ct than could possibly have been
anticipated. Neither Lee nor Stuart looked for larger results from
this raid than a certain amount of plunder and a good deal of
intelligence. But skill and daring were crowned with a more ample
reward than the attainment of the immediate object.

In the first place, the expedition, although there was little
fighting, was most destructive to the Federal cavalry. McClellan had
done all in his power to arrest the raiders. Directly the news came
in that they had crossed the Potomac, troops were sent in every
direction to cut off their retreat. Yet so eminently judicious were
Stuart's precautions, so intelligent the Maryland soldiers who acted
as his guides, and so rapid his movements, that although constant
reports were received by the Federal generals as to the progress and
direction of his column, the information came always too late to
serve any practical purpose, and his pursuers were never in time to
bar his march. General Pleasanton, with such cavalry as could be
spared from the picket line, marched seventy-eight miles in
four-and-twenty hours, and General Averell's brigade, quartered on
the Upper Potomac, two hundred miles in four days. The severity of
the marches told heavily on these commands, already worn out by hard
work on the outposts; and so many of the horses broke down that a
period of repose was absolutely necessary to refit them for the
field. Until his cavalry should have recovered it was impossible for
McClellan to invade Virginia.

In the second place, neither the Northern Government nor the Northern
people could forget that this was the second time that McClellan had
allowed Stuart to ride at will round the Army of the Potomac. Public
confidence in the general-in-chief was greatly shaken; and a handle
was given to his opponents in the ranks of the abolitionists, who,
because he was a Democrat, and had much influence with the army, were
already clamouring for his removal.

October 26.

The respite which Stuart had gained for Virginia was not, however, of
long duration. On October 26, McClellan, having ascertained by means
of a strong reconnaissance in force that the Confederate army was
still in the vicinity of Winchester, commenced the passage of the
Potomac. The principal point of crossing was near Berlin, and so soon
as it became evident that the Federal line of operations lay east of
the Blue Ridge, Lee ordered Longstreet to Culpeper Court House.
Jackson, taki