of low politics to make "a spawn of West Point" the next Governor of
Virginia. But events moved with a pace too swift to give the yellow
journals or the demagogues time to get their breath.

Lee had sent Jackson into the Valley of the Shenandoah to make a
diversion which might hold the armies moving on the Capital from the
west and at the same time puzzle McDowell at Fredericksburg.

Lee, Jackson and Davis were three men who worked in perfect harmony from
the moment they met in their first council of war at the White House of
the Confederacy. So perfect was Lee's confidence in Jackson, he was
sent into the Valley unhampered by instructions which would interfere
with the execution of any movement his genius might suggest.

Left thus to his own initiative, Jackson conceived the most brilliant
series of engagements in the history of modern war. He determined to use
his infantry by forced marches to cover in a day the ground usually made
by cavalry and fall on the armies of his opponents one by one before
they could form a juncture.

On May 23, by a swift, silent march of his little army of fifteen
thousand men, he took Banks completely by surprise, crushed and captured
his advance guard at Fort Royal, struck him in the flank and drove him
back into Strassburg, through Winchester, and hurled his shattered army
in confusion and panic across the Potomac on its Washington base.

Desperate alarm swept the Capital of the Union. Stanton, the Secretary
of War, issued a frantic appeal to the Governors of the Northern States
for militia to defend Washington. Panic reigned in the cities of the
North. Governors and mayors issued the most urgent appeals for
enlistments.

Fremont was ordered to move with all possible haste and form a juncture
with a division of McDowell's army and cut off Jackson's line of
retreat.

The wily Confederate General wheeled suddenly and rushed on Fremont
before Shields could reach him. On June 8, at Cross Keys, he crushed
Fremont, turned with sudden eagle swoop and defeated Shields at Port
Republic.

Washington believed that Jackson commanded an enormous army, and that
the National Capital was in danger of his invading host. The defeated
armies of Milroy, Banks, Fremont and Shields were all drawn in to defend
the city.

In this campaign of a few weeks Jackson had marched his infantry six
hundred miles, fought four pitched battles and seven minor engagements.
He had defeated four armies, each gre