198 POLITICAL LIFE-X 



address before the Geographical Society on the subject of 

 4 'The New Germany" (December 27, 1882), I met a num- 

 ber of distinguished men in politics at the table of General 

 Cullom, formerly the head of the West Point Academy. 

 There was much interesting talk, and some significant 

 political facts were brought out; but the man who inter- 

 ested me most was my next neighbor at table, General 

 McDowell. 



He was an old West Pointer, and had planned the 

 first battle of Bull Bun, when our troops were over- 

 whelmingly defeated, the capital put in peril, and the 

 nation humiliated at home and abroad. There is no 

 doubt now that McDowelPs plans were excellent, but 

 the troops were raw volunteers, with little knowledge of 

 their officers and less confidence in them; and, as a re- 

 sult, when, like the men in the "Biglow Papers," they 

 found ' t why baggonets is peaked," there was a panic, just 

 as there was in the first battles of the French Revolution. 

 Every man distrusted every other man ; there was a gen- 

 eral outcry, and all took flight. I remember doing what 

 I could in those days to encourage those who looked with 

 despair on the flight from the battle-field of Bull Eun, by 

 pointing out to them exactly similar panics and flights 

 in the first battles of the soldiers who afterward became 

 the Grande Armee and marched triumphantly over Eu- 

 rope. 



But of one thing the American people felt certain in 

 those days, and that was that at Bull Kun "General 

 McDowell was drunk." This assertion was loudly made, 

 widely spread, never contradicted, and generally believed. 

 I must confess now with shame that I was one of those who 

 were so simple-minded as to take this newspaper story as 

 true. On this occasion, sitting next General McDowell, I 

 noticed that he drank only water, taking no wine of any 

 sort; and on my calling his attention to the wines of our 

 host as famous, he answered, "No doubt; but I never take 

 anything but water. ' ' I answered, * ' General, how long has 

 that been your rule f ' ' He replied, ' ' Always since my boy- 



