ntry,
away from its regular communications. In the first place, there was no
transportation, and the arms were bad. It was a work of time to utilize
the spoils; to distribute arms where most needed; to put the captured
batteries in condition for use; and to replace with the splendid
ambulances and army wagons, that had been prepared for the holiday
march to Richmond, the hastily and clumsily-constructed ones already in
use; and to so give out the captured horses as best to utilize them.
This latter was of the utmost moment before an advance could be
attempted. The Confederates were shorter of transportation--even of
defective character--than of anything else; and for days after the
fight the flood-gates of heaven seemed to stand open, to deluge the
country around Manassas until it became a perfect lake of mud. Roads
already bad were washed into gullies; holes generally knee-deep became
impassable. It is perfectly easy, therefore, to understand why, for a
week after the battle, delay was necessary; but as week after week
passed, and there was still no forward movement, it ceased to be
strange that the people should murmur, and ask why it was the army was
satisfied with laurels easily won when fresh ones were within its
grasp. All felt that veteran officers handling raw troops had to be
more careful in their management, and to count more closely before
putting them into the new and dangerous position of an invading army,
than would meet with the concurrence of a populace naturally ardent and
doubly heated by triumph.

But it is equally true that for ten days after the battle, Washington
lay perfectly at the mercy of the South; and by that time the army of
Manassas was in better condition than could be expected later; and it
was anxious to move forward.

But the auspicious moment was not seized; time was given for the broken
fragments of the Union army to be patched again into something like
organization. Fresh forts and earthworks were hastily thrown up; a
perfect chain of defenses formed around Washington, and strongly
garrisoned. The pickets of the opposing armies were near enough to
exchange constant shots, and even occasional "chaff."

Still there was no movement; the summer wore away in utter inactivity.
The camp at Orange Courthouse began to be looked upon as a stationary
affair; while the usual difficulties of camp life--aggravated by the
newness of the troops and the natural indisposition of the southron to
re