ily took to the woods. When they got home
they talked wisely about "masked batteries." But the shrewdness and
humor of the people were not thus turned aside, and the "masked battery"
long made the point of many a bitter jest.

Up the river, Harper's Ferry was held by "Stonewall" Jackson, who was
soon succeeded by J.E. Johnston. Confronting and watching this force was
General Patterson, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with a body of men
rapidly growing to considerable numbers by the daily coming of recruits.
Not very far away, southeastward, the main body of the Confederate army,
under Beauregard, lay at Manassas, and the main body of the Federal
army, under McDowell, was encamped along the Potomac. On May 23 the
Northern advance crossed that river, took possession of Arlington
Heights and of Alexandria, and began work upon permanent defensive
intrenchments in front of the capital.

The people of the North knew nothing about war or armies. Wild with
enthusiasm and excitement, they cheered the departing regiments, which,
as they vaguely and eagerly fancied, were to begin fighting at once.
Yet it was true that no one would stake his money on a "football team"
which should go into a game trained in a time so short as that which had
been allowed for bringing into condition for the manoeuvres and
battlefields of a campaign an army of thirty or forty thousand men, with
staff and commissariat, and arms of infantry, cavalry, and artillery,
altogether constituting an organization vast, difficult, and complex in
the highest degree of human cooeperation. Nevertheless "On to Richmond!"
rolled up the imperious cry from every part of the North. The
government, either sharing in this madness, or feeling that it must be
yielded to, passed the word to the commander, and McDowell very
reluctantly obeyed orders and started with his army in that
direction,--not, however, with any real hope of reaching this nominal
objective; for he was an intelligent man and a good soldier, and was
perfectly aware of the unfitness of his army. But when, protesting, he
suggested that his troops were "green," he was told to remember that the
Southern troops were of the same tint; for, in a word, the North was
bound to have a fight, and would by no means endure that the three
months' men should come home without doing something more positive than
merely preventing the capture of Washington.

On July 16, therefore, McDowell began his advance, having with him a