Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[617] the whole army was massed in the neighborhood of Alexandria, where the embarkation was to take place. Near this city eighteen wooden piers jut out into the waters of the Potomac, many of which have wharf accommodations for three large steamers. The transports come alongside, and the quartermaster on duty immediately telegraphs to headquarters the number of men, horses, and materiel that can be embarked at each wharf. In accordance with this information, General McClellan also transmits orders by telegraph to such and such corps, directing them to repair to the piers whose number he specifies, and in a few hours a whole division is thus embarked without confusion or accident. The steamers are immediately unmoored, actually swarming with human ants, and with scarcely a revolution of their immense wheels suffer themselves to drift down the current like a swimmer who is afraid of fatiguing himself. In their midst may be seen several diminutive steam-tugs, broad and short, constantly in motion, going by twos and threes to give a shoulder lift as it were to some large craft that has run aground, or descending the river with a long string of barges and schooners in tow. At last, on the 18th and 19th, the first division of the army of the Potomac disembarks at Fortress Monroe, the operation having been retarded in consequence of the small number of landing-places to be found about this locality. The second division left Alexandria on the 22d. A little later two divisions could be conveyed at once.

While the army of the Potomac was thus temporarily turning its back upon the enemy, in order to go and attack him on a different ground, the latter, in falling back upon the Rappahannock, entirely destroyed all the lines of railway which separate this river from Washington, thereby debarring himself from every chance of making an aggressive retrograde movement. But the valley of Virginia was occupied by an intrepid soldier, T. J. Jackson, who, since the battle of Bull Run, was only known by the name of Stonewall Jackson. The military genius of this man made ample amends for the eccentricity of his character; his humanity tempered the zeal of his religious enthusiasm, which at times partook of the fanaticism of the old Puritans, while his strict sense of justice and equitable dealings made the most reckless