MCDOWELL’S ADVANCE TO BULL RUN.

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He was not only well versed in everything relating to war, hut wasthoroughly informed concerning the character and capacity of prominentand promising officers of the army. There was nothing experimental inhis choice of high military commanders. With hut few exceptions, thoseappointed at the beginning retained command until they lost their lives orthe war closed.

The Southern States, all claiming to be independent republics after seces-sion, with all their governmental machinery, including militia and volunteerorganizations, in complete working order, transferred themselves as Statesfrom the Union to the Confederacy. The organization of a general govern-ment from such elements, with war as its immediate purpose, was a simplematter. Davis had only to accept and arrange, according to his ample infor-mation and well-matured judgment, the abundant and ambitious materialat hand in the way that he thought would best secure his purposes. Lincolnhad to adapt the machinery of a conservative old government, some of itunsuitable, some unsound, to sudden demands for which it was not designed.The talents of Simon Cameron, his first Secretary of War , were political, notmilitary. He was a kind, gentle, placid man, gifted with powers to persuade,not to command. Shrewd and skilled in the management of business andpersonal matters, he had no knowledge of military affairs,and could not give the President much assistance in as-sembling and organizing for war the earnest and impa-tient, but unmilitary people of the North.

Officers from all departments of the Federal civil servicehurried to the Confederacy and placed themselves at thedisposal of Davis, and officers from all the corps of theregular army, most of them full of vigor, with the sameeducation and experience as those who remained, wentSouth and awaited assignment to the duties for whichDavis might regard them as best qualified. All Confed-erate offices were vacant, and the Confederate Presidenthad large if not absolute power in filling them. On theother hand, the civil offices under Lincoln were occupiedor controlled by party, and in the small regular army ofthe Union the law required that vacancies should as arule be filled by seniority. There was no retired list forthe disabled, and the army was weighed down by lon-gevity; by venerated traditions; by prerogatives of servicerendered in former wars; by the firmly tied red-tape of military bureauism,and by the deep-seated and well-founded fear of the auditors and comp-trollers of the treasury. Nothing but time and experience—possibly nothingbut disaster—could remove from the path of the Union President difficultiesfrom which the Confederate President was, by the situation, quite free. Inthe beginning of the war, the military advantage was on the side of the Con-federates, notwithstanding the greater resources of the North, which producedtheir effect only as the contest was prolonged.

UNIFORM OF THE 1ST MASS.AT BULL RUN. FROMA PHOTOGRAPH.