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[29] horsemen were under command of Colonel J. E. B. Stuart, whom even then Johnston styled ‘the indefatigable,’ and who was also destined to a greater fame.

Thus far, the line of the Potomac had not been crossed. The soil of Virginia, which her inhabitants loved proudly to style ‘sacred,’ had felt the tread of no invading force. Popular notions hardly went beyond simply defending the capital; and not only many men who were supposed to be skilled in the calendar of state, but even the shepherds of the people, still flattered themselves with the hope that there would be no war—that all that was needed to quell the ‘rebellion’ was an imposing display of force.1 Meanwhile, volunteers, burdening all the railways that, from the North and East and West, converge on Washington, continued to accumulate on the Potomac. The insurrection that for a time had threatened to involve Maryland, and had broken out in open attack upon the first Federal troops that passed through Baltimore, had been subdued by the firm policy of the Administration, and direct railroad communication between the national capital and the North, for a time interrupted, had now been restored. By the middle of May, between forty and fifty regiments were encamped about Washington; and, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a large force was accumulating under General Patterson, which by its position menaced Harper's Ferry. The presidential call had been for seventy-five thousand volunteers for a term of three months; but through the persuasion of General Scott, who well knew that it was no three months affair the Government had on its hands, a supplementary call for forty thousand men, to serve for three years or the war was made. An increase of the force of the Regular army was also ordered. These troops were raised with the greatest alacrity, and each

1 ‘It was a favorite notion with a large class of Northern politicians (and the people too) that nothing but an imposing display of force was necessary to crush the rebellion.’ General Barnard: The C. S. A. and the Battle of Bull Run, p. 42.

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