he general gloom through the country began to wear off,
but that feeling of overweening confidence, in which the people had so
universally indulged, was much shaken; and it was with some misgivings
as to the perfect certainty of success that they began to look upon the
tremendous preparations for the Virginia campaign, to which the North
was bending its every effort, under the personal supervision of General
Scott. The bitterness that the mass of the people of the
South--especially in Virginia--felt against that officer did not affect
their exalted opinion of his vast grasp of mind and great military
science. The people, as a body, seldom reason deeply upon such points;
and it would probably have been hard to find out why it was so; but the
majority of his fellow-statesmen certainly feared and hated "the
general" in about an equal degree. It was a good thing for the South
that this was the case; and that the mighty "On to Richmond!"--the
clang of which was resounding to the farthest limits of the North and
sending its threatening echoes over the Potomac--was recognized by them
as a serious and determined attempt upon the new Capital.

Every fresh mail, through "the blockade," brought more and more
astounding intelligence of these vast preparations. Every fresh cap
that was exploded, every new flag that was broidered, was duly
chronicled by the rabid press. The editors of the North seemed to have
gone military mad; and when they did not dictate plans of battles,
lecture their government and bully its generals, they told wondrous
stories of an army that Xerxes might have gaped to see.

All the newspaper bombast could easily be sifted, however; and private
letters from reliable sources of intelligence over the Potomac all
agreed as to the vast scale and perfection of arrangement of the onward
movement. The public pulse in the South had settled again to a steady
and regular beat; but it visibly quickened as the time of trial
approached.

And that time could not be long delayed!

The army of Virginia was in great spirits. Each change of
position--every fresh disposition of troops--told them that their
leaders expected a fight at any moment; and they panted for it and
chafed under the necessary restraints of discipline, like hounds in the
leash.

When General Johnston took command of the "Army of the Shenandoah" at
Harper's Ferry, he at once saw that with the small force at his command
the position was untenable. To hol