Halleck and on July 11th assigned him to the command of all the Union armies, with headquarters at Washington. On August 3d Halleck telegraphed him of the decision to remove the army from the Peninsula to Aquia Creek. McClellan begged that the order should be rescinded, asserting —and as military critics agree, on sound principles-that the "true defense of Washington was here on the banks of the James" and that here "the fate of the Union should be decided." But McClellan had done nothing to give great weight to his opinion on the point and Halleck, refusing to rescind the order, added "you will be expected to execute it with all possible promptness."

Meanwhile General John A. Pope, called from the West and assigned to command of an army of 43,000, comprising the corps of McDowell, Banks and Sigel, the latter Frémont's successor, was planning a campaign that should wind up with the capture of Richmond and the collapse of the Confederacy. Pope's popularity at the North was great. McClellan looked upon him as a rival. General Lee viewed the factions among Northern counsellors with complacency. Halleck was indecisive; McClellan expressed his willingness to support Pope; Pope could get no definite instructions from Halleck, who was attempting the impossible task of directing, from a telegraph office in Washington, vast and complicated military movements in front of Richmond.

General Lee, the controlling military mind of the Confederacy, was unhampered; he planned to cut off Pope's communications. Stonewall Jackson felt the advance and swiftly severed Pope's line of communication. A series of battles began culminating, August 30th, in the Second Battle of Bull Run. As the night drew on, after the weary day's battle, Pope ordered a general retreat with Lee and Longstreet in pursuit. Pope was terribly beaten.

McClellan had done nothing to help Pope. Lincoln said: "McClellan has acted badly toward Pope; he really wanted him to fail." On August 30th, McClellan was deprived of command of the Army of the Potomac. The Confederates

were now between the Union army and Washington. When the truth of Pope's utter defeat was known at Washington, the peril in which the capital lay was fully exposed. There seemed to Lincoln but one remedy: to replace McClellan. Lee was reported advancing upon Washington. The president assigned McClellan to command of the forces in the field. Pope was retired to fight Indians on the northwest frontier. The public demanded a victim for the disaster at the Second Battle of Bull Run and found him in Fitz John Porter who, in November following, was tried before a general court-martial and sentenced "to be cashiered and to be forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit under the Government of the United States." Lincoln approved the finding of the court. Porter appealed. In 1878, under President Hayes, a board of army officers, of which General Schofield was the head, exonerated Porter, but Congress took no action. President Arthur remitted the unexecuted portion of the original sentence, by proclamation, May 4, 1882. General Grant at last, having reversed his own opinions in the case, wrote a public article in Porter's behalf: this was written shortly before Grant's death; while president he had decided against Porter. Finally, Congress, in 1886, nearly twenty-four years after the original condemnation, passed a bill for Porter's relief which President Cleveland signed. Porter was restored to the rank of colonel of infantry in the regular army, from May 14, 1861. That Porter's troubles were due chiefly to differences and ill-feelings among the generals is doubtless true; at the court-martial, General Pope testified against Porter, blaming him for refusing to reinforce him during the battle neglect which occasioned the trial; but writing to Halleck, Pope said "The greatest criminal is McClellan." If this is true, McClellan unwittingly caused the downfall of one of his dearest friends and favorite officers.

With McClellan and Pope both beaten, General Lee now turned northward into Maryland, issuing a spirited proclamation to its people that he came to deliver them from their

oppressors and evidently expecting to find aid and comfort among them. He was doomed to disappointment. The Maryland farmers would not accept Confederate money in payment for supplies and General Lee did not care to imperil the Confederate cause by acts of coercion in a slaveholding and sister State. At last he was obliged to open communications with his source of supplies, the Confederate States, thereby weakening his military strength, for he was getting far away from his base. But his army was jubilant with hope, exulting in its late victories and eager to fight. Moreover the soldiers were beginning to understand "Massa Robert" as they affectionately called their great commander. They were learning to idolize General Lee as the Army of the Potomac had long idolized General McClellan. Lee's decision to march into Maryland alarmed the North. In the West, affairs had been going badly for some time, for the national cause, and in the East, there had been a succession of withering blunders and defeats. The star of the Confederacy seemed in the ascendant. Many at the South expected that General Lee would dictate peace at Washington before he saw Richmond again. He sent Jackson back into Virginia to reduce Harper's Ferry, which was garrisoned by some 12,000 Union troops and contained immense quantities of military stores. Pennsylvania, too, was in peril and its governor, Andrew G. Curtin, called for 50,000 men to come forward and fight back the invaders. But the Army of the Potomac was the hope of the government. McClellan, on September 10th, began the advance to meet Lee, as usual asking for reinforcements; he estimated Lee's army at 120,000, more than twice its effective force; Jackson was on the way to Harper's Ferry. Fortune was determined to favor McClellan and at this critical moment put into his hands an official copy of Lee's order to D. H. Hill, unfolding all his plans. This was on the 13th. McClellan knew the value of this discovery and immediately announced expected victory. At South Mountain, on the 14th, he defeated the Confederates. McClellan advised that

the force at Harper's Ferry be concentrated with his own, having first counselled that the garrison itself be strengthened so as to be able to hold Jackson in check, while McClellan fought Lee. But the lack of understanding and sympathy between Halleck and McClellan accomplished its perfect work, which was the surrender of Harper's Ferry to Jackson.

On the 15th, McClellan took position on the field of Antietam and there two days later was fought the bloodiest battle of the war, thus far. McClellan had 87,000 men; Lee, 55,000-every one in battle. Twenty-seven thousand McClellan held in reserve-or half the number of the Confederate army. The Union loss was 12,410; the Con

federate, 11,172.

General Lee states in his report that he fought the battle with less than 40,000. Military critics disagree much about this battle-whether it was a Union or a Confederate victory. The battle was fought on the Union side, in détachments and piecemeal, and all the testimony points to McClellan's lack of a plan, of concentrated effort and of efficient execution. "Of General Lee's management of the battle there is nothing but praise to be said," is Ropes's opinion, and doubtless this will be the world's final judgment.

Despite this military precision and efficiency on Lee's part, he retreated into Virginia, McClellan making slight effort to pursue him. The political effect of the battle was favorable to the North, for the great soldier of the South had recrossed the Potomac and his invasion of Maryland had failed of its object. It must be remembered that General Lee was far from his base of supplies and "in the enemy's country"; that the Confederacy was weak in transportation and that the peril of being cut off from his supplies was great. McClellan should not be blamed for the incapacity of Halleck: if Harper's Ferry could have held out against Jackson, or had its force been strengthened, as it might have been, by General Franklin, or even from McClellan's army, and Jackson prevented from joining