. The Civil War : the national view . y of the Potomac moved. Three times aslarge as the army it confronted; better equipped, betterdrilled, better fed and clothed, there had not been an hour,for long, weary months, when, had McClellan taken theinitiative and attacked Johnston, the Confederates mustnot have fallen back toward Richmond. But McClellanwas not a fighter; Johnston knew this better than Mc-Clellan and acted accordingly, but when in obedience toLincolns general order, the Army of the Potomac advanced,February 22d, Johnston, fearing results, began his retreatdown the south bank of the
. The Civil War : the national view . y of the Potomac moved. Three times aslarge as the army it confronted; better equipped, betterdrilled, better fed and clothed, there had not been an hour,for long, weary months, when, had McClellan taken theinitiative and attacked Johnston, the Confederates mustnot have fallen back toward Richmond. But McClellanwas not a fighter; Johnston knew this better than Mc-Clellan and acted accordingly, but when in obedience toLincolns general order, the Army of the Potomac advanced,February 22d, Johnston, fearing results, began his retreatdown the south bank of the Rappahannock, removing whatstores he could from his long occupied quarters at ManassasJunction and burning the remainder—probably more thanhe was able to carry away. Wlien he learned of Johnstonsmovement, McClellan gave orders to occupy revelations which followed amused and angered theNorth: Quaker guns, imitation ramparts, a vanished delusions melted into mist; he had confronted X;- f-^ ^C;ii-^^~y ^.. ^^^.-.^.r-^ rcijuest for terms and an armistice, Gtivi-nil Grants dcIcners acceptance of the ungenerous antl (incliivalroiisill possession of the Historical Soaely of Ptiinsyiiiania. ■ unconditional ami i/■ro//( //(f originals. T THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR 261 his own imagination with the Army of the Potomac. Whenbefore, in all history, asked Hawthorne, do we find ageneral in command of half a million of men, and in pres-ence of an enemy inferior in numbers and no better disci-pline than his own troops, leaving it still debatable, afterthe better part of a year, whether he is a soldier or no?And Hawthornes question was the question in the mind ofthe whole North—Had McClellans antagonist, GeneralJohnston, been at the head of a Confederate Army of thePotomac, equipped and numerous as was that capable force,what Northern man does not even now shrink from thethought of results that must have followed? Who canimagine that Jefferson Davis would not
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