Wallace himself.

When those who come after us, my son, shall read of this, it will
seem very strange that the fate of Washington, the capital of this
great and powerful nation, should have depended on a battle between
General Lew Wallace, and his undisciplined troops, on the one side,
and Jubal Early and his stonewall troops on the other. And all this
in the fourth year of the war.

Now this battle, if it can be dignified with the name, was fought on
Saturday, the 9th of July. General Early took no further notice of
General Wallace, but started at once for the defenses of Washington.
And there was nothing to oppose him until he reached them; and
nothing then but some cannon, and some men who did not know how to
fire them.

When it got rumored round that the late General Early was not only
aiming to besiege Washington, but was not far away from the
defenses, there was considerable of a stir made in official circles.
Timid people tried to keep their courage up in various ways. Heroes,
who had never been out of Washington, now talked like very heroes;
and it was intimated that the Treasury Guard would come out, and
take the field. Those who had no taste for fighting, and they were
many, found it very uncomfortable, because there was no way of
getting out of the city.

During the war, my son, I frequently noticed that when a battle was
going on at the front there was sure to be a large number of heroes
in uniform doing promenade duty on the Avenue. Their number seemed
to have increased prodigiously just at this time. It was noticed