r of the
garrison streamed northward through the deserted camps. The results
of this attack more than compensated for the exertions the troops had
undergone. Only 15 Confederates had been wounded, and the supplies on
which Pope's army, whether it was intended to move against Longstreet
or merely to hold the line of the Rappahannock, depended both for
food and ammunition were in Jackson's hands.

August 27.

The next morning Hill's and Taliaferro's divisions joined Trimble.
Ewell remained at Bristoe; cavalry patrols were sent out in every
direction, and Jackson, riding to Manassas, saw before him the reward
of his splendid march. Streets of warehouses, stored to overflowing,
had sprung up round the Junction. A line of freight cars, two miles
in length, stood upon the railway. Thousands of barrels, containing
flour, pork, and biscuit, covered the neighbouring fields. Brand-new
ambulances were packed in regular rows. Field-ovens, with the fires
still smouldering, and all the paraphernalia of a large bakery,
attracted the wondering gaze of the Confederate soldiery; while great
pyramids of shot and shell, piled with the symmetry of an arsenal,
testified to the profusion with which the enemy's artillery was
supplied.

It was a strange commentary on war. Washington was but a long day's
march to the north; Warrenton, Pope's headquarters, but twelve miles
distant to the south-west; and along the Rappahannock, between
Jackson and Lee, stood the tents of a host which outnumbered the
whole Confederate army. No thought of danger had entered the minds of
those who selected Manassas Junction as the depot of the Federal
forces. Pope had been content to leave a small guard as a protection
against raiding cavalry. Halleck, concerned only with massing the
whole army on the Rappahannock, had used every effort to fill the
storehouses. If, he thought, there was one place in Virginia where
the Stars and Stripes might be displayed in full security, that place
was Manassas Junction; and here, as nowhere else, the wealth of the
North had been poured out with a prodigality such as had never been
seen in war. To feed, clothe, and equip the Union armies no
expenditure was deemed extravagant. For the comfort and well-being of
the individual soldier the purse-strings of the nation were freely
loosed. No demand, however preposterous, was disregarded. The markets
of Europe were called upon to supply the deficiencies of the States;
and if money cou