admirable good nature and _sang froid_. To all appearance, equally
secure in his own views and indifferent to public odium, he passed from
reverse to reverse with perfectly bland manner and unwearying courtesy;
and his rosy, smiling visage impressed all who approached him with
vague belief that he had just heard good news, which would be
immediately promulgated for public delectation.

The other members of the Cabinet, though not equally unpopular, still
failed fully to satisfy the great demands of the people. Two of them
were daily arraigned before the tribunal of the press--with what
reason, I shall endeavor, hereafter, to show.

Mr. Reagan's administration of the Post-office, while very bad, was
possibly as good as any one else could have inaugurated, with the short
rolling-stock and cut roads of ill-managed, or unmanaged systems; and
the Attorney-General was of so little importance for the moment as to
create but little comment.

Thus the permanent government of the struggling South was inaugurated
amid low-lowering clouds. Every wind from the North and West threatened
to burst them into overwhelming flood; while, within the borders of the
nascent Nation, no ray of sunshine yet reflected from behind their
somber curtain.

And through the gloom--with no groping hand and with unfaltering
tread;--straight to the fixed purport of its own unalterable purpose,
strode the great, incarnate Will that could as little bend to clamor,
as break under adversity!

CHAPTER XX.

FROM SHILOH TO NEW ORLEANS.

Within two weeks of his inauguration, the strongly hopeful words of
President Davis seemed to approach fulfillment, through the crushing
victory of the "Merrimac" in Hampton Roads, on the 8th March. There was
no doubt of the great success of her first experiment; and the people
augured from it a series of brilliant and successful essays upon the
water. The late bugbear--gunboats--began to pale before the terrible
strength of this modern war-engine; and hopes were cherished that the
supremacy afloat--which had been the foundation of the claim of Federal
victory--was at an end.

On the 23d of the same month, Jackson--who was steadily working his way
to the foremost place in the mighty group of heroes--struck the enemy a
heavy blow at Kernstown. His success, if not of great material benefit,
was at least cheering from its brilliance and dash.

But the scale, that trembled and seemed about to turn in favor of the