failure, discouraging the country as much as Bull Run had done.
McClellan prepared and fully expected to move on Richmond again from
this new base, but early in August received orders to withdraw from the
Peninsula. By the middle of the month the dejected Army of the Potomac
was on its way north.

The last of June the Union forces in West Virginia, the Shenandoah
Valley, and in front of Washington were consolidated into one army, and
the same General Pope who had recently won laurels by the conquest of
Island Number Ten, put in command. His headquarters, he announced, were
to be in the saddle, and those who had criticised McClellan gave out
that the Union army's days of retreating were past. McClellan was called
from the Peninsula to strengthen this new movement.

Lee started north to crush Pope before McClellan should reach him. Pope
had but 50,000 men against Lee's 80,000, and fell back across the
Rappahannock. Lee sent Jackson on a far detour, via Thoroughfare Gap, to
get into his rear and cut his communications. Jackson moved rapidly
around to Manassas--one of the most brilliant exploits in all the
war--and destroyed Pope's immense supply depot there. On August 29th he
was attacked by Pope near the old battlefield of Bull Run. The first
day's fight was indecisive, but Confederate re-enforcements under
Longstreet arrived in time to join in the battle of the next. McClellan
was in no hurry to re-enforce his rival, but proposed "to leave Pope to
get out of his scrape as he might." Toward sunset in the battle of the
30th, Longstreet's column, doubling way around Jackson's right and
Pope's left, made a grand charge, taking Pope straight in the flank.
Porter's corps--the Fifth--part of McClellan's army, stood in the
"bloody angle" of cross-fire. His loss was dreadful--2,000 out of 9,000.
Pope was compelled to retire to Centreville. An engagement at Chantilly,
September 1st, forced a further retreat to Washington. Pope resigned,
and his army was merged in the Army of the Potomac, McClellan commanding
all.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
General Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson.

Lee now invaded Maryland with 60,000 men. Already the alarmed North
heard him knocking at its gates. Hastily re-organizing the army,
McClellan gave chase. Leaving a force to hold Turner's Gap in South
Mountain, Lee pushed on toward Pennsylvania. By the battle of South
Mountain, September 14th, Hooker got possession of the gap, and the
Union army