right flank of the exhausted, but until then confident and nearly triumphant Unionists. Beauregard's wavering line, reanimated by Johnson's shouting legions, rallied for a final effort, and vigorously assailed the Federals in front, while Johnson's men overwhelmed their right, and the wreath of victory was snatched from McDowell's grasp.

McClellan listened to the narrative of his predecessor without a word of comment, and at its conclusion turned toward his staff, and saying: "Gentlemen, we will now return to quarters," put spurs to his horse. Again the bugles blared out their signals; the escort fell into line, and the gay cortege crossed the battlefield, forded Bull Run, near the blown-up stone bridge, and from thence by the Warrenton Turnpike, through Centreville, to quarters with the army.

It is scarcely possible that General McDowell could have gone over the history of these events, under the circumstances in which he was placed, without a sense of painful humiliation; and that feeling must have been increased by the way in which it was received by General McClellan. Almost any other man, in McClellan's place, would have sought to mollify this pain by a word of friendly comment here and there, but the superseded general was left to draw his own conclusions as to the views of his successor upon the subject which had been the theme of his painful narrative.

It was remarked above, that McDowell made no attempt at self-vindication; and, it may be added, that he never did, either as to Bull Run or other events in his career as a soldier. He despised the methods by which many officers magnified their exploits and explained away their failures. Charged with disloyalty, when a truer man never wore the Federal uniform; with incompetency, when he had few superiors in the army; with indolence, when there was scarcely his equal for energy and industry; with intoxication, when he

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HOW MERIT MAY SOMETIMES SUFFER.

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never touched a glass of wine in his life; with cowardice, when he did not know what fear was-yet he never sought to vindicate himself against these accusations, except in so far as he should do it by a steady, untiring, unswerving devotion to his duty as an officer in his country's army, in a time of great trial and danger.

Amid the passions and prejudices engendered by a great war, injustice is often done to the most meritorious participants; and it not unfrequently happens, that officers of inferior merit, who have industriously blown their own trumpets, or caused them to be blown by newspaper reporters, have caught, and for a time retained, the popular acclaim; but by and by, as the historian gathers up the scattered and diverse threads that make up the story of the time, the pretender is relegated to his proper sphere, and true manhood is given its just place on the enduring page of authentic and accepted history. That General McDowell will occupy an enviable place in the record which shall tell the story of the great rebellion" to future ages, does not admit of a doubt.

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In December, 1861, McDowell was examined by the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, and was asked, among other things, what was the condition of the division he then commanded in the army of the Potomac. He answered, "The men are excellent men; I do not suppose there are better men in the world." McDowell's character; he believed in the manhoodin the blood of his race, and he stood up for the men under his command. When asked how his division was in point of discipline, he said: "The discipline has an exterior which is good, but an interior which is bad." The committee naturally asked the general to explain this, and his answer gives the secret cause of half the disasters to the Federal arms during the war. He said: "I think discipline consists in an implicit

This answer reveals one of the traits of

obedience, not outwardly alone, but inwardly--that implicit reliance and confidence that must exist on the part of the commanded towards the commander. I think our deficiency is in the quality of our officers; I do not think our officers stand towards the men in the relations that officers should occupy towards men whom they are to put into battle and hold up to their work, and keep them from spreading or doubling their ranks, or falling back to the rear, or breaking ranks. I think that in the battle in which I was engaged last summer, that thing developed itself in a very remarkable manner, and it became very evident to both officers and men." A truer definition of discipline, and a more striking and concise statement of the consequences of a lack of it have rarely been given. It was the want of this kind of discipline, extending from the enlisted men up through all the grades to the General-in-chief, that lost us Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. It was the want of this kind of discipline in our forces that so often disappointed the reasonable expectations of the country. Men of different regiments averaged about alike in the quality of courage and intelligence; and it was owing to the presence or absence among them of this kind of discipline that distinguished one regiment from another in its steadiness and persistency under fire. Without this kind of discipline, no army can be reliable in a great emergency.