For two or three weeks his dispatches and letters were all on fire with enthusiastic energy.

He appeared to be in a morbid condition of mental exaltation.

When he came out of it, he was as genial as ever.

The assumed dash and energy of his first campaign made the disappointment and the reaction more painful when the excessive caution of his conduct in command of the Army of the Potomac was seen.

But the Rich Mountain affair, when analyzed, shows the same characteristics which became well known later.