Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/267

Rh at Washington produced an almost indescribable panic throughout the North, on Sunday, the 25th and for several days thereafter. The governor of Massachusetts, at 11 p. m. of the 25th, ordered the whole active militia of that State to report on Boston Common the next day, "to oppose with fierce zeal and courageous patriotism the progress of the foe." The governor of Ohio proclaimed, on the same day, "The seat of our beloved government is threatened with invasion, and I am called upon by the secretary of war for troops to repel and overwhelm the reckless invaders." In consequence of Jackson's movements threatening to pass through the gateway of the Potomac and attack Washington, a half million men, within twenty-four hours after the issue of Lincoln's proclamation, offered themselves for the defense of the Federal capital. McClellan's plans were all disconcerted, and although he protested against the detachment of McDowell to intercept Jackson, claiming that it could lead to no results because of his distance from the field of operations, his protests were of no avail, and McDowell's march toward the Valley began while McClellan stood hesitating on the banks of the Chickahominy, and the plans of the army of the Potomac, in all of its departments, were thoroughly demoralized by the boldness and results of Jackson's grand strategic movements.

Jackson's infantry followed after Banks, on Sunday the 25th, as far as Stephenson's, five miles beyond Winchester, when he handed over the pursuit to the cavalry and ordered his wearied men into camp, taking up his own headquarters in Winchester, whose citizens, mostly women, had first put out the fires which the retreating Federals kindled in the warehouses where their great army stores, including gunpowder and explosive shells, were accumulated, and then cared for the wounded and buried the dead.

A Sabbath having been appropriated in the pursuit of Banks, Jackson ordered the observance of the 26th as a day of rest and devotion, issuing this stirring order: