Chapter3
- The summer spent in observing the enemy and preparing for active service. -- Mason's and Munson's Hills occupied. -- Colonel J. E. B. Stuart. -- General McClellan in command of the Federal forces. -- consequences of want of preparation for the struggle beginning to be seriously felt. -- the President appoints five Generals. -- correspondence with him on the subject. -- organization of the Confederate army. -- President invited to headquarters of the army for consultation. -- he visits Fairfax Court -- house. -- account of the conference and its result. -- battle of Leesburg. -- affair at Drainsville. -- effective total of the Confederate army at the end of the year 1861. -- allusion to events in the West.
No military event deserving notice occurred on our part of the frontier during the remainder of the summer. We were employed in observing the enemy and preparing our troops for active service by diligent instruction. The captured material enabled Colonel Pendleton to increase and improve our artillery very much. At the beginning of September the army was encamped about Fairfax Court-House, with strong outposts at Munson's and Mason's Hills, with the cavalry on their flanks. Stuart, who commanded it, had already impressed those who had opportunity to observe him, with the sagacity and courage that qualified him so admirably for the command of outposts. As had been his previous practice, his pickets were always near the enemy, while the Federal cavalry rarely ventured beyond the protection of infantry.
