situation which was to make itself manifest,
with extraordinary results, at a later period.

June 14.

On June 14, Johnston destroyed the railway bridge over the Potomac,
removed the machinery that had been rescued from the arsenal, burned
the public buildings, and the next day retired on Winchester. His
immediate opponent, General Patterson, had crossed the Pennsylvania
border, and, moving through Maryland, had occupied Williamsport with
14,000 men. A detachment of Confederate militia had been driven from
Romney, thirty-five miles north-west of Winchester, and the general
forward movement of the enemy had become pronounced.

June 20.

On June 20 Jackson's brigade was ordered to destroy the workshops of
the Baltimore and Ohio Railway at Martinsburg, together with the
whole of the rolling stock that might there be found, and to support
the cavalry. The first of these tasks, although Martinsburg is no
more than ten miles distant from Williamsport, was easily
accomplished. Four locomotives were sent back to Winchester, drawn by
teams of horses; and several more, together with many waggons, were
given to the flames. The second task demanded no unusual exertions.
The Federals, as yet, manifested no intention of marching upon
Winchester, nor was the Confederate cavalry in need of immediate
assistance. The force numbered 300 sabres. The men were untrained;
but they were first-rate horsemen, they knew every inch of the
country, and they were exceedingly well commanded. Lieutenant-Colonel
J.E.B. Stuart, who had been a captain of dragoons in the United
States army, had already given token of those remarkable qualities
which were afterwards to make him famous. Of an old Virginia family,
he was the very type of the Cavalier, fearless and untiring,
"boisterous as March, yet fresh as May."

Educated at West Point, and trained in Indian fighting in the
prairies, he brought to the great struggle upon which he had now
entered a thorough knowledge of arms, a bold and fertile conception,
and a constitution of body which enabled him to bear up against
fatigues which would have prostrated the strength of other men. Those
who saw him at this time are eloquent in their description of the
energy and the habits of the man. They tell how he remained almost
constantly in the saddle; how he never failed to instruct personally
every squad which went out on picket; how he was everywhere present,
at all hours of the day and night, along the li