with grim amusement. Lys!" she thought.

"Poor little

But no one could have seemed to need pity less than Alicia Drayton. It might better have been bestowed on her lover, who felt conscious and half irritated all the time they were at table. He wished Philip were at home; he was grateful to Molly for talking to him; he wished Lyssie (bless her dear little heart!) would not be quite so so young; he wished Mrs. Shore, with her slightly cynical smile, were drowned in the depths of the sea. Without the slightest reason, he began to be angry with her; he answered one of her assertions apropos of some discussion about the working classes so curtly that Alicia looked apprehensively at her sister; but Cecil, strangely enough, seemed more hurt than offended. She colored, and said that Mr. Carey had certainly misunderstood; she had not meant quite what he supposed, and she tried by a hasty explanation to bring a certain seriousness into the flippant statement that the submerged tenth was as necessary to the higher civilization, to the culture of the few, as a fertilizer was to a flower garden.

Roger Carey said carelessly, "Do you think your culture and mine quite worth such manure? Think of the misery of the sweating system, for instance! Perhaps you are worth it, Mrs. Shore, but I'm sure I'm not." But when he saw the pain and truth in Alicia Drayton's face, as she said, "When I see readymade clothing, I always wonder, Who suffered for that?"" he felt ashamed of having paraded his irritation in the dress of a fine sentiment; so he became rather more frankly rude to Mrs. Shore to console himself.

6

Lyssie was quite discouraged, and gave him that little appealing look which we see so often on the faces of those dear souls who long to have us do ourselves justice. It said, "Oh, be nice, Roger; don't be so-not-as-pleasant-as-usual." But Roger continued to

be "not-as-pleasant-as-usual" until he got away from Mrs. Shore; and then ah well, a girl knows of no adjective to describe her lover in those adorable first moments when she has him to herself, and he is even more pleasant than usual.

Roger was to go away on Tuesday, and he wanted to be with Lyssie every moment that he could. He was still vaguely astonished to find himself in love, but he liked it! And he was distinctly cross when Mrs. Shore mentioned, casually enough, on Monday, that he would not be able to see Lyssie that afternoon.

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Really you must be a little firmer," she said. "She was to have gone to the upper village this morning on some stupid errand for her mother; but Mrs. Drayton wished to be fanned, so she had to put it off until this afternoon; she could just as well have gone this morning. You must teach her some of your firmness, Mr. Carey."

"This afternoon!" said Roger blankly. "Why, I thought I could see her this afternoon."

"Oh well, later you can see her,when she comes back; about five, I think. Meantime, I'll entertain you by taking you out to drive. No, you can't go with Lyssie," she silenced him, smiling. “She has started by this time. The people dine here, you know, at half past twelve, so she started nearly an hour ago."

Roger resigned himself to a drive with his hostess with an ill grace. "She'll be back by five, surely?" he asked, and intimated to Mrs. Shore that he cared to drive with her only until that hour.

And no one was more surprised than Roger Carey to find himself at half past six, in the midst of a discussion with Mrs. Shore, driving into Old Chester on the way back to his hostess's door.

"Why," he said, "why, what time is it? Are we back again?" He looked at his watch, and turned red, and said something under his breath. How could he

have forgotten? He asked himself the question a dozen times, finding no satisfactory answer. But it was not so very remarkable; human nature is human nature. For one thing, his companion was a beautiful woman; but beside that she could talk. To Roger Carey discussion was like the breath in his nostrils, and when Mrs. Shore took him to task for a statement of his, that, without the great human experience of friendship, a soul was still potential, he grew keen and interested, and intent upon making his point. Cecil had declared that friendship was a beautiful thing, if it were true, and he had burst out in hearty condemnation of the insinuation. But her remark had been genuine enough: she had never experienced friendship; she had known no schoolgirl frenzies of letters and copied poems and exchanged locks of hair, - all that rehearsal of love with which young women so seriously amuse themselves, but which so often cools into sincere and lifelong regard. Roger told her, frankly, that he was sorry for her, and added his conviction of her potentiality. Curious that this topic of friendship is so especially alluring to a man and woman between whom friendship is impossible!

After that their discussion turned upon

the abstractions of truth and duty and conduct, and Roger Carey, in his perfectly straightforward earnestness, fell into that courteous trap of "you and I;" "you and I think," or "feel," or "know better." There is no more subtle flattery from an intelligent man to an intelligent woman than this "you and I;" it is an intellectual caress, and the mind responds to it with an abandon which betrays its ethical effect. Roger was too interested to be aware of anything more than an added brilliancy in his companion's look, an added force in her words. But his interest made him forget that Lyssie would be back from her errand to the upper village at five. Now, realizing it, he was angry at himself, with that painful anger which was only a form of astonishment at his own possibilities. He was plainly sulky with Mrs. Shore, which was most unjust, for Cecil, though she laughed at him a little, was really sorry. "I never thought of Lys," she said; "it's too bad! You were too entertaining, Mr. Carey. She will never”.

