National Troops on the Upper Potomac

Both columns marched at about midnight. An order to secure mutual recognition was neglected, and as the columns approached in the gloom, they mistook each other for enemies, and fired, killing and maiming some of the men. The mistake was instantly discovered, and the combined columns pressed on toward Magruder's fortifications at Big Bethel. The noise of the firing had been heard there, which caused the scattered Confederates to concentrate their forces in time to meet the Nationals. A sharp engagement ensued. The Nationals were repulsed; and just as Lieutenant Greble ordered his field-pieces to be made ready for the retreat, a cannonball struck his temple a glancing blow, and he fell dead. So perished, at the very opening of the great Civil War, the first of the officers of the regular army who fell in that conflict. Generous, brave and good, Lieutenant Greble was beloved by all who knew him. His body was carried to Philadelphia, his native city, where it lay in state one day, in Independence Hall, and was buried with military honors in Woodland Cemetery. Major Theodore Winthrop, an accomplished young officer, was also killed at Bethel, while bravely contending with the insurgents. He was a member of General Butler's staff, and his military secretary. When Butler was informed of the action, he proceeded to join the expedition in person, but at Hampton he received tidings of the disaster. It was a result which alarmed and mortified the nation; but the public mind was soon absorbed in the contemplation of far greater and more momentous movements. The failure at Bethel was undoubtedly chargeable more to a general eagerness to do, without experience in doing, than to any special shortcomings of individuals.

For a month after the dash on Romney, Wallace and his men were in a perilous situation; but by boldness and audacity of action, a wholesome fear of the Zouaves was created among the Confederates. By ceaseless activity they guarded the Baltimore and Ohio Railway for more than a hundred miles; and so distinguished were their services, unaided, that General Patterson wrote to Wallace: "I begin to doubt whether the Eleventh Indiana needs reinforcements." Wallace was soon afterward commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers.

When Johnston abandoned Harper's Ferry, General Patterson, who had received intimations that he was expected to cross the Potomac, pushed his columns forward from Hagerstown and threw about nine thousand troops across the river at Williamsport, where it was fordable. These were led by General George Cadwallader, who commanded five companies of cavalry. At that moment Scott telegraphed to Patterson to send him all his regular troops and a few others under his command. This order was repeated; and again it was repeated early in the morning of the 17th, when the General-in-Chief said: "We are pressed here; send the troops I have twice called for, without delay." Patterson obeyed, but was compelled to call back the remainder of his force into Maryland.

The danger hinted at by the General-in-Chief was great indeed. Beauregard was preparing to move on the capital before the assembling of Congress on the 4th of July. The Confederate government, aided by the Secessionists of Virginia and Maryland, were employing every means in their power to accomplish that end. Washington was swarming with enemies, open and secret. Plotters were at work. The Confederate archives at the capital reveal some ugly facts; among others, that the Confederate secretary of war received a proposition to blow up the Capitol with gunpowder that should be conveyed secretly to its crypts, some time between the 4th and 5th of July, when Congress would be in session and possibly the President might be present. The proposition was entertained, and directions were given for a conference between the conspirators and Judah P. Benjamin, the Confederate attorney-general. This scheme for wholesale murder was abandoned then, and Congress assembled quietly at the appointed time.

When Congress met (July 4, 1861) the public welfare demanded immediate and energetic action, and that legislation should be confined to providing means for the salvation of the Republic. Our foreign relations were in a critical state. Confederate emissaries at European courts had created a general impression among statesmen and publicists, that our nation was only a league of States that might be dissolved when a member became dissatisfied. They had magnified the power and unity of the Confederacy, and had made the most tempting offer of free-trade in cotton to Great Britain and France. The belief soon became general that the Republic was hopelessly shattered. Foreign representatives at Washington wrote to their respective governments that the United States were hopelessly dismembered; and leaders of public sentiment in Europe affected to be amazed at the seeming folly of Congress in legislating as if the Union, "one and inseparable," had a future. Some of them were anxious to widen the breach, and so diminish the power of the United States by disunity; for they were jealous of our expanding greatness as a nation, and regarded our republican form of government as a standing menace of the unstable thrones.