een them and its oozy swamps bewildered his staff.

Hearing that McDowell need not be feared, Johnston attacked at
daylight on the thirty-first of May. The battle of Seven Pines
(known also as Fair Oaks) was not unlike Shiloh. The Federals were
taken by surprise on the first day and only succeeded in holding
their own by hard fighting and with a good deal of loss. A mistake
was made by the Confederate division told off for the attack on the
key to the Federal front (an attack which, if completely successful,
would have split the Federals in two) and the main bodies were
engaged before this fatal error could be rectified. So the surprised
Federals gradually recovered from the first shock and began to
feel and use their hitherto unrealized strength. On the second
day (the first of June) Johnston, who had been severely wounded,
was plainly defeated and compelled to fall back on Richmond again.

On the morrow of this defeat Lee was appointed to "the immediate
command of the armies in eastern Virginia and North Carolina."
Davis was not war statesman enough to make him Commander-in-Chief
till '65--four years too late. Johnston did not reappear till he
tried to relieve Vicksburg from the determined attacks of Grant
in '63.

The twelfth of June will be remembered forever in the annals of
cavalry for Stuart's first great ride round McClellan's host. With
twelve hundred troopers and two horse artillery guns he stole out
beyond the western flank of the Federals and reached Taylorsville that
evening, twenty-two miles north of Richmond. Next day he rode right in
among the Federal posts in rear, discovering that McClellan's right
stretched little north of the Chickahominy, that it was not fortified,
and that it did not rest on any strong natural feature, such as a
swampy stream. This was exactly the information Lee required. So
far, so good. The Federals met with up to this time had simply been
ridden down. But now the whole country was alarmed and McClellan
had forces out to cut Stuart off on his return, while General Cooke
(Stuart's father-in-law) began to pursue him from Hanover Court
House.

Then Stuart took the boldest step of all, deciding to go clear round
the rest of the Federal army. At Tunstall's Station on the York
River Railroad he routed the guard, tore up the track, destroyed the
stores and wagons, cut the wires, burnt the bridge, and replenished
his supplies. Thence southeast, by the Williamsburg road, his column