guns of inferior strength. But though the Federals
fought with magnificent devotion, and though the losses were very
serious on both sides, the tactical result was a mutual checkmate.
The strategic result, however, was a Confederate defeat; for, with
his few worn veterans, Lee had no chance whatever of keeping his
precarious hold on a neutral Maryland.

October was a quiet month, each side reorganizing without much
interference from the other, except for Stuart's second raid round
the whole embattled army of McClellan. This time Stuart took nearly
two thousand men and four horse artillery guns. Crossing the Potomac
at McCoy's Ford on the tenth he reached Chambersburg that night,
destroyed the Federal stores, took all the prisoners he wanted,
cut the wires, obstructed the rails, and went on with hundreds
of Federal horses. Next day he circled the Federal rear toward
Gettysburg, turned south through Emmitsburg, and crossed McClellan's
line of communications with Washington at Hyattstown early on the
twelfth. By this time the Federal cavalry were riding themselves to
exhaustion in vain pursuit; while many other forces were trying to
close in and cut him off. But he reached the mouth of the Monocacy
and crossed White's Ford in safety, fighting off all interference.
The information he brought back was of priceless value. Lee now
learned that McClellan was not falling back on Washington but being
reinforced from there, and that consequently no new Peninsula Campaign
was to be feared at present. This alone was worth the effort, risk,
and negligible loss. Stuart had marched a hundred and twenty-six
miles on the Federal side of the Potomac--eighty of them without
a single halt; and he had been fifty-six hours inside the Federal
lines, mostly within four riding hours of McClellan's own headquarters.

This second stinging raid roused the loyal North to fury; and by
November a new invasion of Virginia was in full swing on the old
ground, with McClellan at Warrenton, Lee at Culpeper, and Jackson
in the Valley.

But McClellan's own last chance had gone. Late at night on the
seventh he was sitting alone in his tent, writing to his wife, when
Burnside asked if he could come in with General C. P. Buckingham,
the confidential staff officer to the War Department. After some
forced conversation Buckingham handed McClellan a paper ordering his
supersession by Burnside. McClellan simply said: "Well, Burnside,
I turn the command over to