corruptible soul of General McClellan bound to travel until it met relief in action. The plans of the army, however carefully prepared, however secretly conceived, became known to the enemy before they were known to the President. There were traitors in the most secret council-chambers. Generals, senators, and secretaries looked at each other with suspicious eyes. At length a woman discovered one traitor, and thus another was unmasked; and some were asked to cross the sea, and did so.
I think history has not sufficiently emphasized this distracting element in our early warlike days. It was inevitable, perhaps, in a civil war, when father and daughter, and husband and wife, brother and sister, were armed against each other. It is a great wonder that the city of Washington was not betrayed, burned, destroyed a half-dozen times.
The scene for four years was "idyllic, grotesque, and barbaric," and society was most interesting. The student of the romantic side of life had great opportunities. Women of genius, sparkle, and even of eccentricity were sure to succeed. Washington society has always demanded less and given more than any society in this country — demanded less of applause, deference, etiquette, and has accepted as current coin quick wit, appreciative tact, and a talent for talking. The slender figures on horseback of the pretty women made the Long Bridge look like the Row in London, and the physical exercise gave them splendid color.
Picnics out at the camps were the fashion. The camp equipage, tin cups and plates, knives and forks of the simplest. Spartan fare, all added to the attraction of the feast, and as all cavalrymen are bound to be dashing, one or two such were always at the head of the feast,
