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

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[614] encountered from this expedition. Now they had time to reach Richmond even before the Federal army could embark upon the transports, whose arrival was delayed from day to day. The long-debated question, however, relative to the raising of the Potomac blockade was solved by the abandonment of the enemy's batteries. Instead of going to Annapolis in search of the vessels which were to convey his soldiers to the coasts of the Chesapeake, McClellan would see them arrive in front of his encampments at Alexandria. The famous redoubts at Manassas were invaded by a crowd of curious persons who could without danger underrate their importance and criticise the general whose prudence did not allow him to sacrifice the élite of his young army for the sake of carrying them. But the moral effect which the retreat of the Confederates would have produced a few days later was wanting. If so much time had not been wasted in indecision, the evacuation of Manassas would have coincided with the disembarkation of the first Federal soldiers at Urbanna or Newport News, and everybody would have attributed it to the bold movement of McClellan.

The army of the Potomac left its quarters to take possession of the enemy's works. On the 10th of March it occupied Centreville; on the 11th Manassas Junction. Large quantities of stores, burnt or scattered in the mud, storehouses still in flames, the smoking debris of numerous trains, traces of destruction everywhere, imparted a lugubrious and sinister aspect to the celebrated plateau. Although the Federal army was to encounter no adversary, this movement was useful to the soldiers as a marching exercise. It was, moreover, necessary in order to occupy the positions which were to cover Washington during the future campaign. It was at Manassas that the garrison of the capital ought to be placed, for it could thence command the whole surrounding country; but this was the extreme scope of the aggressive movement so suddenly undertaken. The enemy had disappeared; and although the smoke of burning bridges behind him still rose above the forest which greets the eye at Manassas Junction, all serious pursuit was impossible. The troops had no means of obtaining supplies; the roads were broken up, and the water courses, swollen by the rains, were no longer practicable.

General Joseph Johnston, who, since the battle of Bull Run,