viding for the defence of Richmond. News that the Federal gunboats had been repulsed was received before the time of the meeting, and added joy to the enthusiasm with which the assembled citizens listened to the pledges of the governor and mayor that the city should never be surrendered.1 Confidence was restored, and not again during this campaign of McClellan's was it so rudely disturbed. Here had been a fine chance for an energetic Union general who had studied to advantage his enemy. After the naval engagement of May 15, Seward, who was then on a visit to the scene of operations, expressed the opinion that a force of soldiers in cooperation with the navy on the James River" would give us Richmond without delay."2 Of this Fabian commander who had failed to take advantage of the favors lavished upon him by fortune, the public of the Confederacy as well as the generals had their opinion confirmed, and could not conceal their derision at his lack of enterprise.3

In truth, if the hopeful North and the anxious South could have known McClellan's inward thoughts during these days, there would have been reason neither for hope on one side nor anxiety on the other. In his letters to his wife he spoke of his defeat at Williamsburg as "a brilliant victory," and asserted that he had given the Confederates "a tremendous thrashing." May 12 he asked, "Are you satisfied now with my bloodless victories?" and three days later he wrote, "I

1 Richmond Whig, May 16, 19; Dispatch, May 16; Examiner, May 16, 19; A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, Jones, vol. i. p. 125; Moore's Rebellion Record, vol. v., Docs. p. 424; Pollard's Second Year of the War, p. 33. For comment on this, see John M. Daniel's editorial in the Richmond Examiner of May 16.

2 Seward to Stanton, May 16, O. R., vol. xi. part iii. p. 178. The President, Chase, and Stanton were at Fortress Monroe from May 5 to 11. Chase wrote McDowell May 14: "With 50,000 men and you for a general I would undertake to go from Fortress Monroe to Richmond by the James River with my revenue steamers Miami and Stevens and the Monitor in two days.” —Life of Chase, Warden, p. 433, also ante, et seq.

3 Richmond Dispatch, May 16 to 28; A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, vol. i. p. 125.

think that the blows the rebels are now receiving and have lately received ought to break them up."1

I have already spoken of the President's order of May 172 directing McDowell to march with his corps from the camp opposite Fredericksburg towards Richmond to reinforce McClellan. This junction was never made. Stonewall Jackson now appeared upon the scene, and confounded the plans of the administration and McDowell.

It is hardly conceivable that the President and his advisers in Washington could have more effectually released the Confederate army from the main object of their consideration, the defence of Richmond, than by the disposition of forces in the Shenandoah valley and in western Virginia. Scattering of troops instead of concentration, variety in design instead of unity, the selection of generals who represented sections of political sentiment instead of applying to these appointments the sole test of merit, are obvious criticisms of their administration of affairs. Banks had a little army in the Shenandoah valley; Frémont, for whom the Mountain Department had been created, had another in western Virginia; to McDowell with his corps was assigned the special duty of protecting the Federal capital. All three forces should have been under the command of one man of military ability. The appointment of Banks had little to recommend it; and Frémont, who was appointed solely to placate the radical Republicans, was, in view of the military and administrative incompetence shown in his egregious failure in Missouri, a choice blameworthy in a high degree.3 The negotiations between Lincoln

1 McClellan's Own Story, pp. 353, 355. 2 O. R., vol. xi. part i. p. 28.

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* More than a month before the assignment of Frémont to this duty, Francis P. Blair, Jr., who was in spite of their personal quarrel a competent and honest witness, testified before the Committee on the Conduct of the War: Frémont was in a perfect panic of fear when he himself was in the field [in Missouri] and the enemy seventy miles off, and he himself surrounded by 35,000 or 40,000 men, well armed and equipped and with eighty cannon. I don't mean by this that he was in bodily fear,' but that he was paralyzed by his incapacity to deal with great affairs, overwhelmed by a

and Frémont at the time of his assignment to this command are a travesty of military business; they would have seemed appropriate in the appointment of a collector of the port of New York or Boston. Having yielded to the solicitations of the friends of "the pathfinder," that a place be made for him, the President was then subjected to strong pressure to increase his army to a size commensurate with his dignity. The force in the Mountain Department was supposed to be 25,000; unable to resist the influences, Lincoln detached Blenker's division of 10,000 from McClellan and gave it to Frémont. As a consideration Frémont had promised to undertake a campaign which involved a long march over the mountains and had in view the seizure of the railroad at or near Knoxville and the relief of the Unionists of East Tennessee. This project, though dear to the President's heart, was impracticable and romantic. Frémont made no serious attempt to execute it; and the mischief of the plan was that it kept a small army in western Virginia, where only two or three brigades were actually required, when these troops were imperatively needed in the Shenandoah valley as a reinforcement to Banks.

