that "we have great reason to
be grateful to kind Providence, and applaud the skill and energy of
our commanding officers for the miraculous escape of our men from
utter annihilation." O.R. volume 12 part 1 pages 573 and 611.)

But the Northern people were not to be deceived. The truth was but
too apparent; and long before Banks had found leisure to write his
report, terror had taken possession of the nation. While the soldiers
of the Valley lay round Winchester, reposing from their fatigues, and
regaling themselves on the captured stores, the Governors of thirteen
States were calling on their militia to march to the defence of
Washington. Jackson had struck a deadly blow. Lincoln and Stanton
were electrified even more effectually than Banks. They issued an
urgent call for more troops. "There is no doubt," wrote Stanton to
the Governor of Massachusetts, "that the enemy in great force are
marching on Washington." In the cities of the North the panic was
indescribable. As the people came out of church the newsboys were
crying, "Defeat of General Banks! Washington in danger!" The
newspaper offices were surrounded by anxious crowds. In the morning
edition of the New York Herald a leader had appeared which was headed
"Fall of Richmond." The same evening it was reported that the whole
of the rebel army was marching to the Potomac. Troops were hurried to
Harper's Ferry from Baltimore and Washington. The railways were
ordered to place their lines at the disposal of the Government.
McDowell, on the eve of starting to join McClellan, was ordered to
lay aside the movement, and to send half his army to the Valley.* (*
Shields' and Ord's divisions of infantry, and Bayard's brigade of
cavalry, numbering all told 21,200 officers and men.) Fremont, who
was about to join his column from the Great Kanawha, was called upon
to support Banks. McClellan was warned, by the President himself,
that the enemy was making a general movement northward, and that he
must either attack Richmond forthwith or come to the defence of
Washington. A reserve corps of 50,000 men was ordered to be organised
at once, and stationed permanently near the capital; and in one day
nearly half a million American citizens offered their services to
save the Union.

Jackson's success was as complete as it was sudden. The second
diversion against Washington was as effective as the first, and the
victory at Winchester even more prolific of results than the defeat
at Ke