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He had to look after the most minute matters of detail, and, like the Barber of Seville, he was here — he was there - he was everywhere." His government was the autocracy of love, sleepless in vigilance, yet not oppressive in discipline; no deviation from duty escaped his eye, and no display of merit passed unnoticed. His foresight never failed, and his prudence and judgment were eminently displayed.

While the red-shirted New York Fire Zouaves, commanded by Colonel Ellsworth, created some consternation at Washington by their frolicsome fights, and their appropriation of eatables and drinkables, with an impudent request that the bill be sent to Jeff Davis, at Richmond, the Rhode Island regiment became a great favorite at the national capital. Colonel Burnside and his officers were invited to social entertainments given by leading officials and citizens, and their encampment was a fashionable resort every pleasant afternoon. President Lincoln, members of the diplomatic corps, congressmen, and officers of other regiments were frequent spectators of the evening dress-parades, with their fine music, which were always closed with impressive religious exercises.

On the 10th of June the First Rhode Island Regiment left its pleasant quarters to join General Patterson's command in a demonstration against the Confederate forces then occupying Harper's Ferry, under Gen. Joe Johnston. The weather was warm and the march was fatiguing, but Colonel Burnside trudged along on foot with the men, his colored servant leading his horse, ready for him to mount if the emergency required. The Rev. Mr. Woodbury, the chaplain of the regiment, said afterwards of Colonel Burnside:

"His care for his command, his personal supervision,

and his readiness to share in the burdens of the humblest soldiers were very remarkable. Every morning he visited the hospital-tent, to see that the sick were properly attended to. Every evening he went the rounds of the camp and through the quarters, to see that all was as it

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should be for the night. His discipline was strict, and he knew how to rebuke delinquencies. But the men loved him, as children love a father. For they knew that, while he required of them a complete obedience, and that they would not be spared when duty was to be done, they would not be harassed and worried. They looked up to their commanding officer with a kind of filial affection and devotion."

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Meanwhile Colonel Burnside's hopes of securing the adoption of his breech-loading rifle were renewed. company was formed in Providence which manufactured the weapon, using a variety of machines, nicely adjusted and precisely accurate in their movements, turning out the different parts, which had only to be put together by hand. A company of sharp-shooters, armed with this weapon, was formed in the First Rhode Island Regiment, and Colonel Burnside had thus an opportunity of witnessing its usefulness in actual service.

After marching to and fro in Maryland the regiment was recalled to Washington for important service, and reoccupied its old encampment on the 25th of June. Officers and men were weather-bronzed and hardened by this brief campaign, and the veteran appearance of the regiment as it marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on its return prompted a camp-poet to record its praises in the following words, which were sung that night by the vocalists of the different regiments then at the national capital:

"Of all the true host that New England can boast,
From down by the sea unto highland,

No state is more true, or willing to do,
Than dear little Yankee Rhode Island!

Loyal and true Little Rhody.

Bully for you, Little Rhody.-

Governor Sprague was not very vague.

When he said: · Shoulder arms! Little Rhody.`”

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CONCENTRATION OF CONFEDERATE FORCES AT MANASSAS-" ON TO RICHMOND!"-CAMP SERVICES - GENERAL PATTERSON CHECKMATED - WAR BALLOONS ORGANIZATION OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE UNION - BURNSIDE'S BRIGADE - ADVANCE INTO VIRGINIA-CAPTURE OF FAIRFAX COURT HOUSE POLITICAL

ADVISERS.

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HE Confederates had meanwhile concentrated their available forces at Manassas, a gorge through the eastern spur of the Blue Ridge, through which the road from Washington to Richmond passed. It took its name from the landlord of a small hotel there, who was widely known and much esteemed for his kind heart and good cheer, and travelers would often add many miles to their day's journey, that they might spend the night with "Old Manassas." It was a commanding position, selected with great strategic skill, and fortified in part by nature, the plateau being equidistant between the almost impassable heights of the Blue Ridge on the one hand, and the Potomac on the other.

Here General Beauregard, who was a skillful engineer, constructed a line of earth-works some two miles in length, with angles, salients, bastions, and casemates. On the left of these fortifications were the head waters of the tortu

ous creek known as Bull Run, with wooded banks, which could easily be made impassable by the felling of trees;— and on the right was rolling land so rough and rugged that it was a defense in itself. Bull Run wound its way along in front of the Confederates' fortified position, between steep and rocky banks, and although there were several long-used fords, they were only known to the Confederates. The position was carefully selected, and the Confederates waited there in anxious expectation of the arrival of the Union troops. They were kept informed as to what transpired at Washington, not only in public, but in the War Department and the military committees of Congress.

President Lincoln and the members of his administration were, meanwhile, using every exertion to form an army which would overcome the Confederate forces known to be at Manassas. There had been so much progress and improvement in everything in the science of war, in the comforts of the soldier, in all kinds of mechanical inventions, in the mutual courtesy of combatants, and everything else, that people fancied battles would be fought as cleanly and as smoothly as a game of chess, or a sham fight on the vacant land east of the capitol. The only difficulty was to see how the war would be decided. Some thought it would be an affair of tactics, others that it would be a question of improved rifles, or of long-range artillery, and there were those who believed that the North, with its mechanical and scientific resources, would win an easy victory, and bring the war to a speedy termination.

Others, at the North, desired the abolition of slavery more than they did a restoration of the Union with that institution. They feared a compromise and a reconciliation, and they echoed the shout, "On to Richmond!" first

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