EARLY BATTLES OF THE WAR.
The foe¹ moved their cap-i-tal from Mont-gom-er-y, Ala. to Rich-mond, Va. and the first bat-tle of weight was to lie be-tween the two cap-i-tals. The folks at the North thought the war would be a short one. Most of the North-ern vol-un-teers had been called out for but three months, so it was thought by some that a bat-tle must be fought ere that time came to an end. The press at the North made a loud call for a “for-ward move-ment.” From day to day there was the cry of “On to Rich-mond!”
This hot speed was not the wish of Gen. Scott, then Com-man-der-in-chief of all the U. S. troops. He said it would be “death to our cause.” It has since been thought that if the men in the North had been more slow to move, the first great loss would not have been theirs.
It was on the 21st, of Ju-ly, 1861, that the bat-tle of Bull² Run was fought. Gen-er-al Mc-Do-well moved
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 to-wards Rich-mond. The foe was led by Gens. Jo-seph E. John-ston and Beau-re-gard. The bat-tle was a sharp one and the loss large. At just the right mo-ment the foe had fresh troops sent to help them and thus gained the day. Af-ter a hard fight, the Un-ion for-ces had to give up. They fled back in haste to Wash-ing-ton.
 
MARCHING TO BULL RUN.
Sher-man was Colo-nel of a reg-i-ment at Bull Run. Though he did his part well, he had a fear that the Pres-i-dent would find fault with him for the great loss at that bat-tle. He felt that he had done all he could
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 with men who had been rushed in-to a fight ere they had had time to learn the art of war. Lin-coln knew that Sher-man had done his best with what he had. He knew that Sher-man was “val-u-a-ble man,” so he at once made him a Brig-a-dier Gen-er-al, sent him to Lou-is-ville, Ken-tuc-ky, and put him in charge of a large force of troops.
The bat-tle of Bull Run, it has been said, was fought to please “the pol-i-ti-cians.” It was the on-ly time the Pres-i-dent yield-ed to the pub-lic clam-or, and he was al-ways sor-ry that he then did so.
In a few days af-ter the bat-tle of Bull Run the Pres-i-dent went out to see the sol-diers. He made a kind speech, and told them to “cheer up,” for he “knew that bet-ter days were com-ing.”
Pres-i-dent Lin-coln felt that while Gen. Scott had a ver-y sound head and had done great good in his long years of work in the ar-my, he had come to the time when age had be-gun to “tell” up-on him. But what man could he put in his place? Gen. Mc-Do-well had met with de-feat. Gen. Pat-ter-son, too, had failed. Up to that date the on-ly off-i-cer who had won was Gen. Mc-Clel-lan, in charge of O-hi-o troops in West

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