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[256] weapon, which later in the hands of the “Hammerer” will beat down the veterans of Lee before Richmond. The autumn days come and go. The frosty nights have come. The increasing army continues its drill within the defenses. There are no indications of the forces moving. As if by instinct the men begin the construction of log huts for shelter from the cold of the coming winter. “All's quiet along the Potomac.” The winter months wear on and Public Opinion is growing restless. “Why does not the army move?” Across the country, thirty miles away, at Manassas, is the Confederate army, flushed with its July victory, under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston. It was the 8th of March, 1862. As the Union army looked toward Manassas, down along the horizon line, clouds of smoke were seen ascending. It was from the burning huts. The Confederates were abandoning Manassas. Johnston was evacuating his camp. The next day orders came for the Army of the Potomac to move. Through the morning mists was heard the bustle of activity. Across the Long Bridge the troops took up the line of march, the old structure shaking under the tread of the passing hosts. Filled with the spirit of action, the men were jubilant at the prospect. But this buoyancy was of short duration. There was the Virginia mud, yellow and sticky, into which the feet of man and horse sank till it was almost impossible to extricate them. Throughout the day the muddy march continued. At night the bivouac was made in the oozy slime, and not till the day after, near evening, were the deserted fortifications of Manassas reached. McClellan was putting his army to a test. Next morning the two days return march to Washington began. The rain fell in sheets and it was a wet and bedraggled army that sought the defenses of the capital. The strategic eye of the commander had detected two routes to the coveted capital of the Confederacy. One lost many of its possibilities by the Confederate retreat from
Review of Reviews. New York. 1912.
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