But although
300,000 men were promised him, the discouragement of the Northern
people was so great that recruits showed no alacrity in coming
forward. The South, on the other hand, ringing with the brilliant
deeds of Lee and Jackson, turned with renewed vigour to the task of
resisting the invader. Richmond, the beleaguered capital, although
the enemy was in position not more than twenty miles away, knew that
her agony was over. The city was one vast hospital. Many of the best
and bravest of the Confederacy had fallen in the Seven Days, and the
voice of mourning hushed all sound of triumph. But the long columns
of prisoners, the captured cannon, the great trains of waggons, piled
high with spoil, were irrefragable proof of the complete defeat of
the invader.
When the army once more encamped within sight of the city it was
received as it deserved. Lee and Jackson were the special objects of
admiration. All recognised the strategic skill which had wrought the
overthrow of McClellan's host; and the hard marches and sudden blows
of the campaign on the Shenandoah, crowned by the swift transfer of
the Valley army from the Blue Ridge to the Chickahominy, took fast
hold of the popular imagination.
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