official congratulations of Mr. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War. In 1855 we find him studying, along with Majors Delafield and Mordecai, the organization of the European armies, and present at a part of the operations of the Crimean war. That part of the report which was drawn up by him, published separately at Philadelphia, did credit to his military knowledge and to the cultivation of his mind. However, the military career in the United States promised to be very unsatisfactory to his ambition. Promotion by seniority only was desperately slow, and active service in time of peace was limited to distant explorations through deserts, or the life of a savage in the scattered posts of the new Territories. Captain McClellan did as did so many others. In 1857 he left the service for the more agreeable and more lucrative position of general superintendent of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, and of president of the eastern part of that line. In 1861 the war recalled him under the flag. The Governor of Ohio had at first intrusted to him the command of the State troops; but soon the federal government extended his command to that of the military department composed of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and a part of Pennsylvania and Virginia. His troops entered upon the campaign June 1. On the 3d, the head of the column surprised and overthrew a detachment of rebels at Philippi. McClellan was still at Cincinnati. He joined his little army on the 18th, at Grafton, and a month rolled away before the resumption of operations, which had begun in so encouraging a manner. At last, in the middle of July, he determined to send forward General Rosecrans, at the head of four regiments, three from Indiana and one from Ohio. Rosecrans encountered in the mountains the army commanded by Colonel Pegram. He attacked

resolutely and beat him in a sharp engagement, in which he inflicted upon him a loss of three hundred men and two pieces of artillery.

Pegram retired in disorder upon Beverly, where he hoped he could await the arrival of another Confederate detachment, commanded by General Garnett, with which he had not been able to effect a junction at Laurel Hill. But McClellan anticipated him, and awaited Garnett in a strong position, who, seeing he had been preceded, fell back immediately without a combat. McClellan had still a part of his forces in reserve, under the command of General T. A. Morris. General Morris, notified promptly, rapidly crossed the mountain, pursued Garnett, came up with him the next day at Carrick's Ford, near St. George, and beat him as Rosecrans had beaten Pegram. Garnett was himself killed in the affair.

This operation, very well conducted by General McClellan, gave him as trophies six guns, of which one was rifled, ten wagons, a number of tents, and some provisions. It is very well known of what value this victory was to him soon after. The immediate result was to free that part of the country of all rebel forces.

In the North this first victory was received with triumphant acclamations. Imaginations were inflamed. McClellan had advanced with a few thousand men, and the rebellion had disappeared from Western Virginia. Let McDowell advance with his army, and the rebellion would disappear from the rest of the State. And, with that idea, a universal cry was raised, "On to Richmond!" Popular pressure from all sides forced the government to attack the enemy.

General Irwin McDowell, who commanded the army of the Potomac, could scarcely join in that blind confidence. His military education had been begun in

France, and completed at West Point. He had been through the Mexican war, on the staff of General Wool, and had been a professor at the military academy. He was a well informed and experienced officer, who knew much better than the journalists and politicians what were the risks of an attack made with recruits hardly organized, against a numerous enemy fortified in a strong position. In reality, his army was not an army. The regiments of which it was composed had nothing of the soldier as yet, but the arms and the uniforms. However brave the men might be, they had had no discipline, nor had they been exercised in the most elementary manœuvres. The officers were nearly all incompetent. A regiment which had had any practice in firing was an exception, as was a colonel knowing how to command. As to evolutions in line, they were not so much as thought of. But upon the news of McClellan's success any longer delay became impossible, and the order was given for a general movement in → advance.

The defeat of Bull Run had the effect only of giving to the strife more formidable proportions. That defeat was not surprising. The attack was badly executed, because, with an army such as I have described, it was impossible for troops to act together or to move with any precision. Some regiments fought well, others fought very little, others did not fight at all. The Confederates had every advantage. Strongly established in a good position, protected by complete lines of works, they had only to defend themselves with vigor, which they did. They had the good fortune, moreover, of being strongly reënforced at the commencement of the battle by the army of General Johnston, whom the deplorable inaction of General Patterson permitted to hasten from Winchester without opposition.

With troops without discipline and without experience, an unsuccessful attack is easily changed into a rout. In this case the overthrow was complete. The soldiers fled, throwing down their arms, teamsters leaving their wagons, and cannoneers their guns. The draught animals served only to hasten the flight of those who could get hold of them, and the spectator who had come from Washington to witness the victory thought himself very fortunate if he lost only his carriage in his flight. Thus that horde of men and animals fled far from the field of battle in the greatest confusion.

They stopped only in Washington, after having put the Potomac between themselves and the enemy, who did not pursue. The Confederates lost there their finest opportunity. If they had followed up the fugitives, they might have entered Washington at their heels, and probably without striking a blow. In war, a lost opportunity rarely presents itself over again. This was no exception to the rule.

The battle was fought on Sunday, July 21. On the 22d, General McClellan was called to the command of the army in place of General McDowell.

CHAPTER IV.

FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON.

at

The Guard Lafayette, Fifty-fifth New York militia — Camp at Staten Island - Departure for Washington - Collision - At Philadelphia — Through Baltimore Arrival the capital - Five hundred thousand men and five hundred million dollars - Tents - Organization of regiments of infantry-Composition of the Fifty-fifth-The insignia of rank, and the uniforms in the American army.

THE Fifty-fifth New York militia, more generally known then as the Guard Lafayette, was a French regiment. It wore as a distinguishing costume the red pantaloon and cap. It was small in numbers, scarcely exceeding three hundred and twenty men, the minimum required for a militia regiment. It was not on war footing-far from it; but the number sufficed for parade, marchings, and funerals, nearly the only requirements of service in time of peace.

When, in the month of April, the President made his first call for seventy-five thousand men, nobody in New York doubted but that the Fifty-fifth would be one of the first to respond. There was to be fighting, how could a French regiment fail to be on hand? Volunteers hurried in multitudes to enroll themselves in the ranks; the companies were filled up rapidly, bringing their effective force up to a hundred men each. A subscription, opened among the French residents, to arm and equip the new regiments without delay, had been immediately covered with signatures, and had provided abundantly for the military chest. And yet, in spite of all that, the Fifty-fifth did not start.