lines ought never to have consented to take part in a war evidently so contrary to his inward convictions.

This fine epistle was doomed to have no effect at Washington, as is proved to conviction by the fashion in which this inauspicious war was carried on afterwards.

In consequence, it is said, of the opinions expressed above by MacClellan, altogether contrary to those of the party then in power, it was thought necessary to dismiss him from his duties. He had an especially determined enemy in General Halleck, the Federal War Minister. MacClellan wished to cross the James, attack Petersburg, and so cut off all communications between Richmond and the rest of the South. This plan, which succeeded later, in 1865, with General Grant, was not approved by General Halleck and the President, in 1862, probably because they had decided on dismissing MacClellan.

General Lee, on this matter, shared the view of General MacClellan. To those in his confidence he explained how much, more vulnerable Richmond was on the southern side. The course of events proved it.

CHAPTER VIII.

AUGUST 1862.-POPE ADVANCES INTO VIRGINIA.—JACKSON STOPS HIM AT CEDAR RUN. SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS.-POPE TAKES REFUGE UNDER WASHINGTON.

ALTHOUGH the presence of Jackson's corps at the battle of Cold Harbour might have been ascertained, so great was the fright which his unforeseen movements had caused in the councils of President Lincoln, that it was decided a Federal army should remain between Washington and the Rappahannock to cover the capital. Fremont and Banks received orders to cross the mountains and join MacDowell's corps, and thus to constitute an army of 60,000 men. The whole were put under the orders of MajorGeneral Pope, who had signalised himself in the West by some successes more imaginary than real-so said slander. This army was called the army of Virginia. Pope was full of energy, and might probably have distinguished himself as a division-general under a skilful leader, but he was entirely unfit for the commandin-chief. Although the principal mission of the new general-inchief was to cover Washington, it was well understood that his ultimate object was Richmond.

The defeat of the army of the Potomac spread consternation in the North. MacClellan's enemies, at whose head were General Halleck, who had succeeded General Scott as generalissimo, and the War Minister, Staunton, profited by it to ruin him. Without taking account of the skill and energy he had shown, and which, indeed, had saved the army of the Potomac, Mr. Lincoln,

on the 5th of August, transmitted MacClellan an order to retire from the Peninsula, and join his forces with those of General Pope in the neighbourhood of Acquia Creek, on the Potomac. If Mr. Lincoln could have known that in recalling MacClellan he was doing precisely what Lee most desired, perhaps he would have altered his mind.

Otherwise, the Federal Government acted with vigour, and military operations, except in Virginia, were conducted with success. In the west and south, the entire course of the Mississippi, except at Vicksburg, was in its hands. New Orleans and Memphis belonged to it, and the Confederate army of the west had retired from Corinth to Tupelo. But MacClellan's defeat paled all these triumphs. Without losing heart, President Lincoln made another appeal for 300,000 soldiers. Congress enacted several important laws; one confiscating the slaves of all who supported the Southern cause; another authorizing the levy of negro troops; a third enjoining on Federal officers to seize `and make use of, for their convenience, all property belonging to the Southerners, landed or moveable, without at all indemnifying the persons so despoiled. Thus, the Southern States were thrust beyond the pale of the law, and the Draconian programme of the radicals had it all its own way.

The arrival of General Pope's army in Northern Virginia was signalised by several orders of the day remarkable for their brutality, and for the iniquitous system so inaugurated of making war contrary to the usages of civilized nations.

Every time damage was done to a railway, high-road, or telegraph, all the inhabitants for two miles round were obliged to repair it at their own expense. If a shot were fired from a house on a Federal soldier or other servant, that house was rased to the ground, and those who lived in it sent to prison. Everybody taken in the act was shot on the spot.

One of Pope's subordinates, Brigadier-General Steinwehr, hastened to put these orders into execution. He arrested five

of the most notable citizens of Luray, in Page County, Virginia, and kept them as hostages. They were admitted to his table and decently treated, but for every soldier who fell under the bullets of guerillas, numerous in those parts, and, indeed, at all times of disorder, one of these hostages was to be shot. The order of the day added that guerillas could not maintain their stand were they not encouraged by the citizens of the country. If the pretext urged by Pope had been true, perhaps these measures might have been excusable; but the damage done to railways was the work of Confederate soldiers acting under the orders of their government. It was in cases of legitimate defence that Federal soldiers were slain. The true end of these orders of the day, inspired by the radicals, was to strike terror into the Virginians. The honourable spirit of MacClellan would never have lent itself to such

manœuvres.

But Pope dared still more. He published a new order of the day, directing officers under his command to arrest all the inhabitants of localities occupied by Federal troops. Those of them who consented to pay fealty and homage to the United States, giving sufficient guarantees, would be authorized to remain in their houses. Those, on the contrary, who refused to take the oath demanded would be conducted to the Confederate outposts. They were cautioned that if they reappeared in the neighbourhood of their old dwellings they would be treated as spies, and shot without mercy. Whoever violated the oath taken was likewise shot, and all his goods confiscated. Whoever had the least connection with persons within the enemy's lines, whoever was surprised carrying letters or any other communication whatever, was to be treated as a spy.

These measures scattered consternation. To take an oath to the Federal Government filled everybody with horror: exile was complete ruin. Despite all representations made to General Pope, he persisted in his orders. Authorized to live at the expense of the Confederate country, the Northern troops did not

delay to assume habits of pillage much to be regretted. Nothing escaped them. Nothing was left to the unfortunate inhabitants. The greatest trickery the Federal soldiers conceived was to palm off in the district false Confederate bank notes, which the Virginians, unsuspicious of the deceit, eagerly accepted. In order the more effectually to deliver up the conquered country to the brutal appetites of his soldiers, General Pope, by a new order of the day, forbade the placing of sentinels to protect certain estates, which some of the officers had had the delicacy to do.

At length the Confederate Government was obliged to interfere. A proclamation of President Davis, bearing date August 1st, 1862, after having recited all the measures adopted by General Pope, the result of which was to cause a war, hitherto an enterprise against regular troops, to degenerate into an expedition of maurauders, pillagers, and brigands, against peaceable and unarmed citizens occupied in field labours; added that the Confederate Government, influenced by a sentiment of justice and humanity, did not wish to make use of reprisals towards mere Federal soldiers happening to be prisoners, who could only be the involuntary instruments of such cruelties, but that formal orders had been given that Generals Pope and Steinwehr, as well as all the officers serving under these two generals, should no longer be treated as soldiers and exchanged on parole; and, further, that all Federal officers taken after the day of the proclamation should be imprisoned securely, and that in every case where a citizen of the Confederate States was assassinated under any pretext whatever, a Federal officer should be hung for each Confederate shot.

This proclamation produced its effect. On the 15th of August the Federal Government modified its instructions so as to satisfy the legitimate demands of the Confederates. General Pope,

Be

indeed, pretended that his orders had been misinterpreted. that as it may, the evil was cut at its root. All motives for reprisal having ceased, on the 24th of September, 97 officers