he kept three major-generals and sixty thousand troops
awake nights with fifteen thousand men, saved Richmond, scared
Washington into fits, and prevented the union of McClellan's and
McDowell's forces. Had there been more such men, and a little more
confidence in the great volume of typographical errors called
Confederate money, the lovely character who pens these lines might have
had a different tale to tell.

May 31 and June 1 occurred the battle of Fair Oaks, where McClellan's
men floundering in the mud of the Chickahominy swamps were pounced upon
by General Johnston, who was wounded the first day. On the following
day, as a result of this accident, Johnston's men were repulsed in
disorder.

General Robert E. Lee, who was now in command of the Confederate forces,
desired to make his army even more offensive than it had been, and on
June 12 General Stuart led off with his cavalry, made the entire circuit
of the Union army, saw how it looked from behind, and returned to
Richmond, much improved in health, having had several meals of victuals
while absent.

Hooker now marched to where he could see the dome of the court-house at
Richmond, but just then McClellan heard that Jackson had been seen in
the neighborhood of Hanover Court-House, and so decided to change his
base. General McClellan was a man of great refinement, and would never
use the same base over a week at a time.

He had hardly got the base changed when Lee fell upon his flank at
Mechanicsville, June 26, and the Seven Days' battle followed. The Union
troops fought and fell back, fought and fell back, until Malvern Hill
was reached, where, worn with marching, choked with dust, and broken
down by the heat, to which they were unaccustomed, they made their last
stand, July 1. Here Lee got such a reception that he did not insist on
going any farther.

But the Union army was cooped up on the James River. The siege of
Richmond had been abandoned, and the North felt blue and discouraged.
Three hundred thousand more men were called for, and it seemed that, as
in the South, "the cradle and the grave were to be robbed" for more
troops.

Lee now decided to take Washington and butcher Congress to make a Roman
holiday. General Pope met the Confederates August 26, and while Lee and
Jackson were separated could have whipped the latter had the Army of the
Potomac reinforced him as it should, but, full of malaria and foot-sore
with marching, it did not reach him in tim