Scarcely had the excitement over the _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_ news begun
to subside, when, on the same afternoon, a new surprise burst upon the
military authorities in a report that the whole Confederate army had
evacuated its stronghold at Manassas and the batteries on the Potomac,
and had retired southward to a new line behind the Rappahannock. General
McClellan hastened across the river, and, finding the news to be
correct, issued orders during the night for a general movement of the
army next morning to the vacated rebel camps. The march was promptly
accomplished, notwithstanding the bad roads, and the troops had the
meager satisfaction of hoisting the Union flag over the deserted rebel
earthworks.
For two weeks the enemy had been preparing for this retreat; and,
beginning their evacuation on the seventh, their whole retrograde
movement was completed by March 11, by which date they were secure in
their new line of defense, "prepared for such an emergency--the south
bank of the Rappahannock strengthened by field-works, and provided with
a depot of food," writes General Johnston. No further comment is needed
to show McClellan's utter incapacity or neglect, than that for full two
months he had commanded an army of one hundred and ninety thousand,
present for duty, within two days' march of the forty-seven thousand
Confederates, present for duty, whom he thus permitted to march away to
their new strongholds without a gun fired or even a meditated attack.
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