t.' 



20 Ten Years of my Life. 



deformities. May they do so'; their benevolent sunpositions 

 will not induce me to dispel by plain and dry reality the roman- 

 tic cloud in which they have wrapped my youth. It would, 

 indeed, be cruel and ungrateful to novelists and dramatic 

 poets who have made me the heroine of their most wonderful 

 and fanciful works, to disenchant their public ! I therefore 

 shall jump right into the middle of my narrative. 



The great American civil war had commenced, the first bat- 

 tle of Bull Run had taken place, and the whole American 

 world was in an incredible fever of excitement. It was in the 

 Fall of 1 86 1, and having returned from Cuba, tvhere I had 

 lived several years, I was with a married sister in New York. 

 Het husband was an officer in the army, and all occurrences 

 connected with it and the war were eagerly discussed in our 

 lamily. 



Old General Scott, who once had earned cheap laurels in 

 Mexico, and v/as thought a very great general, had proved that 

 he was none, and the hopes set on McDowell had collapsed 

 at Bull Run. The people had, however, already found a new 

 idol in General McCleilan, who was placed at the head of the 

 forces of the Union. Before having had an opportunity of 

 doing much he was praised and worshipped as if he had won 

 a hundred battles, and whoever would not believe that little 

 Mac was an American Napoleon was in danger of being called 

 a ' coj)perhead.' When he really had done much, and shown 

 himself to be the best amongst all the dikttd?ite gi^ntxdXs oi the 

 Northern Union, kc was called a copperhead himself. 



At that time I am speaking of he was, as said before, the 

 great military star of the North, and was engaged in organis- 

 ing an army, having discovered after Bull Run that an undi- 

 sciplined, enthusiastic, though radical, army is nothing but an 

 armed mob. Recruiting was briskly carried on in New York ; 

 everywhere the goose-step was practised under the superinten- 

 dence of officers whose faces one had seen quite recently 

 behind counters and bars. The centre of public interest and 

 curiosity was, however, Wasliington, and the trains between 

 that capital and the metropolis were always crowded. 



McCleilan hurried his organisation as much as possible, and 

 knowing very well his sovereign people, he resolved to offer 

 them some military spectacle to satisfy their impatience and 

 curiosity. A great review of newly-formed cavalry was to take 



