onham's Brigade was at Flint Hill,
Cox's at Centerville, Jones's at Germantown, Hampton and Early on the
Occoquon, the Louisiana Brigade at Bull Run, and Longstreet at Fairfax
Court House. The troops were all in easy distance, and a gigantic plan
of General Beauregard, with the doubtful approval of General Johnston
and others, was for a formidable invasion of the North. General
Johnston evinced that same disposition in military tactics that he
followed during the war, "a purely defensive war." In none of his
campaigns did he exhibit any desire to take advantage of the enemy by
bold moves; his one idea seemed to be "defensive," and in that he was
a genius--in retreat, his was a mastermind; in defense, masterly. In
the end it may have proven the better policy to have remained on the
defensive. But the quick, impulsive temperament of Beauregard was ever
on the alert for some bold stroke or sudden attack upon the
enemy's weaker points. His idea coincided with Longstreet's in this
particular, that the North, Kentucky, Tennessee, or Maryland should
be the theatre of war and the battleground of the Confederacy. General
Lee, according to the ideas of one of his most trusted lieutenants,
was more in accordance with the views of General Johnston, that is,
"the South should fight a defensive war"--and it was only when in the
immediate presence of the enemy, or when he observed a weak point
in his opponent, or a strategic move, that he could not resist the
temptation to strike a blow. In several of his great battles it is
reported of Lee that he intended to await the attack of the enemy, but
could not control his impatience when the enemy began to press him;
then all the fire of his warlike nature came to the surface, and he
sprang upon his adversary with the ferocity of a wild beast. But Lee
in battle was not the Lee in camp.

The middle of summer the two commanding Generals called President
Davis to Fairfax Court House to enter a conference in regard to the
projected invasion. The plans were all carefully laid before him.
First a demonstration was to be made above Washington; then with the
whole army cross below, strike Washington on the east, crush the enemy
in their camps, march through Maryland, hoist the standard of revolt
in that State, make a call for all Southern sympathizers to flock to
their banners, and to overawe the North by this sudden onslaught. But
President Davis turned a deaf ear to all such overtures; pleaded th