o summers ago for the first time. During the visit, I
never met a person whom I had ever seen before, yet all the time that I
was away I felt at home. I said to myself, are these the people we of
the South used to hate? Are these the people that we once mobbed as they
marched through our streets? Yes, they are the same people or their
descendants, but then we did not know them and they did not know us. I
came back feeling proud of my country, and I only wish I could give here
a detailed account of that visit. If, early in the spring of 1861, the
North and South had swapped visits, each party would have gone home
singing, "there ain't goin' to be no war," but we had a war; a great
war, a costly war; let us forget what ought to be forgotten and remember
what ought to be remembered. I want to pay this tribute to the Northern
soldiers. I have discovered this: When two armies of equal numbers met
face to face in the open, it was nearly always a toss up as to who would
win. Numbers don't always count in battle. General Hooker, with his army
of 130,000, retreating before Lee's 60,000, doesn't mean that one rebel
could whip two yankees. It only meant that "Fighting Joe" had more than
he could manage. His numbers were an encumbrance. There were other
differences which, for the sake of brevity, I will not mention, but will
add this one word: One bluecoat was all I cared to face, and I believe
every other Johnny Reb will say the same.

May we never have another war, but boys, remember this: "Peace hath her
victories, no less renowned than war," and the boy that wishes to count
in this world must _train_. But there are other training schools quite
as helpful as the camp and the battlefield.

L.W. HOPKINS.

Baltimore, November, 1908.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

FROM HARPER'S FERRY TO BULL RUN.

Loudoun County on the Potomac--John Brown's Raid--War Talk Among the
Schoolboys--The Slave and His Master--Election of Lincoln--Secession
--Schoolboys Preparing for the Coming Conflict--Firing on Fort
Sumter--Union Army Crossing the Potomac.

CHAPTER II.

FROM BULL RUN TO SEVEN PINES.

Confederates Concentrating at Manassas--First Battle--The Wounded
Horse--Rout of the Union Army--The Losses.

CHAPTER III.

FROM BULL RUN TO SEVEN PINES. (CONTINUED.)

Long Rest--Each Side Recruiting Their Armies--McClellan in Command--His
March on Richmond by the Way of the James River--Jackson's Brilliant
Valley Campaign--The Battles