This, my son, was very hard on General McCook, who found himself in a predicament he would willingly have escaped from. It is no more than right, my son, that I should give you an account of how this general went to the field, and what he found when he got there.
Provided with a pocket full of orders, the general mounted his horse late on Saturday afternoon and set out for the front, over the Fourteenth-street road. The corpulent engineer I have described in the early part of this history was assigned to General McCook for duty; and this officer, and two sorry-looking orderlies, were all that bore him company. The corpulent engineer alone knew the military roads, and the location of the forts, which was very fortunate. As they advanced over the road beyond Meridian Hill, they overtook several straggling generals, each proceeding to the front with a pocket full of orders, and generally accompanied by a single orderly. Two or three of these generals seemed quite at a loss as to where they were going, or what they were to command. I have thus explained this matter to you, my son, to show you what a nice way our war authorities had of producing confusion.
When the general and his staff, which I have described above, were well nigh Brightwood, he halted to inquire, of the alarmed negroes and straggling citizens who were wending their way into the city, what news they had of the enemy outside. But no trustworthy information could he get from any of them. They all knew that General Early was coming; and that they had left just before he had got to where they lived. This sort of information was not exactly the kind a general would consider it safe to base his plan of operations on. Nor was the general any more fortunate in getting information concerning the enemy from a number of squads of cavalry, whose business it seemed to be to ride excitedly to the front and then ride excitedly back again. Indeed, the whole business of these doughty troopers, it seemed to me, was to increase the alarm and confusion.
It was nearly sundown, the weather was hot and oppressive, and the general was full of troubles. The worst of these was that he could not find the troops he was sent to command. Nor could he get any tidings concerning General Early and his rebels. Hence it was that he concluded, and very naturally, that the enemy would not be within sight of the defenses until morning, and that the city would at least be safe until that time without any more of his generalship.
He therefore went into camp for the night, pitching his headquarters in a clump of wood near Rock Creek, and not far from Crystal Spring. And here let me record that the general had not even a camp guard. To make the matter worse, there was no forage for the horses, and nothing for supper. Never was general so much to be pitied. The two orderlies, however, were willing fellows, and soon had a fire lighted. They then proceeded to a neighboring house, and got refreshments for the general, without which he must have gone hungry to bed.
As the night advanced, the discomforts of the situation increased. In short, it may as well be confessed, the general's headquarters were besieged long before midnight, and that sleep was a thing not to be enjoyed. You may have made up your mind that the besiegers were an advance guard of the rebels; but they were not. They were nothing less than an army of fierce musquitoes, who made such a persistent attack on the general and his staff as to make his position almost untenable. In truth, they so harassed the corpulent engineer, in rear and flank, that he mounted his horse and returned to the city, where he spent a comfortable night at Willard's Hotel, and went back in the morning refreshed. My authority for this is the distinguished engineer himself.
A little after midnight, the two orderlies became seriously alarmed (I ought to mention that one was recently from Cork, and the other from Kerry), and reported to the general that a conversation was being carried on in an unknown language by two persons in the woods beyond, and whom they verily believed to be spies of the enemy. The general was not a little perplexed at this intelligence, for the better informed orderly declared, that while one shouted in very bad Irish, the other seemed to answer him in Dutch. The general listened attentively for a minute or more, when the noise was again heard. It turned out, however, that the intruders were only a pair of owls, who had perched in some trees near by, and were exchanging hootings for their own entertainment.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE KIND OF REINFORCEMENTS WE HAD TO DEFEND THE CITY.
THIS is an exact portrait of General Jubal A. Early, who was sent to capture Washington, but arrived a little too late.