that no thought of a forward movement or invasion had ever been
contemplated; so there were no plans or specifications at hand. Then
again, the dead and wounded of both armies had to be attended to,
which crippled our medical department so as to render it powerless
should another engagement take place. And again, a large portion of
our people thought this total defeat of the enemy at the very outset
of the war would render the design of coercion by force of arms
impracticable. The South was conservative, and did not wish to inflame
the minds of the people of the Union by entering their territory or
destroying their capital. Knowing there was a large party at the
North opposed to the war, some of our leaders had reason to think
this shattering of their first grand army would so strengthen their
feelings and party that the whole North would call for peace. They
further hugged that fatal delusion to their breast, a delusion that
eventually shattered the foundation of our government and betrayed the
confidence of the troops, "foreign intervention." They reasoned that a
great victory by the South would cause our government to be recognized
by the foreign powers and the South given a footing as a distinct,
separate, and independent nation among all other great nations of
the earth. That the South would no longer be looked upon as an
"Insurrectionary Faction," "Erring Sisters," or "Rebellious Children."
Our ports had been ordered closed by the North, and an imaginary
blockade, a nominal fleet, stood out in front of our harbors. Our
people thought the world's desire for the South's cotton would so
influence the commercial and laboring people of Europe that the powers
would force the North to declare her blockade off. Such were some of
the feelings and hopes of a large body of our troops, as well as
the citizens of the country at large. But it all was a fallacy, a
delusion, an ignis fatuus. The North was aroused to double her former
fury, her energies renewed and strengthened, tensions drawn, her