A rapid glance at the events of the year in their general outlines will indicate the merit due the Southern commander.  The Federal plan of invasion in the spring had been extremely formidable.  Virginia was to be pierced by no less than four armies—­from the northwest, the Shenandoah Valley, the Potomac, and the Peninsula—­the whole force to converge upon Richmond, the “heart of the rebellion.”  Of these, the army of General McClellan was the largest and most threatening.  It advanced, with little opposition, until it reached the Chickahominy, crossed, and lay in sight of Richmond.  The great force of one hundred and fifty thousand men was about to make the decisive assault, when Lee attacked it, and the battle which ensued drove the Federal army to a point thirty miles from the city, with such loss as to render hopeless any further attempt to assail the capital.

Such was the first act of the drama; the rest speedily followed.  A new army was raised promptly by the Federal authorities, and a formidable advance was made against Richmond again, this time from the direction of Alexandria.  Lee was watching General McClellan when intelligence of the new movement reached him.  Remaining, with a portion of his troops, near Richmond, he sent Jackson to the Rapidan.  The battle of Cedar Mountain resulted in the repulse of General Pope’s vanguard; and, discovering at last that the real danger lay in the direction of Culpepper, Lee moved thither, drove back General Pope, flanked him, and, in the severe battle of Manassas, routed his army, which was forced to retire upon Washington.

Two armies had thus been driven from the soil of Virginia, and the Confederate commander had moved into Maryland, in order to draw the enemy thither, and, if practicable, transfer the war to the heart of Pennsylvania.  Unforeseen circumstances had defeated the latter of these objects.  The concentration on Sharpsburg was rendered necessary; an obstinately-fought battle ensued there; and, not defeated, but forced to abandon further movements toward Pennsylvania, Lee had retired into Virginia, where he remained facing his adversary.  This was the first failure of Lee up to that point in the campaigns of the year; and an attentive consideration of the circumstances will show that the result was not fairly attributable to any error which he had committed.  Events beyond his control had shaped his action, and directed all his movements; and it will remain a question whether the extrication of his small force from its difficult position did not better prove Lee’s generalship than the victory at Manassas.