u THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 63 ral in Congress; the opinion of the army did not take this direction ; it endorsed the delicate feeling of its leader. This feeling was pushed so far that when a general’s servants found one day in an abandoned house a basket of champaigne, the General sent it back again conspicuously the next by an aid- de-camp. We may smile at this puritanical austerity to which we are not accustomed in Europe. For my own part I admit that I always admired it. At White House the Pamunkey ceased to be navigable. The York river railroad, which unites Richmond with this river, crosses it at this point by a bridge which the enemy had destroyed, and then runs in almost a straight line to the Virginian capital. This road had been scarcely injured. Having neither embankments nor viaducts it was not easy to destroy it. A few rails only had been removed, and were soon replaced ; all the rolling stock had been run off, but the federal army had locomotives and cars on board of its transports. The whole flotilla was unloaded at White House, where a vast depot was established under the protection of the gunboats, and all the bustle of a seaport soon became visible. The army recommenced its march to Richmond, following the line of the railway, which was to be the vital artery of its operations. During all this time what were the confederates doing? We have seen Johnston successfully delivering battle against the federal advance, on the 5th of May, at Williamsburg, and against Franklin’s corps on the 7th, at the head of York river, in order to gain time for the bulk of his army to fall back undisturbed upon Richmond. Cavalry reconnoissances pushed in all directions had demonstrated the fact that almost the whole hostile army had recrossed the Chickahominy. Everything led us to believe that we should not meet it again excepting under the walls of Richmond; at the same time everything indicated that the confederates were concentratmg in their capital for a desperate resistance. .
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