George H. Gordon, From Brook Farm to Cedar Mountain

[99] than fifteen thousand prisoners; that a Rebel General Price, with his whole army, had been captured in Arkansas. I was so excited that I ordered the regiment to cheer, the band to play, and I released the officers from recitation for the day. At this time came the news of General Stone's arrest and confinement in Fort Lafayette. Why, was not known then, and has never been known since; but as he still lives, to him the people must look for his vindication.

No wonder we were impatient to join in the movements that seemed to be closing in around the doomed traitors, as we called them. “They can't recover from this,” we cried. Impatiently we waited. The twenty-second day of February, Abraham Lincoln, as Constitutional commander of the Armies and Navies of the United States, appointed for General McClellan to move against the enemy. The President ordered it; and now, exulting in our prospects, we celebrated the birthday of Washington throughout the United States with joy: we cheered for the victory that had followed victory. The hope that cheered us, we trusted, brought despair to our foe; the clouds were breaking away, and at last there was sunshine in our path,--the dark path we had trodden for so many months at last emerging into glorious light. Proudly and buoyantly we tramped through Frederick to form in closed lines and listen to the reading of Washington's Farewell Address. And we were more than ever aroused to the conviction, that truly it was a great thing to live in this age and add one's might to this work.

Everything was expected from General McClellan, everything believed possible through him; and so sure did I, for one, feel in him and his conduct, that I sneered in derision at the anxiety of the politicians, heeded not the clamor about giving the country confidence, or making the paper promises of the Government as valuable as gold.