Page:America Fallen!.djvu/195

Rh Having, lo! these many years, "sown to the wind" the seeds of pacificist delusion, of political self-seeking, of amazing self-sufficiency, and of fatuous neglect, she was now to "reap the whirlwind" of disillusionment and humiliation in a profound national disaster!

To describe in any detail the sequence of the operations by which the German Commander-in-Chief, within two weeks of the opening of hostilities had captured all the arsenals, and arms and powder works lying between the coast and the Alleghanies, would take a volume in itself. That must be the work of the future historian. It will suffice for the present purpose to sketch the mere outline of those tragic events which came to be known thereafter as The Great American Débacle!

Immediately upon the capture of