He threw two grand
divisions of his army across the river and pushed his siege guns up
within six miles of Richmond. His engineers immediately built
substantial bridges across the stream over which he could move in safety
his heaviest guns in any emergency, either for reenforcements or
retreat.
He swung his right wing far to the north in a wide circling movement
until he was in easy touch with McDowell's forty thousand men at
Fredericksburg.
McClellan was within sight of the consummation of his hopes. When this
wide movement of his army had been successfully made without an arm
lifted to oppose, he climbed a tall tree within sight of Richmond from
which he could view the magnificent panorama.
A solid wall of living blue with glittering bayonets and black-fanged
batteries of artillery, his army spread for ten miles. Beyond them here
and there only he saw patches of crouching gray in the underbrush or
crawling through the marshes.
The Northern Commander came down from his perch and threw his arms
around his aide:
"We've got them, boy!" he cried enthusiastically. "We've got them!"
It was not to be wondered at that the boastful oratorical Confederate
Congress should have taken to their heels. They ran in such haste, the
people of Richmond began to laugh and in their laughter took fresh
courage.
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