76THU ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 83 feat undertaken by the confederate Colonel Lee was one of the most singular episodes of the war. At the head of 1,500 horsemen he attacked some squadrons which were patrol- ing at Hanover Court House, dispersed them and made a successful inroad upon the communications of the army. His project was to cut off the York river railway, under cover oi the night; but it did not succeed. We, however, had the singular exhibition of a combat between cavalry and a railway train ; the train literally charging both the hostile cavalry and the obstructions placed on the track, escaped with the loss of a few men killed and wounded by the fire of the enemy. But if Colonel Lee failed to destroy the railway, he made a brilliant razzm upon the army stores, and escaped without damage to himself. The real mischief done was that attempts of this sort might be constantly renewed, and that we had not troops enough to oppose them everywhere at once. Although under all these trials the morale of the army continued to be excellent,* it was imposlible not to see that the expedition was in a critical situation, which was daily grow- ng worse. Having lost fully one-third of its numbers during the campaign, decimated by disease and threatened in the rear, the army found itself in the heart of the insurgent territory, menaced by forces twice or thrice more numerous than itself. It was impossible to think of remaining idle in front of the enemy as had been done during the winter at Washing' ton and more recently at Corinth. This General McClellan felt; and as soon as the bridges were fixed he determined to * I hardly know whether I ought to mention among other causes which might hare affected this morale the disagreeable spectacle of the gigantic posters which an embalmer exhibited in the midst of the camp, and in which this tradesman, speculating at once upon the losses of the army and on the domestic affections of their friends, promised to embalm the slain and send them home at a reasonable rate. This enterprising rival of Gannal, by the way, saved the life of a colonel, who having bee«i thrown into a prolonged swoon by the explosion of a shell, was supposed to be dead, and having been committed to the embalmer, recovered his consciousness during the operation.
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