r speak, unless assailed. But let
Washington be attacked by a powerful army and successfully defended, and
they would proclaim General Barnard one of the heroes of the war.

As has already been said, the engineer-equipage is only sketched; but
enough is said to show its value. Speaking of the bridges, General
Barnard says,--"They were used by the Quartermaster's department in
discharging transports, were precisely what was needed for the
disembarkation of General Franklin's division, constituted a portion of
the numerous bridges that were built over Wormley Creek during the siege
of Yorktown, and were of the highest use in the Chickahominy; while over
the Lower Chickahominy, some seventy-five thousand men, some three
hundred pieces of artillery, and the enormous baggage-trains of the
army, passed over a bridge of the extraordinary length of nearly six
hundred and fifty yards,--a feat scarcely surpassed in military
history." Pontoons, like forts, cannot talk; but every soldier of the
Army of the Potomac knows that these same bridges, which were prepared
when that army was first organized, have since carried it in safety four
times over the Rappahannock, twice at the Battle of Fredericksburg and
twice again at the Battle of Chancellorsville, and three times over the
Upper Potomac, once after the Battle of Antietam, and again both before
and after the Battle of Gettysburg.

Of the Peninsular campaign General Barnard does not profess to give a
history. He mentions only the operations which came under his
supervision as the Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac. The siege
of Yorktown was a matter of engineering skill. General Barnard gives us
his report to General Totten, the Chief Engineer of the Army, on the
engineering operations of the siege,--also his journal, showing the
progress of the siege from day to day. These, with the maps, convey a
very clear idea of the place to be taken, and the way it was to have
been reduced, had the enemy continued his defence until our batteries
were opened; but they do not convey to the mind of any except the
professional engineer the magnitude of the works which were constructed.
General Barnard says that fifteen batteries and four redoubts were built
during the siege, and he gives the armament of each battery. On
comparing this armament with that used in other sieges, we find the
amount of metal ready to be hurled on Yorktown when the enemy evacuated
that place second only to that