The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-01-07

REAUREGARD 10 MANASSAS JUNCTION.
Between thiseu Outlying members was
placed the main hedy Of the Confederate
5Gs nns.aas fgo q Gs seassae ss
from AlexandrM tand the point OF Inter.
section of the great Southern Railroad
route between Washington and Richmond
and the Manassas Gap Railroad, leading to
the Valley of tie Systematically the other
per's Ferry. TIE force assembled and as
sembling at the former OF these camps was
at first under the orders of Gen. BonhAm,
of South Caroline tai but before the close of
May, the obvious Importance of the posi-
from spaY S Srsse
authorities to assign to its command the
man enjoying the first military reputation
in the South. This was was Gen. Beaure-
gard, and the region of country under his
control was named the Department of the
Potomac"
JOHNSTON SUPERSEDED JACKSON.
The body of troops collected at Harp
er's Ferry, and which, at the close of the
month Of May consisted of nine regiments
and two battalions of infantry, four COM
panies of artillery. and about 300 troop
ers,% had been formed under the hand OF
man, then of no name. but destined to
become one of the foremost figures of the
war-Col. Thomas Jonathan Jackson, bet
ter known in the worlds bead-roll of fame
as "Stonewall Jackson" A Lieutenant of
Artillery. in the United States service dur
retired to q professorship in. the Virginia
Military Institute, beyond whose walls he
was quite unknown, and within which he
was marked only for his personal eccentri-
cities. stern puritanism. and inhexible dis
cipline. Upon the secession of Virginia,
hal nv,1 knSv,
appointed by Governor Letcher to Col
onelcy in the Virginia line. he was imme-
diately sent forward to command the Con-
federate troops at Harper's Ferry. About
the time, however, that Bonham was re-
placed by Beauregard, the command of the
style of the "Army of the Shenandoah
was committed to the hands of Gen. ]. y.
Johnston; and Col. Jackson, assigned a
subordinate command under that able sol
der, devoted himself to moulding into form
and stamping with the qualities of his own
whose battlefag led the van in that series
of audacious enterprises that afterwards
rendered the Valley of the Shenandoah his
toric ground. Gen. Johnston's other sub
ordinates were men, of scarcely inferior
quently one of Lees ablest Iieutenants,
was at the head of another of his brigades !;
Pendleton was Chief of Artillery; and his
few squadrons of Virginia horsemen were
under command of Col. j. K. B. Stuart,
whom even then Johnston styled 1.-THE in
defatigable," and who was also destined to
a greater fame.
SURPLUS OF VOLUNTEERS.
Thus far, the line of the Potomac had
not been crossed. The soil of Virginia,
which her Inhabitants loved proudly to style
sacred" had felt the tread of no invading
force. Popular notions hardly went beyond
many men who awefs supposed to be ey Skilled
in the calendarim state, but even the shep-
herds of the people, still fattered them
selves with the Hope that there would be
no war-that all that was needed to quell
the rebellion was an imposing display
of force.+ Meanwhile. volunteers. burden
ing all the railways that, from the North
and East and West, converge on Wash
ington, continued to accumulate on the
Potomac. The Instruction that for time
had threatened, to involve Maryland, and
bad broken out in open attack upon the
first Federal troops that passed through
Baltimore hadabeen subdued by the firm
policy OF the Administration and direct
railroad communication between the Ma
ltional CapitaIiiand, the North for a time
interrupted, had now been restored. BY
the. middle OF May, between 20. gnd so
ton; and, at Ghambersburg, Pa, large
force was accommodating under. Gen. Pat
terSon, which by its position menaced
Harper's Ferry. The presidential call had
been for 10000 volunteers for term of
three months; but through the persuasion
of Gen. Scott, who well knew that it was
no three months affair, the Government
had on its hands, supplementary call for
10000 men, to serve for three years or. the
war was made. An increase of the force
OF the. Regular Army was also ordered.
These troops Were raised with the greatest
alacrity, and each State soon SO greatly
outran its assigned quota, that energetic
measures had to be taken to stop recruit
ing until Congress, having assembled in
extra session on the 4th Of July, authorized
a levy of SOC, 600 men. Meantime, the from.
tier had not been passed; and the pickets
lounging at the bridges that span the Po-
tomac from Washington to the Virginia
shore. and the gray-uniformed videts on
the southern bank, observed each other
without any hostile meaning in. their OPP
posing eyes.
SACRED SOIL OF VIRGINIA TRoDDEN By FED
ERAL SOLDIERS.
But when the day came that the popu-
lar vote on the question of secession was
taken, the war. which had thus far drift
were yet no tidings what the vote had been,
there was, nevertheless, no room for illu-
sion as to its scope and purport; and that
night, the night of the 23d Of May, the
van of the grand army" passed the Poto-
mac. After midnight, Ii. 0OO troops were
transferred by the Long Bridge, by the
Aqueduct, and by steamers to Alexandria,
situate on. the right bank of the Potomac,
and four or five miles below Washington.
The city of Aiexandria, and the flights of
Arlington, opposite Washington, with the
intermediate connecting points, were seized
without opposition. A few troopers, that
held the town as an outpost of the force at
Manassas, were captured; the remainder
galloped off to bear the weighty tidings.
The blooAess initiation Of operations was
becl0uded by but one event, the murder of
the young Col. Ellsworth, Of the Fire
Zouayes, who was shot by citizen within
q hotel Of the town of Alexandra, while
bearing away a Confederate flag, which he
had hauled down from the cupola of the
building. Powerful earthw0rks, as tetes-
de-pont to the Long Bridge and Aqueduct,
were Immediately constructed by the en-
gineers; and forts were laid out to cover
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