 A. E. Burnside, George H. Thomas, Miles, Abercrombie, Cadwalader, Stone, and Negley commanded troops; and then, the laws being silent in the midst of arms, Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, was his aid-de-camp. From Patterson's  position two routes led to the Valley of Virginia, one via Frederick, Md., across the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, the other by Hagerstown, Md., crossing at Williamsport and thence to Martinsburg. Patterson wisely selected the latter route, because it was a flank movement on his enemy at Harper's Ferry, who could present no obstacle to a successful passage to the Potomac. He therefore marched his army to Hagerstown, where, on the 15th of June, he had ten thousand men. On that day General Johnston evacuated Harper's Ferry, and two days later, with a force of sixty-five hundred men, was at Bunker Hill, a point twelve miles from Winchester and between that city and Martinsburg. This was wise on the part of Johnston. His intention to do so was accelerated from a well-authenticated rumor that had reached him of the advance of the Federal forces in the direction of Winchester from Romney, some forty--three miles west of that place. Indeed, he had detached two regiments under Colonels A. P. Hill and Gibbons, and sent them to Winchester with orders to proceed out on the road toward Romney for the purpose of checking any march of hostile troops from that direction. These troops were thought to be the advance of a force under General McClellan, which had been organized in that section of western Virginia. When Patterson crossed the Potomac Johnston very properly moved to Bunker Hill, so as to be in position to prevent the junction of McClellan and Patterson, by fighting a battle with Patterson before McClellan could reach Winchester, if indeed the force reported to be advancing from the direction of Romney were McClellan's troops. He soon became convinced that no considerable body of United States troops was approaching Winchester from the direction of Romney, and so the two regiments sent there were recalled to Winchester. If the action of Johnston had not been guided by the reports received, he would have evacuated Harper's Ferry at once upon the passage of the Potomac by Patterson. Harper's Ferry was not a defensible point. It was a cul-de-sac commanded thoroughly by Maryland Heights. Later in the war a large force of Federal troops was easily  forced to capitulate by a portion of the Confederate army approaching from the direction of Maryland. Patterson commenced to cross the Potomac with the avowed purpose of fighting a battle with the army under Johnston, but when about two thirds of his troops had crossed he received a telegram from General Scott ordering him to send to Washington at once all the regular troops he had, horse and foot, as well as the Rhode Island regiment under Burnside, which was a very fine one. If this telegram had not been received, and Patterson had continued the march of his troops into Virginia, he would have reached Martinsburg on the 17th of June, and on the 18th could have attacked the Confederate troops then in line of battle awaiting him at Bunker Hill, eleven miles distant, and there might have been on the pages of American history a second battle of that name. The explanation of General Scott's telegram is to be found in the fact that he had changed his plan of offensive operations. He had reversed his former purposes and now proposed to fight the first battle with the army around Washington, while the army of Patterson should make the feint, to prevent a junction of Johnston's army with that of Beauregard's at Manassas. General Sanford, who commanded the State troops of New York, was the senior officer at that time on duty in Washington; and at two o'clock on the morning of May 21, 1861, with eleven thousand men first invaded Virginia and took possession of Arlington Heights and the adjacent section as far as Alexandria. The Department of Virginia was created, and General Irvin McDowell was selected by the Washington Cabinet to command it. Up to that time it is said Genera