In those
countless households, by whose generous contributions the armies had
been recruited, the talk began to be that it was folly, and even
cruelty, to send brave and patriotic citizens to be slaughtered
uselessly, while one leader after another showed his helpless
incompetence. The disloyal Copperheads became more bodeful than ever
before; while men who would have hanged a Copperhead as gladly as they
would have shot a Secessionist felt their hearts sink before the
undeniable Southern prestige. But the truth was that Pope and Burnside
and Hooker, by their very defeats, became the cause of victory; for the
elated Southerners, beginning to believe that their armies were
invincible, now clamored for "invasion" and the capture of Washington.
Apparently General Lee, too, had drunk the poison of triumph, and
dreamed of occupying the national capital, Baltimore, and Philadelphia,
and dictating the terms of peace to a disheartened North. The
fascinating scheme--the irretrievable and fatal blunder--was determined
upon.
To carry out this plan Swell's corps was covertly moved early in June
into the Shenandoah Valley. Hooker, anticipating some such scheme, had
suggested to Mr. Lincoln that, if it were entered upon, he should like
to cross the river and attack the Southern rear corps in Fredericksburg.
The President suggested that the intrenched Southerners would be likely
to worst the assailants, while the main Southern army "would in some way
be getting an advantage northward.
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