THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 69 Hie bivouac of Porter, amid the joyous excitement which follows a successful combat, I saw rhe Fifth Cavalry bring in whole companies of confederate prisoners, with arms and baggage, their officers at their head. But neither the glad confidence of the federals nor the discouragement of their enemies deceived me, and I asked myself how many of these gallant young men who-snrrounded me, relating their exploits of the day before, would pay with their lives for the fatal error which was on the point of being committed. Not only did not the two armies unite, but the order came from Washington to burn the bridges which had been seized. This was the clearest "way of saying to the Army of the Potomac, and to its chiefs, that in no case conld they count on the support of the armies of Upper Virginia. This unfortunate step, had been taken upon hearing of the successful dash which the confederate General Jackson was then making upon the Upper Potomac. This skillful leader ascertaining that the federal forces in that region were broken up into a number of small independent corps, under the orders of Generals Fremont, Banks, Shields and others, had taken advantage of this state of anarchy to give them battle one after another. Ue had driven Banks across the Potomac and had created such confusion that he was supposed to be on the point of entering Washington. With more than 40,000 men to defend that city, with the easily tenable line of the Potomac, and the vast entrenched camp which surrounds the Capital it was not thought to be safe. McDowell was summoned in hot haste to join in the pursuit of Jackson. McDowell, as was to have been expected, arrived too late. But the bridges which might have connected his operations with those of McClellan, had been destroyed. It is probable that in the confusion which reigned at Washington, the order to destroy them was sent for the purpose of preventing the confederates from using them to send reinforcements to Jackson.
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