An exclamation from Roger made her turn, and she saw, in the meadow on her right, Lyssie and Molly, and, further off, her husband struggling with a drunken

man.

Margaret Deland.

On the evening of the 31st of May, 1862, during the battle of Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines, General Joseph E. Johnston, the commander of the Confederate forces, was wounded so severely that he was borne from the field, and for a long time was incapacitated for service. General Johnston was a man of vigorous intellect, of great experience in the old army, and one who had knowledge of the art of war and skill in its exercise; he was also clear-headed, and, though

of aggressive temperament, knew how to abide events. He had, too, a thorough conception of the part to be performed by the Confederate armies in order to make their cause a successful one. Nevertheless, he labored under the disadvantage of being obnoxious to Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States, who, once an army officer, had vexed several of his generals by his censoriousness. Among these was Johnston, who, moreover, had attributed to Davis

injustice in a matter of grade: the two had clashed. It was this commander who had resisted McClellan's advance up the Peninsula, and who now was seeking to overwhelm that part of the Federal army which lay south of the Chickahominy. The fall of General Johnston caused the command of the troops in action to devolve upon General Gustavus W. Smith, who retained it until the appointment of Robert E. Lee, on the day following, to the position of commander in chief. As soon as General Lee took command he desisted from further effort, and withdrew the Confederate forces to their former position in the neighborhood of Richmond. During this battle, therefore, the Confederates fought under three successive commanders.

General Lee assumed command at a moment when the dark outlook of the military situation in Virginia began to brighten for the Confederates. Of the five Federal columns which had been converging in superior force upon the Confederate capital, three had been put hors de combat for the moment by Stonewall Jackson. This general had thrown the plans as well as the troops of the Washington government into confusion, and had succeeded in reducing for a while the effectiveness of McDowell's column from that of coöperation with McClellan's army to that of mere and imperfect reinforcement. The bad blood that had been engendered at the Northern capital gave rise to crimination and recrimination, to exasperating reflections upon the defeated generals, and to bitter taunts at the inaction of McClellan ; the whole ignoble brood of politicians, contractors, and speculators filled the corridors of the departments with their clamor, while the silence of consternation fell upon those whose meddling had really wrought this catastrophe. In such a crisis the dislodgment of McClellan would have completed the wreck of Federal hopes and plans. Nothing, therefore, could have been better timed than

was Johnston's attack, and had it been pressed to a successful conclusion the moral effect in favor of the Confederates would have been incalculable.

Once reinstated in their former positions, both armies busied themselves in field fortification, and were soon covered by continuous lines of earthworks. The most vital question of the day within the opposing ranks was, "When will McDowell march to reinforce McClellan?" The necessity of anticipating this event had already brought on the indecisive action of Fair Oaks, and this impending juncture was Lee's daily incentive to action. On the other side, McClellan was kept dancing attendance on McDowell, and his advance upon Richmond was retarded by the necessity of maintaining his army in such a position that the wished-for junction of forces could be effected without the interposition of the enemy. The Federal centre and left wing, therefore, held fast to the south bank, threatening Richmond, while the right wing, consisting of Porter's and Franklin's corps, on the north bank, reached out towards McDowell. The arrival of McCall's division by water from Fredericksburg enabled McClellan to unite Franklin's corps to the main body, leaving Porter alone on the left bank. Thus the accession of McCall's force augmented Porter's corps, but the subtraction of Franklin weakened the right wing. General Lee was not blind to the state of affairs within his enemy's camp, nor was he slow in accepting the hint conveyed by McCall's debarkation: it signified that order was taking the place of confusion at Washington, and that the government there was regaining its capacity to resume offensive action. The blow must be struck soon, and the sooner the better. Time, which had been niggardly to McClellan, had been kind to Lee, for it had not only brought reinforcements to Richmond, but, above all, it had set Jackson, flushed with victory, free to coöperate with his chief from a point

which would direct him upon the rear of McClellan's attenuated wing. It was upon the enemy's right instead of upon his left, as Johnston had done, that Lee would strike; and after imparting his plans to those who were to carry them out, he made ready for the movement, and on the 26th of June began its execution.

During the period that had elapsed since the battle of Fair Oaks two things had become impressed upon Lee: one was that McClellan intended to attack Richmond by regular approaches, and the other was that the four corps constituting the Federal main body were too strong to be dislodged from their position, covered as it was by fieldworks. It was necessary, therefore, to draw them out of their intrenchments, and to accomplish this several things had to be done to intrench to such an extent that a fraction of the Confederate forces could hold the mass of the Federals in check while Lee with the greater part of his army could operate in the open field; to gather together all the troops that could be drawn from the South and West; and to bring Jackson's victorious column within such a distance as to enable this general to act in cooperation with him. Accordingly, to use his own words, soon as the defensive works were sufficiently advanced General Jackson was directed to move rapidly and secretly from the Valley, so as to arrive in the vicinity of Ashland by the 24th of June." Jackson, moreover, rode on ahead of his troops as this order was on the point of completion, and on the 23d met Generals Lee, Longstreet, and the two Hills in personal conference, when, upon his own suggestion, the 26th was fixed as the day upon which operations should begin.

