Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/85

Rh The Federal army, disorganized and routed at Manassas on the 21st of the preceding July, had retreated to the defense of Washington. A line, stretching from the Chain Bridge to Alexandria, along the south bank of the Potomac, formed a living bulwark between the capital and the victorious Confederates encamped at Centreville, some thirty miles away. McClellan, called from West Virginia "to save the capital," had spent the summer and autumn in the task of transforming a uniformed mob of citizens into a well-disciplined army of soldiers. The guns of Manassas had given a quietus to the clamorous cry of "On to Richmond," and the North was awaking to the fact that the road to the Confederate capital, if traveled at all, must be traveled by a well-trained army, and was not to be attempted by a heterogeneous mob.

The Federal right, encamped at Langley, a few miles in advance of the Chain Bridge (three miles above Washington), consisted of the First Pennsylvania Reserves, commanded by Brigadier-General George A. McCall, a West Pointer, who had seen active service in the Mexican War. The Reserves were formed in three brigades the First, commanded by Brigadier-General J. F. Reynolds; the Second, by Brigadier-General George G. Meade; the Third, by Brigadier-General E. O. C. Ord.

The Confederates were at Centreville, a small village in Fairfax, a few miles in advance of the line of Bull Run.

The spirit pervading the two armies at this time afforded a striking contrast. The Federal Army, beaten disastrously in July at Bull Run, and even more completely discomfited in October at Ball's Bluff, had no precedents of victory to inspire it as a military organization. However great the bravery of the individual soldier may have been, the lack of confidence in the army as a fighting machine had assumed an all-pervasive form of panicky timidity. The battle of Dranesville did timely service in removing to a degree this feeling of distrust.

Inspired by two signal victories the Confederates were in fine fettle. The men in gray had gone to the front possessed with the idea that the South could "whip the world." Bull Run and Ball's Bluff were but anticipated confirmations of this bold