“WIFE OF ROBERT LEE, GENERAL C.S.A.”

The ladies finally repaired for safety to the city of Richmond, and the White House was burned either before or when General McClellan retreated.  The place was not without historic interest, as the scene of Washington’s first interview with Martha Custis, who afterward became his wife.  He was married either at St. Peter’s Church near by, or in the house which originally stood on the site of the one now destroyed by the Federal forces.  Its historic associations thus failed to protect the White House, and, like Arlington, it fell a sacrifice to the pitiless hand of war.

From this species of digression we come back to the narrative of public events, and the history of the great series of battles which were to make the banks of the Chickahominy historic ground.  On taking command, Lee had assiduously addressed himself to the task of increasing the efficiency of the army:  riding incessantly to and fro, he had inspected with his own eyes the condition of the troops; officers of the commissary, quartermaster, and ordnance departments were held to a strict accountability; and, in a short time, the army was in a high state of efficiency.

“What was the amount of the Confederate force under command of Lee?” it may be asked.  The present writer is unable to state this number with any thing like exactness.  The official record, if in existence, is not accessible, and the matter must be left to conjecture.  It is tolerably certain, however, that, even after the arrival of Jackson, the army numbered less than seventy-five thousand.  Officers of high rank and character state the whole force to have been sixty or seventy thousand only.

It will thus be seen that the Federal army was larger than the Confederate; but this was comparatively an unimportant fact.  The event was decided rather by generalship than the numbers of the combatants.

IV

LEE RESOLVES TO ATTACK.

General Lee assumed command of the army on the 3d of June.  A week afterward, Jackson finished the great campaign of the Valley, by defeating Generals Fremont and Shields at Port Republic.

Such had been the important services performed by the famous “Stonewall Jackson,” who was to become the “right arm” of Lee in the greater campaigns of the future.  Retreating, after the defeat of General Banks, and passing through Strasburg, just as Fremont from the west, and the twenty thousand men of General McDowell from the east, rushed to intercept him, Jackson had sullenly fallen back up the Valley, with all his captured stores and prisoners, and at Cross Keys and Port Republic had achieved a complete victory over his two adversaries.  Fremont was checked by Ewell, who then hastened across to take part in the attack on Shields.  The result was a Federal defeat and retreat down the Valley.  Jackson was free to move in any direction; and his army could unite with that at Richmond for a decisive attack upon General McClellan.