The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 5: Forts and Artillery.
Francis Trevelyan Miller, Ed.

[92] three points at which works had been begun, and no attempts were made looking to the erection of a continuous or a supporting line to stop the advance of the Confederates. The necessity for this was not realized. But the first disaster awoke the military and civil authorities of Washington to the grim fact that the war was not a thing of probably a few weeks' duration, and in the face of a victorious foe there was the great menace of the capture of the Nation's capital with all the dire consequences. It was not the extent of the fortifications that impeded the Confederate army after Manassas, but the fact that there were fortifications, and that the Confederates were as badly defeated as the Federals. General Johnston says:

We were almost as much disorganized by our victory as the Federals by their defeat,

and it was conceded by everybody that disorganization and the moral deterrent effect of “fortifications” were mainly responsible for the Confederates not pressing their victory to the logical conclusion of occupying the capital.

The stream of fugitives crowding across Long Bridge and Aqueduct Bridge after the disaster of Bull Run, July 21st, announced to the people of Washington, to the people of the North, and to the people of the world the initiation of a mighty struggle. The echo rang southward, where the cry immediately was taken up, “On to Washington.” in the North the echo was, “On to the defense of Washington.” Despair in the North was replaced by a dogged determination to prosecute the war to the bitter end, and a few weeks' delay on the part of the Confederates sounded the doom of their chances to take the capital, for every energy of the North was bent, first, to organizing for its defense, and, second, to taking the field in an offensive movement against the Confederates.

General Scott, who had fought in two wars against foreign foes, was bowed down with age, and the tremendous energy necessary to cope with so appalling a situation had left him; so he asked to be relieved by a younger man. All