Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

“ [574] Government, and in arms around the Capital; that in this National emergency, Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to its country; that this war is not waged, on our part, in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose. of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States; but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights, of the several States unimpaired; and as soon as these objects are accomplished, the war ought to cease.”

This resolution, so consonant with the feelings of the great body of the loyal inhabitants of the Republic, was laid over until Monday, the 22d. During that interval, momentous events had occurred. The first great battle of the war had been fought, within thirty miles of the Capital, which is known in history as the battle of Bull's Run. Let us see how it was brought about.

When Congress met, at. the beginning of July, there were about three hundred thousand Union troops enrolled. About fifty thousand of these were in arms in the vicinity of the Potomac River, designed for the defense of the Capital, or an attack upon the Confederates at Manassas,¹ as circumstance might require. The enthusiasm of the people was at fever-heat. In their patriotic zeal for the overthrow of the rebellion, they did not stop to consider the necessity for military discipline and thorough organization; and because the troops lingered along the line of the Potomac week after week, in seeming inactivity, they became impatient. There was a burning desire for the seizure and occupation of Richmond by the National forces before the so-called Confederate Government should be established there, on the 20th of July; and because the President and his Cabinet and the General-in-chief were still holding back the army when Congress met, they were censured without stint, and the loyalty of General Scott, who was born in Virginia, was actually questioned. In public speeches, in the newspapers, and everywhere among the people, there was a mad cry of Forward to Richmond! which finally impelled the General-in-chief to order the army to move in that direction.²

In the mean time the loyal people at home — men, women, and children — had been making earnest preparations for assisting the soldiers in the field, and alleviating their sufferings when in hospitals. The call for troops, on the 15th of April, electrified the women of the land; and individuals and small groups might be seen every day, in thousands and tens of thousands of house-holds — women and children — with busy fingers preparing lint and bandages for wounds, and hospital garments for the sick and maimed, and shelters for the heads and necks of the soldiers, when marching in the hot sun, known as havelocks.³ The movement was spontaneous and universal. The necessity