olonial independence. To blame him, was to censure the boys in blue
and the cause for which they fought. No man whose heart was not wholly
with the Northern armies in the struggle, could rise to an appreciation
of the character of Lincoln.

But the great heart of the North never ceased to beat in harmony with
the music of the union. The exceptions to the rule were so rare as to
scarcely merit notice. The "copperheads" and "knights of the golden
circle" will hardly cut so much of a figure in history as do the tories
of the Revolution.

On the 11th day of October, 1863, after an absence of three months
duration, during which time I had been commissioned major to fill the
vacancy caused by the death of Weber, I took passage at Washington on a
ramshackle train over the Orange and Alexandria railroad to go to the
front again. Storrs, whose wound had healed, joined me and we made the
journey together.

The train reached Bealton Station, north of the Rappahannock river, a
little before dark. The harbingers of a retreating army were beginning
to troop in from the front. The army of the Potomac was falling back
toward the fastnesses of Centerville, the army of Northern Virginia in
close pursuit. Meade, who in July was chasing Lee across the Potomac
back into Virginia, was himself now being hurried by Lee over the
Rappahannock. The tables had been completely turned. The pursued had
become the pursuer.

As usual, the flanking process had been resorted to. Using his cavalry
as a screen, Lee was attempting to maneuver his infantry around Meade's
right and, after the manner of Stonewall Jackson in the Second Bull Run
campaign of 1862, interpose between the federal army and Washington.

Thanks to the vigilance of his outposts, the union commander detected
the movement in time, and was able to thwart the strategy of his able
adversary. Keeping his army well in hand, he retreated to Bull Run,
Fairfax and Centerville.

While this was going on, there was a series of spirited encounters
between the union and confederate cavalry, commanded by Pleasonton and
Stuart, respectively--the former bringing up the rear, and covering the
retreat, the latter bold and aggressive as was his wont.

These affairs, which began on the 9th, culminated on the 11th in one of
the most exciting, if not brilliant, engagements of the war, Kilpatrick
taking a prominent part, second only to that performed by the heroic
John Buford and his First cavalry divis