To supplement Beauregard's weakness as a commanding General in case of
emergency, Joseph E. Johnston was placed at Harper's Ferry to guard the
entrance of the Shenandoah Valley, secure the removal of the invaluable
machinery saved from the Arsenal, and form a junction with Beauregard
the moment he should be threatened.
The movement of General Patterson's army against Harper's Ferry had been
too obviously a feint to deceive either Davis or Lee, his chief military
adviser. Johnston was given ten thousand men and able assistants
including General Jackson.
On the tenth of July Beauregard, anxiously awaiting information of the
Federal advance, received an important message from an accomplished
Southern woman, Mrs. Rose O'Neal Greenhow. She had remained in
Washington as Miss Van Lew had in Richmond, to lay her life on the altar
of her country. During the administration of Buchanan she had been a
leader of Washington society. She was now a widow, noted for her wealth,
beauty, wit and forceful personality. Her home was the meeting place of
the most brilliant men and women of the old regime. Buchanan was her
personal friend, as was William H. Seward. Her niece, a granddaughter of
Dolly Madison, was the wife of the Little Giant of the West, Stephen A.
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