uraged and baffled troops and officers of the
Union retreated or ran pell-mell across the northern counties of
Virginia into Washington, to the dismay of Lincoln and the friends of
the Federal cause. It was at this moment, too, that Bragg was advancing,
as already described, into Kentucky and threatening to seize Lexington
and Louisville. It was a dark hour to the patient and patriotic Lincoln,
who had never dreamed that such catastrophes could be the result of his
reluctant decision, in early April, 1861, to hold Fort Sumter.

General Halleck proved uncertain and dilatory; the Army of the Potomac
was generally dissatisfied and clamoring for the restoration of
McClellan, who, like Joseph E. Johnston, of the South, was always
popular with his men; the Cabinet, too, was uncertain and hopelessly
divided in its counsels. The cause of the Union was exceedingly doubtful
in September, 1862, as Lee entered Maryland, publishing abroad his call
to the Southern element of that State to rise and join their brethren of
the Confederacy. Public opinion in the North was divided and depressed.
The abolitionists of the East were pressing every day through Sumner and
Chase for a proclamation emancipating the slaves, which might have
driven Maryland and Kentucky into the arms of the enemy; the Northwest
was in turmoil, for there abolitionism was as unpopular as slavery
itself, and leading men declared that it was a war for the Union, for a
great common country, not a struggle to overthrow the institutions of
the South. There was still no great party, sure of a majority in the
coming elections, upon which the President could rely, and the loss of a
majority in Congress would have been fatal.

Under these circumstances Lee, Longstreet, and Jackson entered Maryland
at a point some fifty miles above Washington, with their army
enthusiastic and self-confident because of recent victories. It seemed
almost certain that another victory, and this on the soil of the North,
would secure Confederate recognition in Europe. Reluctantly Lincoln
restored McClellan to the command of the Union army which was moving
northwestward to confront Lee. An accident, one of those small things in
war which sometimes determines the fate of nations, put into McClellan's
hands the orders of Lee for the Maryland campaign. General D. H. Hill
dropped his copy of these important and highly confidential instructions
upon the ground as he was breaking camp on the morning of t