May 23, 1861. |
1 James D. Gay, mentioned in note 1, page 418, visited the steamship Monticello on the 23d of May, then discharging Government stores at Georgetown, and while viewing Arlington Hights, not far from the Aqueduct Bridge, through a telescope, discovered Lee (according to his description) and some subordinate officers, apparently engaged, in the partial concealment of bushes and irregularities of the ground, in laying out fortifications. After satisfying himself that preparations were being made by the insurgents to plant batteries on Arlington Hights, Gay hastened to the Headquarters of General Mansfield and told him what he had seen, in detail. The General, not doubting that a battery would be built on Arlington Hights that night, went immediately to the War Department with his information. The order went out at once for the troops to move into Virginia and occupy Arlington Hights before the insurgents should gain absolute possession there. The success of the National troops on that occasion was a very severe blow to the conspirators. The loss of that opportunity to gain a position that would doubtless have secured their possession of Washington City, was at the time, and frequently afterward, spoken of in the Richmond press as one of the greatest of misfortunes.
2 On the previous day (May 22) a large National flag, purchased by the clerks of the Post-Office Department, in testimony of their loyalty, was raised over the General Post-Office, in Washington City, by the hand of President Lincoln. The air was almost motionless, and the banner clung ominously sullen to the staff and the halliards. In a few moments a gentle breeze came from the North, and displayed the Stripes and Stars in all their beauty and significance to the assembled crowd. “I had not thought to say a word,” said the President when he observed the incident, “but it has occurred to me that a few weeks ago the Stars and Stripes hung rather languidly about the staff, all over the nation. So too with this flag, when it was elevated to its place. At first it hung rather languidly, but the glorious breeze from the North came, and it now floats as it should. And we hope that the same breeze is swelling the glorious flag throughout the whole Union.”
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