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[161] battle; neither party had as yet formed an idea of the sacrifices its opponent was capable of making. Although neither government was yet in a condition to undertake a serious war, both parties were anxious for hostilities to commence. The Confederate Congress on its adjournment, May 23d, had decided to meet again at Richmond on the 20th of July. On the 27th of May, Mr. Davis removed, with all his government, to the capital of Virginia, thus binding that powerful State to his cause by indissoluble ties. By fixing his quarters as near the Capitol as possible, he at the same time braved the Federal government, and thereby hastened the breaking out of hostilities on the soil of the State which had so imprudently claimed the honor of possessing the central government of the new Republic. So that, while in the West the efforts of the secessionists, confined to the sphere of partisan warfare, did not reach beyond the right bank of the Missouri, while Kentucky was waiting for the decrees of fortune to regulate her course, while West Virginia, true to the Union, was removing the seat of war from the borders of the Ohio,—the position of the two hostile capitals rendered it necessary, for their mutual protection, to concentrate the first armies within the narrow space which divided them. It was between the Potomac and the James River that the first serious engagements must naturally take place. The organization of a body of troops under Johnston at Harper's Ferry showed that the Richmond authorities had fully understood this. At the same time, and with all possible secrecy, they massed their new levies at Manassas Junction, which has become so celebrated since. These two points protected Richmond from all attack, while menacing Maryland on one side and Washington on the other. Harper's Ferry was the key to the great valley of the Shenandoah, which penetrates into the heart of Virginia, and Johnston was thus master of the two lines of railway which branch off at that place—one to follow the course of the Shenandoah in a southerly direction, the other, the right bank of the Potomac westward. The occupation of Manassas Junction, which is only forty kilometres from Washington, warranted the assumption that the first battle would be fought nearer this city than
Philadelphia, Jos. H. Coates and co., 1876.
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