the south, they ran across the milky way, then went parallel with it, and, in fact, went toward so many points of the horizon that the record of half of them would drive any ordinary compass distracted. However, they plunged ahead, and late in the night, or rather early in the morning, they reached a point where the road intersected the road leading south from Springfield, and where they expected to meet General Sigel and Colonel Solomon, and about one o'clock they camped in a miserable ravine within three miles of the rebel army, and the men slept on their arms. But in the morning it was found that the enemy had retreated further southward. Lyon immediately pushed on in pursuit; the three miles lengthened into ten before the enemy showed his face, and by this time a large percentage of the men were completely used up. Several were prostrate from sunstroke, and many had fallen from sheer exhaustion.