But it could not be him, for he had been
superseded by General Hardin; and General McDowell McCook ranked
both of them; and, as I have before informed you, was placed in
command and sent out to see to General Early.
This, my son, was very hard on General McCook, who found himself in
a predicament he would willingly have escaped from. It is no more
than right, my son, that I should give you an account of how this
general went to the field, and what he found when he got there.
Provided with a pocket full of orders, the general mounted his horse
late on Saturday afternoon and set out for the front, over the
Fourteenth-street road. The corpulent engineer I have described in
the early part of this history was assigned to General McCook for
duty; and this officer, and two sorry-looking orderlies, were all
that bore him company. The corpulent engineer alone knew the
military roads, and the location of the forts, which was very
fortunate. As they advanced over the road beyond Meridian Hill, they
overtook several straggling generals, each proceeding to the front
with a pocket full of orders, and generally accompanied by a single
orderly.
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