of the enemy, defeating his plans, and giving him battle wherever he was found!"* (* Some of Banks’ officers shared his opinion.  The captain of the Zouaves d’Afrique, the general’s body-guard, who had been cut off at Strasburg, but rejoined on the Potomac, reported that, “incredible as it may appear, my men marched 141 miles in 47 hours, as measured by Captain Abert,” and concluded by congratulating Banks upon the success of his “unparalleled retreat.”  The Zouaves, at all events, could not complain that they had been excluded from “active operations.”  Another officer declared that “we have great reason to be grateful to kind Providence, and applaud the skill and energy of our commanding officers for the miraculous escape of our men from utter annihilation.”  O.R. volume 12 part 1 pages 573 and 611.)

But the Northern people were not to be deceived.  The truth was but too apparent; and long before Banks had found leisure to write his report, terror had taken possession of the nation.  While the soldiers of the Valley lay round Winchester, reposing from their fatigues, and regaling themselves on the captured stores, the Governors of thirteen States were calling on their militia to march to the defence of Washington.  Jackson had struck a deadly blow.  Lincoln and Stanton were electrified even more effectually than Banks.  They issued an urgent call for more troops.  “There is no doubt,” wrote Stanton to the Governor of Massachusetts, “that the enemy in great force are marching on Washington.”  In the cities of the North the panic was indescribable.  As the people came out of church the newsboys were crying, “Defeat of General Banks!  Washington in danger!” The newspaper offices were surrounded by anxious crowds.  In the morning edition of the New York Herald a leader had appeared which was headed “Fall of Richmond.”  The same evening it was reported that the whole of the rebel army was marching to the Potomac.  Troops were hurried to Harper’s Ferry from Baltimore and Washington.  The railways were ordered to place their lines at the disposal of the Government.  McDowell, on the eve of starting to join McClellan, was ordered to lay aside the movement, and to send half his army to the Valley.* (* Shields’ and Ord’s divisions of infantry, and Bayard’s brigade of cavalry, numbering all told 21,200 officers and men.) Fremont, who was about to join his column from the Great Kanawha, was called upon to support Banks.  McClellan was warned, by the President himself, that the enemy was making a general movement northward, and that he must either attack Richmond forthwith or come to the defence of Washington.  A reserve corps of 50,000 men was ordered to be organised at once, and stationed permanently near the capital; and in one day nearly half a million American citizens offered their services to save the Union.