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as

The general scope of this plan of campaign embraced the passage of the Chickahominy by Lee, and his action in concert with Jackson upon the north, or left bank. By sweeping down the river on that side, and threatening the Federal

communications with York River, it was thought that the enemy would be compelled to retreat, or to give battle out of his intrenchments. General Lee does not say where this battle was to take place, nor does he predict McClellan's line of retreat, but from the fact that the communications with York River were the only ones existing at the time and the only ones he mentions, some point on or covering these lines must have been in his mind, and the retreat foreshadowed would be one down the Peninsula and by the roads up which the Federals had advanced. It is reasonable, then, to conclude that Lee anticipated drawing MeClellan to the north bank, and that, in the event of this general's defeat, he would retire upon Fort Monroe.

The Federal forces upon which the blow was to fall immediately lay along Beaver Dam Creek, a mile east of Mechanicsville, which is a hamlet on the left bank of the Chickahominy, five miles to the north of Richmond. A little more than a mile and a half from Mechanicsville Bridge, up stream, is Meadow Bridge, and seven miles further up is still another passage. Three and a half miles below Mechanicsville Bridge is New Bridge. All three bridges are ancient and permanent ones, and at that time their approaches from the north were in possession of the Federals, and those from the south were in possession of the Confederates: these approaches led through a wide and otherwise impassable swamp which borders the stream.

It is evident that, during his march down the north bank, Lee would be separated from Richmond and his forces in its front by a river and an impassable swamp, both of which would be on his right flank, and especially that his line of communication would be much greater than that of the Federal right wing with its main body; that, to use military language, he would be acting upon exterior lines. His first object, then, would be to gain a position which would bring him

into shorter and speedier communication with the troops left to defend his intrenched lines: such a position would be one that commanded New Bridge. On the 26th of June, the day fixed upon by Jackson himself, this officer should have reached a point from which coöperation with Lee would have been practicable. Accordingly, at three o'clock on the morning of this day, he was to break camp and to direct his march towards Cold Harbor, a spot in rear of the Federals, five and a half miles by an air line east of Mechanicsville, and one and an eighth mile back of the river. Upon setting out he was to send word of this fact to General Branch, who was occupying the uppermost passage of the Chickahominy, whereupon this general was to cross the stream at once with his brigade, and, clearing away the Federal outposts as he advanced, pursue the road to Mechanicsville. When General A. P. Hill, who would be in readiness upon the Meadow Bridge road, perceived Branch opposite to him, he too was to cross, and, turning to the right, follow in the same path. As soon as A. P. Hill had cleared the northern approaches to the Mechanicsville Bridge, Longstreet and D. H. Hill, who were formed on the southern causeways to the bridge, were to cross; the latter continuing his march to the support of Jackson, but the former keeping in a position that would support A. P. Hill. Thenceforth all four divisions were to march on three separate roads in an echelon, or round-of-ladder formation, of which they would constitute the rounds, and in the following order: Jackson's, the leftmost division, to be in advance; D. H. Hill's coming next, with its head on a line at right angles to Jackson's rear; and A. P. Hill's, the lowest round of the ladder, to advance down the river road. Longstreet was to follow the lastnamed division as a reserve. It was expected that by the time A. P. Hill was ready to set out from Mechanicsville the effect of Jackson's presence upon the Fed29 NO. 438.

VOL. LXXIII.

erals would be manifested by the evacuation of their works on Beaver Dam Creek, and that, pressed on rear and flank, they would fall back below New Bridge, where they would be arrested by Jackson, and be compelled to give battle on a field of Lee's choosing.

All this was to be in full swing before the sun had fairly warmed the earth; by high noon the Confederates were to be in communication with their comrades on the south bank by way of New Bridge. But it has not escaped the observation of the reader that the first of these many steps was to be taken by the most remote of the actors in this drama, one who was behind the scenes, and therefore was out of sight. He was to send word across country to the nearest general, who, seven miles distant from his next neighbor, was to impart motion to the successive columns by moving in force down a road which, more than likely, he would find obstructed. Rarely in combinations involving the contemporaneous or immediately successive action of separate or distant bodies do things fall out in accordance with a foreordained plan of action. Such was the case in this instance. The sun rose to the zenith without the sound of a gun from Jackson and without a sign of Branch. It had even been on its decline for three hours when A. P. Hill, out of all patience, asked permission to cross the river, which, strange to say, Lee granted; and soon, upon the north bank and turning to the right, Hill pushed past Mechanicsville, and out upon a slope from which he expected to discern the abandoned works of the Federals. He saw nothing of the kind, but, to his vexation, beheld the lines fully manned, and their occupants ready to receive him in a position the strength of which was apparent at a glance. Nevertheless, he made haste to clear the field of them before Longstreet and D. H. Hill should come up; but when these arrived on the ground they found him so fast in the toils, and the Federals so firm