CHAPTER V.

JACKSON FALLS BACK FROM WINCHESTER.

THE spring campaign of 1862, in Virginia, was looked for ward to by the Federal authorities as the decisive movement of the war-the hinge upon which the whole would turn.

Their plans were not destitute of ingenuity, and promised to be crowned with success. Several schemes were in turn resolved on and abandoned. General McClellan, we believe, was in favor of advancing up the Rappahannock, and thence marching across to York River, within about thirty miles of Richmond. President Lincoln, however, preferred the line of Manassas, and on the last day of January he issued the following special order:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1862.

Ordered, That all the disposable forces of the Army of the Potomac, after providing safely for the defence of Washington, be formed into an expedition for the immediate object of seizing and occupying a point upon the railroad southwestward of what is known as Manassas Junction; all details to be in the discretion of the General-in-Chief, and the expedition to move before or on the 22d day of February next.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

This plan not meeting the ready concurrence of General McClellan, the Federal President wrote him the following note three days afterwards:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 3, 1862.

Major-General McClellan:

MY DEAR SIR,-You and I have distinct and different plans for a movement of the Army of the Potomac: yours to be down the Chesapeake, up the Rappahannock to Urbana, and across land to the terminus of the railroad on York River-mine, to move directly to a point on the railroad southwest of Manassas. If you will give me satisfactory answers to the following questions I shall gladly yield my plan to yours:

1. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of time and money than mine?