s sent to command at Acquia Creek, some twelve miles east of Fredericksburg. Robert Garnett, also an officer of the United States Army, of-tested ability, was ordered to West Virginia to take charge of the department and of the forces assembling in that region. All of these officers had been selected with great care, and had been more or less distinguished in the army, but not one of them had ever before been in command of large numbers of men. The regular army of the United States previous to 1861 was a small organization of fifteen thousand soldiers. Including the quartermaster general, there were only five general officers in it-Scott, Wool, Harney, Twiggs, and Joe Johnston. A few only of the officers, to whom was assigned on either side the command of armies, corps, and divisions, had ever previous to the war commanded a regiment, the great majority of them not more than one company. In these operations of defense General Lee's whole time was employed. The larger number of troops were sent to Beauregard and Johnston, it being evident that one or both of the points occupied by their armies would be the scene of the earliest conflicts. His services were great and indispensable, but it can be readily seen that after supplying the threatened points with troops, and after providing commanding officers for the different armies when the battles of the war began, there would be no place for him in the field, but that the active operations there would be intrusted to others at first. To Mrs. Lee, from Richmond, June 24, 1861, he wrote: “My movements are very uncertain, and I wish to take the field as soon as certain arrangements can be made. I may go at any moment to any point where it may be necessary. Custis is engaged on the works around this city, and many of our old friends are dropping in. E. P. Alexander is here. Jimmy Hill, Alston, Jenifer, etc., and I hear that my old colonel, A. S. Johnston, is crossing the plains from California.” Preparations for the advance of the Federal army of the Potomac on Manassas were rapidly nearing completion. Everything needed was bountifully provided  from an overflowing Treasury. General Scott was still Commander in Chief of the United States Army, and still the possessor of the entire confidence of his country. Mr. Simon Cameron, Mr. Lincoln's Secretary of War, wrote to Mr. John Sherman, then in the field as a volunteer aid-de-camp to General Patterson, that the whole administration has but one safe course in this emergency, and that is to be guided by the counsels of the general in chief in all that relates to the plans, movements, and commands of the campaign. He has superior knowledge, wisdom, and patriotism over any other member of the administration, said Cameron, and enjoys the unlimited confidence of the people, as well as that of the President and his advisers. The day after General Scott's last interview with General Lee he published General Order No. 3, which created the Department of Washington, embracing Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and Major-General Robert Patterson, of Pennsylvania, was placed in command. On June 3, 1861, the headquarters of this officer were at Chambersburg, Pa., where he was busy organizing and equipping the army whose objective point was Harper's Ferry, at that time occupied by a small number of the Southern troops. It was General Scott's original plan to make Patterson fight the first great battle in the war, giving him all the troops he could possibly spare from the defense of Washington. It was his first purpose to make a feint on Beauregard at Manassas, while making a real attack upon Joe Johnston in the Valley of Virginia. With the defeat of Johnston the victorious army could march on Beauregard at Manassas, re-enforced by the troops around the Federal capital. Soldiers of high reputation and great merit were ordered to report to Patterson. Fitz John Porter was his adjutant general, Amos Beckwith commissary of subsistence, Crosman quartermaster, Sampson topographical engineer, Newton engineer; while such men as