Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee

“ [196] Officers of all grades, from brigadier general down, were in the throng.” McClellan estimated the number of stragglers he saw two days later at twenty thousand; and Assistant-Adjutant-General Kelton, who had been sent out by Halleck, puts the number at thirty thousand. Much uneasiness prevailed in the Federal capital, disorder reigned, and confusion was everywhere. As a precautionary measure, it was said, the money in the Treasury and in the banks was shipped to New York, and a gunboat with steam up lay in the river off the White House, and yet there was in and around Washington one hundred and twenty thousand men. On the 1st of September McClellan was again assigned to the command of the defenses around Washington. He had been much mortified in listening to the distant sound of the firing of his men, and asked General Halleck on the night of the 30th of August for permission to go to the scene of battle, telling him his men would fight none the worse for his presence; and that if it was deemed best not to intrust him with the command of even his own army, he simply desired permission to share their fate on the field of battle. Kelton had reported that General Pope was entirely defeated and was falling back to Washington in confusion, and McClellan reports that Mr. Lincoln told him he regarded Washington as lost, and asked him to consent to accept command of all the forces, to which McClellan replied that he would stake his life to save the city, but that Halleck and the President said it would, in their judgment, be impossible to do that.

General McClellan having accepted command, on September 2d rode out in the direction of Upton's Hill to meet Pope's army and direct them to their respective positions in the line of the Washington defenses. He met Pope and McDowell riding toward Washington, escorted by cavalry, when the former asked if he had any objection to McDowell and himself going to Washington; to which McClellan replied: “No, but. I am going in the direction of the firing.”

Lee's military plans had been wisely conceived, and the tactical details splendidly executed by his officers and men. Only three months had elapsed since he had