ers, and after stubbornly-contested
engagements with the forces of General Johnston, advanced up the
Peninsula--the Confederates slowly retiring. In the latter part of
May, a portion of the Federal forces had crossed the Chickahominy, and
confronted General Johnston defending Richmond.

Such was the serious condition of affairs in the spring of 1862. The
Federal sword had nearly pierced the heart of Virginia, and, as the
course of events was about to place Lee in charge of her destinies,
a brief notice is indispensable of the designs of the adversaries
against whom he was to contend on the great arena of the State.

While the South had been lulled to sleep, as it were, by the battle of
Manassas, the North, greatly enraged at the disaster, had prepared to
prosecute the war still more vigorously. The military resources of the
South had been plainly underestimated. It was now obvious that the
North had to fight with a dangerous adversary, and that the people of
the South were entirely in earnest. Many journals of the North had
ridiculed the idea of war; and one of them had spoken of the great
uprising of the Southern States from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico
as a mere "local commotion" which a force of fifty thousand men would
be able to put down without difficulty. A column of twenty-five
thousand men, it was said, would be sufficient to carry all before it
in Virginia, and capture Richmond, and the comment on this statement
had been the battle of Manassas, where a force of more than fifty
thousand had been defeated and driven back to Washington.

It was thus apparent that the war was to be a serious struggle, in
which the North would be compelled to exert all her energies. The
people responded to the call upon them with enthusiasm. All the roving
and adventurous elements of Northern society flocked to the Federal
standard, and in a short time a large force had once more assembled at
Washington. The work now was to drill, equip, and put it in efficient
condition for taking the field. This was undertaken with great energy,
the Congress cooeperating with the Executive in every manner. The city
of Washington resounded with the wheels of artillery and the tramp
of cavalry; the workshops were busy night and day to supply arms and
ammunition; and the best officers devoted themselves, without rest, to
the work of drilling and disciplining the mass.

By the spring of 1862 a force of about two hundred thousand men was
read