te heads. They are referred to here only to illustrate
the patriotic spirit which pervaded Congress, and the magnitude of
the work accomplished under the pressure of necessity.

DEFEAT OF THE UNION ARMY AT BULL RUN.

Seventeen days after the extra session began, and fifteen days
before it closed, the country was startled and profoundly moved by
a decisive defeat of the Union army at Bull Run in Virginia. The
National troops were commanded by General Irvin McDowell, and the
Confederates by General Beauregard. The battle is remarkable for
the large number of division and brigade commanders who afterwards
became widely known. Serving under General McDowell were General
William T. Sherman, General Hunter, General Burnside, General Miles,
General Heintzelman, General Fitz-John Porter, and General Howard.
Serving under General Beauregard were Stonewall Jackson, General
Longstreet, General Ewell, General J. E. B. Stuart. General Joseph
E. Johnston re-enforced Beauregard with another army during the
fight, and became the ranking-officer on the field. The defeat of
the Union army was complete; it was a _rout_, and on the retreat
became a panic. When the troops reached the protection of the
fortifications around Washington, a thorough demoralization pervaded
their ranks. The holiday illusion had been rudely dispelled, and
the young men who had enlisted for a summer excursion, suddenly
found that they were engaged in a bloody war in which comrades and
friends had been slain by their side, and in which they saw nothing
before them but privation, peril, loss of health, and possibly loss
of life. The North had been taught a lesson. The doubting were
at last convinced that the Confederates were equipped for a desperate
fight, and intended to make it. If the Union were to be saved, it
must be saved by the united loyalty and the unflinching resolution
of the people.

The special and immediate danger was an outbreak in the Border
slave States. Their people were seriously divided; but the Union
men, aided by the entire moral influence and in no small degree by
the military force of the Nation, had thus far triumphed. The
repulse of the National arms, with the consequent loss of prestige,
necessarily emboldened the enemies of the Union, who, by playing
upon the prejudices and fears of the slave-holders, might succeed
in seducing them from their allegiance. To prevent the success of
su