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ambulances, urged on by uncontrollable team-sters,— which presently poured into Washington,overflowed it, took possession of its streets andpublic places, and held high orgie. Disorderreigned unchecked and confusion was everywhere.The clerks in the departments, many of whom hadbeen hurried toward the front to do service asnurses, were now hastily formed into companiesand battalions for defense; the Government or-dered the arms and ammunition at the arsenaland the money in the Treasury to be shipped toNew York , and the banks followed the example;a gun-boat, with steam up, lay in the river off theWhite House , as if to announce to the army and
MAJOR-GENERAL W. F. BAKEV, CHIEF-OF-AKTILLERY OF
THE DEFENSES OF WASHINGTON , SEPTEMBER 1, 1862,TO MARCH 1, 1864. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
the inhabitants the impending flight of the Admin-istration. It was at this juncture that the Pres-ident, on his own responsibility, once more chargedGeneral McClellan with the defense of the capital.
The next day, the 3d of September, the Presi-dent further confided to General Halleck J the dutyof preparing an army to take the field; but sinceLee did not wait for this, McClellan could not; evenbefore the President’s order reached General Hal-leck the Confederate army had disappeared fromthe front of Washington and General McClellan was putting his troops in march to meet it.
On the afternoon of the 7th, 87,000 men werein motion, and General McClellan set out for
, General McClellan seems never to have known ofthis order.—R. B. I.
If; At this time General Banks was without a staft-offieer. Colonel John S. Clark, A. D. C., Lieutenant-Colonel D. H. Strother, A. D. C. (the genial “PorteCrayon”), and others of his staff joined him presently.General Ilalleok also sent down many officers, as theyhappened to report to him for orders, and thus a curi-ous yet very useful staff was soon collected, includingseveral officers who afterward won deserved distinction;among them I recall Captains (afterward Major-General) Wesley Merritt and A. J. Alexander (after-ward Brigadier-General) of the Cavalry ; Captain (after-
Rockville to put himself at their head. Almost atthe last moment I was directed to remain in chargeof the adjutant-general’s department at his head-quarters in Washington, to issue orders in hisname and “to prevent the tail of the army frombeing cut off,” and Lieutenant-Colonel Sawtellewas left in charge of the Quartermaster’s Depart-ment, also with plenary authority, to see that thetransportation and supplies went forward. Onthe same day, General Banks , who was reportedconfined to his bed, and unable to join his corps,was assigned to the immediate command of the de-fenses of Washington during McClellan ’s absence.The next day, General Banks assumed this com-mand, having first obtained General McClellan ’sconsent to my assignment as Assistant Adjutant-General, at the Headquarters of the Defenses, inaddition to my other duties. & I thought thenthat this was a difficult position for a young cap-tain of twenty-two; I think now that it wouldhave been difficult for a field-marshal of sixty-two;certainly the arrangement could not have lastedan hour, but for the determination of all concernedto make it work, and to be deaf, blind, and dumbto everything not distinctly in front of us.
Everything was at once put in motion to carryout General McClellan ’s orders, of which the firstpoint was to restore order.
The forces included the Third, Fifth, and Elev-enth Army Corps, commanded respectively byHeintzelman, Fitz John Porter , and Sigel, cover-ing the fortified line on the Virginia side and num-bering about 47,000 for duty; the garrisons ofthe works, 15,000; Casey’s provisional brigadesof newly arriving regiments and the town guards,11,000,— in all, 73,000,4 with 120 field-piecesand about 500 heavy guns in position; in brief,nearly one half of McClellan ’s entire army; aforce a fourth or a third larger than Lee’s ; indeed,to all appearance, the identical command designedfor General McClellan himself, before the defenseof the capital had made it necessary for him to re-sume operations in the field by the pursuit of Lee.
The improvised staff-officers were at once sentout to establish the picket lines, so broken anddisconnected that virtually there were none. Thetroops were rapidly inspected, and their numbers,positions, and wants ascertained. With the threecorps and the organized divisions this was simpleenough, since their commanders had them in hand.For a few days the discoveries of scattered de-tachments were numerous and surprising; someonly turned up after a cheek had been put on thecommissary issues, and about ten days later, in the
ward Brevet Major-General) George \V. Mindil, wliohad been Kearny’s adjutant-general, one of the mostgallant and accomplished officers of our (or any) branchof the volunteer service; Lieutenant (now Colonel ) G.Norman Lieber , at present Acting Judge Advocate-General, and Drake DeKay, from Pope ’s staff.— E. B. I.
4 Rapidly augmented by new levies, these forcesmust have exceeded 80,000 before the dispatch of Por-ter ’s corps to Antietam, September 12th. The returnfor October loth shows 79,535; for November 10th,80,989. The lowest point was about 60,000 after Whip-ple’s division left, October 17th. The actual effectivestrength would, as always, be a fifth or a sixth less.