“They drove us out of the Peninsula. And now that he’s licked us so easy on his own ground, Lee’s getting ready to try a turn at us on ours. Whether he can get past us or not--” “Shucks!” growled Jimmie. “I’m sick of waiting. Here, the war was started to free the slaves. And what does Lincoln do? Hasn’t raised a finger to free ’em. Why, if he’d freed ’em all at the start, and then kept plugging away at Richmond--” “Don’t be foolish, son,” exhorted Dad, “and the foolishest thing on earth you can do is to join in the howl against Mr. Lincoln. He’s doing the only thing that can be done. And he’s the only man in America that can do it. “Suppose he’d ordered all the slaves set free. What would have happened? About the same thing that would happen if we ordered the sun to shine at night instead of in the day. Nothing does a boss so much harm as to give an order he can’t enforce. And if he declared the slaves free until he was black in the face, they wouldn’t be free. He must wait till the tide turns. And the giant begins to hold his own against the middleweight before he can give the order. In the meantime--” “In the meantime,” said Jimmie, with ponderous solemnity, “McCluskey told me this morning that the Third Ambulance Corps came up last night. It came on the Frederick road. Not more’n about seven miles from here.” “What’s that got to do with--” “With Mrs. Sessions?” asked the boy innocently. “Nothing, except that she’s quartered with that corps. I know. Because McCluskey showed me the list of nurses there.” “Son,” said Dad, after glaring coldly at the wholly unimpressed lad for a full minute, “let’s go for a ride. I’m off duty for three hours yet.” “Fine!” agreed Jimmie. “We’ll go any direction you like, except, perhaps, toward Frederick. The scenery isn’t as pretty out that way.” “Jimmie,” observed Dad, “there are times when I feel that a spanking would do you worlds of good!” CHAPTER XXVI THE IRON CHESS-GAME War is not a matter of prancing steeds, troops charging, heroic feats of arms. These spectacular adjuncts typify war as the little finger-nail of one hand might typify the whole human body. War itself is a huge problem in mathematics; combined with an element of puzzle and gross chance. In short, a game. An iron game, more like chess in its general mode of playing than any other. Here in brief was the iron chess-game situation in the early autumn of 1862; an all-important crisis in the long-drawn contest: Lee had wearied at last of acting solely on the defensive. Since the Civil War’s outset, the Confederates had thus far contented themselves with defending their own territory. On Virginia fell the brunt of the fighting. The Old Dominion had from the very first been the chief battleground of the two conflicting forces.