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 tail without firing, and ran backward through the regulars. The Congressional Report concludes with: “In justice to the Commander-in-Chief we say that the failure of the late expedition can in no respect be imputed to his conduct, either at any time before, or during the action.” It became quite a conventional phrase to speak of any militia expedition as “the late expedition.”

Now it was squarely up to Congress to do something, and Congress did.

My son, did you ever observe a dominecker hen setting on a china doorknob? Ever try to argue with her? It’s no use. She will get off the nest, scratch gravel backwards, turn over the doorknob, investigate—investigate, and go to setting some more. Isn’t she the perforated pattern of undiscouraged optimism! Well, Congress was just that stubborn about trying to hatch a brood of winners from this volunteer militia egg. Having officially settled the fact that the militia was an insubordinate, undisciplined, and ineffective force, they immediately set to work—to break