Sumner, Garfield, and a few others, senators and representatives united
against him in a massive phalanx. Even the friendship of General Grant
was unable to protect him from the fury of his opponents. He returned,
not unwillingly, to his native heath and the practice of a better
profession than Washington politics.

In his report to Congress on the battle of Bull Run, General Winfield
Scott gave the opinion that it was lost through the lack of capable
officers for the volunteer regiments; and it is generally true that men
who like to play soldier in time of peace are not the best material to
make real soldiers out of. This would not apply however to Captain
George L. Prescott of Concord, who commanded the embattled farmers in
that engagement. He was leading an advance on the enemy's centre--"a
magnificent sight to look at," his colonel said--when the right wing of
the army was outflanked by General Kirby Smith, and the Union forces
obliged to retreat. The colonel also appears to have done his duty
there, and being severely wounded at this juncture could hear nothing in
the feverish condition he was in for the next few days but Prescott
saying, "Steady, men, steady!" to the soldiers. Previous to 1861 he was
station master at Concord, and also carried on a business in lumber,
cement, and other building materials, which he could easily do, for
trains in those days were not so very numerous. He was the first person
that attracted the attention of visitors to the town; for he had a
commanding figure and a frank, manly countenance, only too fearless and
kindly,--a very handsome man. The Hoar family were evidently Yankees,
and so were Emerson, Alcott, and Sanborn, but Captain Prescott was an
American without seeming to belong to any particular part of the
country. His cordial frankness and independence of manner reminded one
of a Virginian.