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pressure of the moment, the name and place weremade use of for the collection and organization ofthis army of the lost and strayed. Between the17th of September, when the organization wascompleted, and the 30th, 17,343 convalescentstragglers, recruits, and paroled prisoners werethus taken care of; in October, 10,345; in No-vember, 11,844, and in December, 12,238. Thelarger number were, of course, stragglers. Atleast one-third of the whole were unfit for duty,yet 10,170 were retux’ned to the ranks during thefirst six weeks, 8226 in November, and 16,600in December. The paroled and exchanged pris-oners were afterward encamped separately, tothe number of 3500 at one time, under ColonelGabriel De Korponay, of the 28th Pennsylvania .As this camp was a clear innovation, the truly in-tolerable evils which it was intended to mitigatewere forgotten the moment they ceased to press,and complaints came pouring in from every quar-ter. The reasonable ones were assiduously at-tended to, but of the other kind I recall two whichcame in company: one from a senator, saying thathis constituents were so badly treated at the con-valescent camp that they were driven to desert theservice rather than remain there ; the other from acorps commander, saying that his men were so welltreated (“coddled” was the word) that they weredeserting the colors in order to return. When itwas seen that the camp must outlast the firstemergency, arrangements were made to reorgan-ize and remove it to a better place and to provideshelter against the coming winter, but these well-matured plans being set aside after General Banks left the department, such suffering ensued that inDecember the War Office gave peremptory ordersto break up the camp; yet, as General Hunt aptlyremarks of his Artillery Reserve, “ such is theforce of ideas ” that these orders could never becarried out, and the camp remained, as it had be-gun, the offspring of necessity, a target for criti-cism, and a model for reluctant imitation.
General Casey was continued in the duty of re-ceiving, organizing, and instructing the new regi-ments, forming them into “provisional brigades”and divisions ; a service for which he was exactlyfitted and in which he was ably assisted by Cap-tain (afterward Lieutenant-Colonel) Robert N.Scott,\ as assistant adjutant-general. At thisperiod not far from one hundred thousand menmust have passed through this “ dry nursery,” asit was called.
General Barnard, as chief engineer of the de-fenses, with the full support of the Government(although Congress had, in a strange freak, forbid-den it), set vigorously to work to complete andextend the fortifications, particularly on the northside and beyond the eastern branch, and to cleartheir front by felling the timber. Heavy details
*\ Distinguished after the war hy his invaluable publicservices in the organization and editing of the “ OfficialBeeords of the Rebellion. ’’—Editors.
It was before these lines that, two years later, in hisraid on Washington , Early brought up one evening; itwas behind them that the dawn revealed to him the
of new troops were furnished daily, and the men,carefully selected, easily and cheerfully got throughan immense amount of work in an incredibly shorttime, -fa
With the aid of General Barry as chief of artil-lery, and, among others, of Colonel R. O. Tyler,1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, the artilleristswere instructed in their duties, and with theapproval of the Government a permanent garrisonwas provided, formed of those splendid regimentsof heavy artillery, each of twelve large companies,afterward known as the “heavies” of Grant’s Vir-ginia campaigns.
In the last three weeks of September there weresent to the Army of the Potomac in the field36,000 men, in October, 29,000 ; in all, 65,000. j
Frequent reconnoissances to the gaps of theBlue Ridge and to the Rapidan served to disturbthe Confederate communications a little, to saveus from needless “ alarums and excursions,” andincidentally to throw some strange lights on thedark ways of the Secret Service, whose reports wethus learned to believe in if possible less than ever.
Especially during General McClellan ’s activeoperations, we used to see the President rather oftenof an evening, when, as in earlier days, he would“ just drop in ” to ask, sometimes through a half-opened doorway, “ Well, how does it look now?”One day in October, shortly after Stuart’s raidinto Maryland and Pennsylvania , on returningon board the Martha Washington from a reviewnear Alexandria, when the President seemed inunusually high spirits and was conversing freely,some one (I think DeKay) suddenly asked: “Mr.President, what about McClellan ? ” Without look-ing at his questioner the President drew a ring onthe deck with a stick or umbrella and said quietly:“ When I was a boy we used to play a game, threetimes round and out. Stuart has been round himtwice; if he goes round him once more, gentlemen,McClellan will be out! ”
General Banks kept the President, as well as theSecretary of War, and, of course, the General-in-Chief and General McClellan , constantly and fullyadvised of everything, and managed by his tact,good judgment, and experience to retain the con-fidence of his superiors, without which, in the re-markable state of feeling and of faction thenprevailing, no one could have done anything. ThePresident felt that the capital was safe, that theforces in its front were in hand, ready for any ser-vice at any notice ; that order had quietly replacedconfusion, and w r as maintained without fuss orexcitement. In his own words, he was not both-ered all day and could sleep all night if he wantedto; and this it was that toward the end of October,,when it had been decided to make a change in theDepartment of the Gulf, led him to offer the com-mand to General Banks .
familiar Greek cross of the Sixth Army Corps, and alsothe four-pointed star of the Nineteenth.— R. B. I.
} Porter’s corps (Morell and Humphreys), 15,BOO; 20new regiments in a body, 18,500; Stoneman and Whipple,15,000; together, 49,000; add convalescents and strag-glers, 16,000.—R. B. I.