tol, and the march through the North, were deferred by those who were managing affairs on our side to a more convenient opportunity, and the grand chance for winning the great stakes for which we were fighting was lost, never to be regained. Just as at Shiloh, the hesitation to follow up a brilliant victory, and make it complete by the capture or annihilation of the enemy, lost us the field, and inflicted upon us a most humiliating defeat, so at Bull Run, a similar hesitating policy lost us not merely the substantial results of victory, but inflicted upon us four years' of slaughter, during which the Federals closed in upon us gradually, until at length they were able to crush us.
I mean no disparagement to the brave soldiers and the skilful commanders on the Federal side, when I express the opinion that, as a rule, the Confederates were better fighters, and were better officered, than their opponents. There was in efficiency somewhere, however, in the management of military affairs on our side. We never seemed to be able to follow up our successes, or to gain permanent results from our victories, no matter how brilliant they might be. The Federals, on the other hand, had a way of staying, when they once got to a place, that was most disheartening ; and one after another the strongest and most important of the Confederate posts fell into their hands, never to be regained, until finally they won the grand prize for which, during four long, weary years, vast armies had contended in vain, and, by the capture of Richmond, virtually ended the contest.
At the time of which I am writing, however, the capture of Richmond, although constantly threatened, was a long way off yet, and some trying days were to come before the abandonment of the capital would give the signal to Southern hearts, weary of strife, but hoping against hope, that even Hope it self was dead.
Richmond, however, was a very different place from what it was on my last visit to it, as I soon found to my cost. Martial law was in force in its most rigorous aspect, and General Winder, the chief of the secret service bureau, and his emissaries, were objects of terror to everybody, rich and poor. Beleaguered as Richmond was, every person was more or less an object of suspicion, and strangers, especially, were watched with a vigilance that left them few opportunities to do mischief, or were put under arrest, and placed in close confinement, without scruple, if Winder or his officers took it into