In the early days of May the situation in the Shenandoah valley and mountains was broadly as follows. Banks had 9000 men at Harrisonburg, with orders from the War Department to fall back upon Strasburg. Shields with a division of

responsibility to which he was unequal." — Part iii. p. 173. This testimony was given Feb. 7, and the date of Frémont's appointment is March 11. See vol. iii. of this work, pp. 468, 481; also Ropes's Story of the Civil War, part ii. p. 115.

1 See correspondence between Frémont and Lincoln, June 16, O. R., vol. xii. part i. pp. 660, 662; Lincoln to McClellan, March 31, O. R., vol. v. p. 58. Blenker was taken from McClellan just as the latter was about to start for the Peninsula, "at the expense of great dissatisfaction to General McClellan.” See J. D. Cox's article in the Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 278. General Cox held a command under Frémont. On the President's anxiety for the occupation of East Tennessee, see Ropes's Story of the Civil War, vol. i. pp. 200, 206, 213; O. R., vol. xii. part iii. p. 96. For the condition of things in East Tennessee and the pressure on the President to send an army there for the relief of the Unionists, see Nicolay and Hay, vol. v. chap. iv.

10,000 at Newmarket had been under Banks, but had now been ordered to join General McDowell at Fredericksburg. Frémont had 15,000 troops of the Mountain Department stationed at different points in the Shenandoah Mountains; one of these detachments, 3500 strong, was under Milroy at a place called McDowell, on the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, less than forty miles from Staunton; another detachment under Schenck, 2200 strong, was at Franklin, thirty-four miles north of McDowell.1 Stonewall Jackson had an effective force of 20,000.2 Thus the Union troops in the theatre of operations outnumbered the Confederate in the ratio of at least three to two, without taking into account General McDowell's army of 30,000, which was watched by a Confederate force of about 10,000.3 Had there been a proper disposition of the means at hand, Jackson, who took the offensive, would have been opposed at each point by an equal force; as a matter of fact he outnumbered his enemy in each affair and each battle. In the planning of this campaign, the correspondence between Generals Lee and Jackson cannot fail to elicit admiration from men used to military affairs. Lee made some pertinent suggestions, emphasizing that they were merely for Jackson's consideration; for, he wrote from Richmond, "I cannot pretend at this distance

1 I give round numbers for the different bodies of troops. I have arrived at these from various returns in the O. R., corrected by the correspondence and official reports. The Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 299, has been of assistance.

2 Jackson's report of May 3 gives his force of three brigades as 8397. O. R., vol. xii. part iii. p. 879. Ewell wrote, April 16, that he had over 8500 men and his division was "increasing very rapidly." Ibid., p. 850. There does not seem to have been any detachments from this force. Reinforcements had been ordered to Ewell, but were afterwards recalled. Edward Johnson had two brigades of three regiments each; 3500 is not, therefore, a high estimate of his force. This makes a total of 20,397, and I am inclined to think that Jackson's batteries of artillery should be added. See Ropes's Civil War, part ii. p. 117.

3 For the Confederate force, see Lee to J. E. Johnston, May 8, O. R., vol. xi. part iii. p. 500. I have previously referred to McDowell's army as 40,000: such it became after the junction of Shields.

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to direct operations depending on circumstances unknown to me and requiring the exercise of discretion and judgment as to time and execution." In reply Jackson asks in a deferential manner for reinforcements. "Now, it appears to me," he said, "is the golden opportunity for striking a blow. Until I hear from you I will watch an opportunity for attacking some exposed point." 2 Lee regrets very much his inability to send reinforcements. Jackson meanwhile had proposed three plans of operation, one of which he was disposed to adopt; Lee in reply tells him to choose that which seems to him best.3

Jackson promptly matured his plan. Sending for Ewell, whose division was a constituent component of his force, he directed, in personal conference, the part he should play in the undertaking about to commence. He had himself determined to strike at Milroy, leaving his own place at Swift Run Gap to Ewell, who should endeavor to hold Banks in check. By a swift march in a circuitous route in order to mask his movement, Jackson pushed on with his three brigades to Staunton: there he was joined by four .companies of cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, who were glad to serve in defence of their loved valley, under their whilom professor, now venturing forth to great renown. West of Staunton he united with Edward Johnson's two brigades, and with his army now increased to nearly 12,000 he advanced on Milroy, whom he found, May 8, at McDowell. In response to an appeal for help, Schenck, by a march of thirty-four miles in twenty-three hours, had joined Milroy, and as ranking officer had taken command. He knew that he had a superior force to contend against, and his despairing questions bring to light the mismanagement on the Union side at the outset of this campaign. "Where is General Banks at this juncture? Where is Blenker's

1 April 25, O. R., vol. xii. part iii. p. 866.

2 April 28, ibid., p. 870.

3 Ibid., pp. 872, 875, 878.

4 See p. 461, vol. iii. of this work.