Mrs. Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a zealous and trusted friend of the
Confederacy, lived in Washington at the opening of the war. It was she
who, on July 16, 1861, sent the famous cipher message to Beauregard,
"Order issued for McDowell to move on Manassas to-night." Acting on this,
Beauregard promptly arranged his army for the expected attack, while
Johnston and "Stonewall" Jackson hastened from the Valley to aid in
repelling the Federal advance. Mrs. Greenhow's secret-service work was cut
short on August 26th, when Allan Pinkerton, the Federal detective,
arrested her and put her under military guard at her home, 398 Sixteenth
Street. Afterward she was transferred to the Old Capitol Prison. She
remained there until April, 1862. On June 2nd, after pledging her word not
to come north of the Potomac until the war was over, Mrs. Greenhow was
escorted beyond the lines of the Union army and set at liberty. It was
later discovered that she had, even while in prison, corresponded
extensively with Colonel Thomas Jordan, of General Beauregard's staff.
[Illustration: TROOPS THAT FOUGHT AT BULL RUN--A THREE MONTHS' COMPANY.]
When Lincoln issued his call for volunteers on the evacuation of Sumter,
Rhode Island was one of the first to respond. We here see Company "D" of
the First Regiment (organized April, 1861), as it looked during its
encampment at Camp Sprague, Washington, from April 24th to July 16th,
1861. The care-free faces of the men lack all the gravity of veterans. In
the famous first battle of the war, the regiment was in Burnside's Brigade
of Hunter's Division, which marched some miles to the north, crossed Bull
Run at Sudley Ford, met the Confederates north of Young's Branch, and
drove them south across the stream to the Henry house plateau. Later it
yielded to the panic which seized upon the Union army. On August 2, 1861,
Company "D" closed its brief career in the conflict that was to fill four
years with continuous combat.
[Illustration: THE FOURTH NEW JERSEY ON THE BANKS OF THE POTOMAC, 1861