Brigadier-General J.K.Mansfield commanded in the city, and Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell on the other side of the Potomac, with his headquarters at Arlington House.

His troops extended in a semicircle from Alexandria to above Georgetown.
Several forts and redoubts were either built or in progress, and the people were already clamorous for a general forward movement.
Another considerable army had also been collected in Pennsylvania under General Patterson, and, at the time I speak of, had moved forward to Hagerstown and Williamsport, on the Potomac River.

My brother, John Sherman, was a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Patterson, and, toward the end of June, I went up to Hagerstown to see him.

I found that army in the very act of moving, and we rode down to Williamsport in a buggy, and were present when the leading division crossed the Potomac River by fording it waist-deep.

My friend and classmate, George H.Thomas, was there, in command of a brigade in the leading division.