Oct. 1861. |
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| Fairfax Court-House.1 |
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thousand men of all arms were assembled and maneuvered.
It was the largest military force ever gathered on the American Continent, and gave the loyal people assurance of the safety of the Republic.
And to these troops, regiment after regiment, at the rate of two thousand men each day, and battery after battery, was continually added from the teeming population and immense resources of the Free-labor States.
A little later,
there was another imposing review.
It was of artillery and cavalry alone; when six thousand horsemen, and one hundred and twelve heavy guns, appeared before President Lincoln, the Secretary of State, Prince de Joinville, and other distinguished men. Their evolutions were conducted over an area of about two hundred acres: the cavalry under the direction of General Palmer, and the artillery under the command of General Barry.
The whole review was conducted by General Stoneman.
But drills, parades, and reviews were not the only exhibitions of war near the Potomac during these earlier days of autumn.
There was some real though not heavy fighting between the opposing forces there.
The audacity of the Confederates was amazing.
Soon after the Battle of Bull's Run, General Johnston had advanced his outposts from Centreville and Fairfax Court House to Munson's Hill, only six miles in an air-line from Washington City, where the Confederate flag was flaunted for weeks, in full view of the National Capitol.
At other points above the city, his scouts pressed up almost to the Potomac, and he was at the same time taking measures for
erecting batteries at points below the Occoquan Creek, for the purpose of obstructing the passage of supplies up that river, for the National army around Washington.
The probability of such a movement had been perceived at an early day by vigilant and expert men.
So early as June, the Navy Department had called the attention of the Secretary of War (Mr. Cameron) to the importance, in view of the possible danger, of seizing and holding Matthias Point, in order to secure the navigation of the river.
At different times afterward,2 the attention of the President, General Scott, and General McClellan was called to the matter by the same Department, but nothing was done until toward the close of September, when Confederate batteries were actually planted there3 Then it was proposed to send a land force down the Maryland side of the river, and crossing in boats, covered by the Potomac flotilla, take possession of the shore just above Matthias Point.
The Secretary of the Navy, having
1 this is a view of one of the most frequently mentioned buildings in the records of the civil War. It is from a sketch made by the author in 1866. it gives the name to the village around it, which is the shiretown of the county. The village was much injured during the War.
2 July 1st, August 20th, and August 31st.
3 It appears by an autograph letter before me, written by Colonel Wade Hampton, at Freestone Point, between Occoquan and Dumfries, and dated September 24th, 1861, that a battery was completed at that place, and was ready for action at that date. His letter was addressed to Colonel Thomas Jordan, Beuregard's Assistant Adjutant-General. He says the works were constructed under Captin Lee, whose battery and a long 32-pounder rified gun were there. The latter had been sent there by General Trimble, a Maryland Traitor, then in the Confederate army. He reported that he had every thing in readiness to open fire the previous evening. A fringe of trees had been left standing on the point, to conceal the troops while erecting the works. These were out down on the night of the 23d.
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