arms, the conduct of this siege would afford us an excellent
example, as well as a profitable key to the art of war, as
understood by our War Department in the said year of our Lord, 1864.
This, then, is another reason why this great military event should
be faithfully rendered. I will also add, my son, that though I may
fail to instruct you after the manner and style of the most profound
historian of our day, I will at least make my account of this great
siege so plain and simple that you will comprehend it in all its
multiplicity of parts.

But first let me tell you a few things about Washington, the capital
city of this great nation. You, my son, may have seen one hundred
other cities, and yet it will remind you of none of them. It is very
elongated, and spreads over a great deal of ground, apparently for
personal inconvenience. Indeed, my son, it has the appearance of
having been dropped down late of a Saturday night by some eccentric
gentleman who had a large quantity of architectural odds and ends on
hand, and had no other use for them. It has been famous always for
its acute angles and broad avenues. The former, I have heard more
than one person say, were skillfully arranged by a very
accommodating French engineer, for the special benefit of persons
who went home late of nights and were liable to get confused on the
way. The population is rather a curious one, and may be classified
as the distinct and indistinct, the settled and unsettled. The
census report, a remarkably unreliable account, has it that they
number "some" sixty thousand. A large proportion of this settled and
unsettled population is of such variety of color as to render it
almost impossible to define the nice proportions of blood it is so
strongly mixed with. On this point, my son, you must not be too
particular, but accept it as your father does, as a proof that the