As I have said before, my son, as soon as it was known that General Wallace had been driven back on Baltimore in search of rations, and General Early was close upon Washington, the government waked up to the fact that the capital was in danger, and began to take measures for its defense.  Our good President, believing, in the honesty of his heart, that his presence at the front would do good, took the field.  And the Secretary of War and the Chief of Staff went to issuing orders that no one seemed to obey.  Indeed, their orders only increased the confusion that had already taken possession of everything military.  The regular officers in command of the troops in the fortifications, and who knew the location and details of the forts as well as the roads leading to them, were superseded by strangers, ignorant of all these things, and even of what their commands consisted.

Why this was, my son, I cannot explain.  Perhaps the Secretary of War will, when he gets his historian, at $2,500 a year, to write a national history of the war.  Some malicious people said the Secretary of War had two reasons for this:  the first, to show his contempt for military science; the second, because he wanted to show what fools some of these strange generals were.  I have also heard it intimated that the reason why some of these strange generals were assigned to such important posts at such a moment of peril to the nation, was because they were of sufficient consequence to be made victims.  And as it was always necessary to have a victim to cover up and excuse the blundering of high officials, these men would come in handy enough.  But I never considered this a good excuse for thus superseding the officers, the only officers who really knew how to defend the city.

It was not surprising, however, that, with such an opportunity for gaining distinction as the defense of the capital of the nation, major and brigadier-generals should spring up as by magic.  Their number was truly marvelous.  Nor was it strange that they should all want to be heroes.  It was a little queer, however, that they should all be in the city just at this time, and seemingly without employment.  Each, on application, was assigned to an important command, though but few of them knew the road to the forts, and fewer still what they were going to command when they got there.

The alarm and confusion continued to increase as General Early and his rebel hosts approached.  And now the great question arose as to who was to be regarded as responsible for the safety of the city?  Was it the President, the Secretary of War, or the great Chief of Staff? people inquired.  No, it could be neither of these, for the President, though frequently seen at the front, seemed only a pleasant observer, and gave no orders to the troops.  The Secretary of War and Chief of Staff were issuing orders, as I have before described, and assigning strange generals to commands.  It could not be General Auger, for