Richmond had heard of the great battle of Shiloh, the failure to destroy Grant and the death of Albert Sidney Johnston.

New Orleans, the largest and richest city in the Confederacy, had been taken by the Northern fleet--the North was always triumphant on the water--and the mighty army of McClellan had landed on the Peninsula of Virginia for the advance on Richmond.
It had seemed that the South was doomed, and the war yet scarcely a year old.

But in the mountains the strange professor of mathematics had struck a blow and he might strike another.

Both North and South realized anew that no one could ever tell where he was or what he might do.

The great force, advancing by land to co-operate with McClellan, hesitated, and drew back.
But Jackson's troops knew nothing then of what was passing in the minds of men at Washington and Richmond.