Norfolk nothing had been done but to strengthen the defenses.
General Huger had striven to keep his men employed; and they, at least,
did not despise the enemy that frowned at them from Fort Monroe, and
frequently sent messages of compliment into their camps from the lips
of the "Sawyer gun." The echo of the paeans from Manassas came back to
them, but softened by distance and tempered by their own experience--or
want of it.

In Western Virginia there had been a dull, eventless campaign, of
strategy rather than action. General Wise had taken command on the
first of June, and early in August had been followed by General John B.
Floyd--the ex-U.S. Secretary of War.

These two commanders unfortunately disagreed as to means and conduct of
the campaign; and General R. E. Lee was sent to take general command on
this--his first theater of active service. His management of the
campaign was much criticised in many quarters; and the public verdict
seemed to be that, though he had an army of twenty thousand men, tolerably
equipped and familiar with the country, Rosecrans out-manoeuvered him
and accomplished his object in amusing so considerable a Confederate
force. Certain it is that, after fronting Lee at Big Sewell for ten or
twelve days, he suddenly withdrew in the night, without giving the
former even a chance for a fight.

The dissatisfaction was universal and outspoken; nor was it relieved by
the several brilliant episodes of Gauley and Cotton Hill, that General
Floyd managed to throw into his dark surroundings.

It is hard to tell how much foundation the press and the public had for
this opinion. There had been no decisive disaster, if there had been no
actual gain; and the main result had been to maim men and show that
both sides would fight well enough to leave all collisions matters of
doubt.

It may not here be out of place to correct a false impression that has
crept into the history of the times regarding General Floyd. The
courteous press of the North--and not a few political enemies who felt
safety in their distance from him--constantly branded him as "traitor"
and "thief." They averred that he had misused his position and betrayed
the confidence reposed in him as U.S. Secretary of War, to send
government arms into the South in view of the approaching need for
them. Even General Scott--whose position must have given him the means
of knowing better--reiterates these calumnies, the falsity of which the
least inv