of artillery, his army spread for ten miles. Beyond them here
and there only he saw patches of crouching gray in the underbrush or
crawling through the marshes.

The Northern Commander came down from his perch and threw his arms
around his aide:

"We've got them, boy!" he cried enthusiastically. "We've got them!"

It was not to be wondered at that the boastful oratorical Confederate
Congress should have taken to their heels. They ran in such haste, the
people of Richmond began to laugh and in their laughter took fresh
courage.

A paper printed in double leads on its first page a remarkable account
of the stampede:

"For fear of accident on the railroad, the stampeded Congress left
in a number of the strongest and swiftest of our new canal-boats.
The boats were drawn by mules of established sweetness of temper.
To protect our law-makers from snakes and bullfrogs that infest the
line of the canal, General Winder detailed a regiment of ladies to
march in advance of the mules, and clear the tow-path of these
troublesome pirates. The ladies are ordered to accompany the
Confederate Congress to a secluded cave in the mountains of Hepsidan,
and leave them there in charge of the children of that vicinity until
McClellan thinks proper to let them come forth. The ladies will at
once return to the defense of their country."

The President for a brief time was free of his critics.

On May thirty-first, Johnston's army, under the direct eye of Davis and
Lee on the field, gave battle to McClellan's left wing--comprising the
two grand divisions that had been pushed across the Chickahominy to the
environs of Richmond.

The opening attack was delayed by the failure of General Holmes to
strike McClellan's rear as planned. A terrific rain storm the night
before had flooded a stream and it was impossible for him to cross.

Late in the afternoon Longstreet and Hill hurled their divisions through
the thick woods and marshes on McClellan.

Longstreet's men drove before them the clouds of blue skirmishers,
plunged into the marshes with water two feet deep and dashed on the
fortified lines of the enemy. The Southerners crept through the dense
underbrush to the very muzzles of the guns in the redoubts, charged,
cleared them, grappling hand to hand with the desperate men who fought
like demons.

Line after line was thus carried until at nightfall McClellan's left
wing had been pushed ba