Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1905-03-04
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE HEART OF LINCOLN.

Solemn days are these that follow.
Losing over third of its force engaged
in this furious initial battle. the bril-
gade shares the lot Of the rest of the
army and, after two days more of
fruitless fighting is ordered to fall back
on Washington. Many OF the wounded
ohieers have been sent ahead without
discrimination as TO friend or foe,
and Benton's general. broken down by
illness and exhaustion, is borne by am.
bulance to the capital and bids Fred
go in search of his prisoner friend.
How the tables of war have turnedi
Four months ago that young Virginian
lay iE clover at Charlottesville. petted
and soothed by the prettiest girls to
be found in the court of Queen Rosalie.
while Benton, 4 prisoner patient, moped
in huhv dignity and merited semi-ne-
glect. Now tho Nirginian lies in splints
and stutfy room in parboiled Wash
ington, far from the pretty girls of
Albemarle, yet assiduously cared for
by their queen Washington is now
one vast hospital, whose walls echo
night and day the moan of fevered
sufferer, the dull thunder of distant
guns, the rumble of rolling cannon.
the tramp of soldier hosts, for Lee
80 l-~p1d the Potomac ana gone ca
.~~...-9 nottEward toward tie Pennsyl-
ANA ale. Pope, Mcdowell and Sigel
J.. retired in favor of Mcclellan.
20 CT and Porter, the little chief
an called TO the fore, while the
~. CT the sack campaign sits
D. gins'lra ttxy.. ~ inc
IS AID doublings of the hare that
oSlCn't be caught until there were
mares enough to smother the hounds. 1t
IS fortnight of fruitlesS recrimination,
OF pushing for place and not for the
Zoe, OF intrigue and SANDER, of loyal
victims and disloyal triumph 1t is a
fortnight in which the fortunes of the
union seem drifting TO the lowest ebh.
with all the mud and slime and wreck
age and putrescence hitherto hidden in
the surSing tide of the campaign, now
revealed to public gaze, a stencil to-.
public nostrils. 1t is a fortnight of
funerals. All, what hundreds of gallant
boys have We to mourn, what scores
OF noble names on both sides! Wrung
to the uttermost is the great lonely.
striving to bring order out of chaos.
hope out Of the slough of despond.
victory from dire and persistent de-
feat. Small wonder is it that in the
contemplation of the tremendous peril
that confrontS the nation, Lincoln can
find little time to listen to innumerable
personal appeals, to individual claims
presented by insistent senators. to the
stories of self-seeking, self-sufficient
patriots demanding the doing of this,
the undoing of that. 1t is a fortnight
in which Stanton, at the war office.
Is overwhelmed with work and worry.
and grows even more testy and imper-
iouS. 1t is q fortnight in which, despite
orders and precautions, swarms Of
officers who should be with their com
mands are buzzing about congress and
the caravanserais, when every man is
needed at the front and thousands are
sulking at the rear, when the regiments
OF the Army of the Potomac and of
Virginia that marched forth in the
springtide in such splendid array, with
such crowded ranks, are silently, shah
Oily slipping through the outskirts,
mere ragged shadows OF their former
selves, yet to their everlasting credit
be it said, loyal and subordinate still.
and confident in their faith that they
can yet whip Lee 1t is a fortnight in
which many and many sad-faced SOL
der comes away from the war DEPART