Douglas.
Before leaving Washington to become the Adjutant General of Beauregard's
army Colonel Thomas Jordan had given her the cipher code of the South
and arranged to make her house the Northern headquarters of the Southern
secret service.
Her first messenger was a girl carefully disguised as a farmer's
daughter returning from the sale of her vegetables in the Washington
market. She passed the lines without challenge and delivered her message
into Beauregard's hands.
With quick decision Beauregard called his aide and dispatched the news
to the President at Richmond:
"I have positive information direct from Washington that the enemy
will move in force across the Potomac on Manassas via Fairfax Court
House and Centreville. I urge the immediate concentration of all
available forces on my lines."
The Southern commander began his preparations to receive the attack.
The house on Church Hill had not been idle. Richmond swarmed with
Federal spies under the skillful guidance of Socola.
General Scott knew in Washington within twenty-four hours that
Beauregard was planting his men behind the Bull Run River in a position
of great strength and that the formation of the ground was such with
Bull Run on his front that his dislodgment would be a tremendous task.
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