Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[400] which placed them about fifteen kilometres nearer to Harper's Ferry on one side, and to Aquia Creek on the other, than the Federal troops quartered at Washington. This was an advantage both in an offensive and defensive point of view. They thought of nothing, however, but fortifying themselves. The Richmond government, which, to arouse the enthusiasm of its adherents, announced the early invasion of the free States, was well aware that the army of Beauregard, notwithstanding the reinforcements it had received, was not in a condition to attempt such an enterprise. It concealed this inability under the pretext of strong political reasons. Not being able to assist the secessionists of Maryland, it accused them of lukewarmness. While the pickets alone were pushed forward in sight of Washington, the main body of the Confederate army remained at Manassas, where it could easily obtain supplies, and at Centreville, the solitary hillock of which had been encircled by earthworks of considerable strength.

On the right it was covered by the Occoquan River, of which Bull Run is one of the tributaries, and further on small posts placed en echelon along the Lower Potomac were to prevent all attempts at landing. At Aquia Creek a brigade was in direct communication with Richmond by way of Fredericksburg. Between the mouth of the Occoquan and Alexandria, on a hill which overlooks the course of the Potomac, and from which the dome of the Capitol may be seen, stands Mount Vernon, a dwelling at once modest and famous, where Washington lived and died. By a strange coincidence, the residence of the great citizen whose name both parties were invoking, and whose memory each was anxious to appropriate, was situated precisely between the two lines of outposts, as if he had hesitated between them, or was still endeavoring to reconcile them. To the left, the Confederate scouts showed themselves on the bank of the Potomac, from the vicinity of the suspension bridge to the defiles of the Katocktin Mountains. On the eastern slope of these hills, at a distance of ten or twelve kilometres from the Potomac, they occupied the little city of Leesburg, situated at the extremity of the main road, for which the suspension bridge was constructed. Finally, the troops which Johnston had left in the valley of Virginia, reinforced