Even with the work on the defenses the drilling went on daily without interruption. First they would drill in company, then with other detached cavalry troops, and finally would come the grand drill of the division. The drilling was not always done in an open field, but among the trees and on rough ground, and often fences had to be jumped and streams forded. It was not play but hard work; yet Andy liked it a good deal better than handling a pick and a shovel, something he thought altogether beneath him. “It’s life to be on horseback, dashing here and there,” he observed to Leroy Wellington. “If only the Yankees would appear and give us a little more of this sort to do. I wonder if they are going to wait for us to attack them?” The breastworks along Bull Run completed, advance guards were sent out along the Potomac just above Washington. Then the Confederates sent their engineers along Arlington Heights to survey the territory and report on the advisability of planting a battery there. Some of the Southern leaders were certain that such a battery could successfully shell Washington and compel President Lincoln and the members of Congress to flee for their lives. The only trouble was, could they hold such a position? Might not the Union forces come down upon them from the upper Potomac and cut them off from their base of supplies and from Richmond? The question was answered before the Southern generals had time to act upon their idea. One day a Union officer, while in a boat near the foot of Arlington Heights, discovered a number of men walking about among the rocks and brush. The officer happened to have a powerful spy-glass with him, and using this, discovered that one of the men was Robert E. Lee, who was then the military adviser of President Davis of the Confederacy, and who afterwards became the general-in-chief of the Southern army. Lee was laying out fortifications, and the Union officer lost no time in reporting to General Scott to that effect. General Scott saw at once that this work must be stopped instantly, or Washington would be at the enemy’s mercy. Orders were accordingly given for certain detachments of the Union troops to cross the river without delay, and take possession of the opposite shore. The advance from Washington was made at two o’clock at night. Two bridges crossed the Potomac at this point, and a column of the army passed over by each, while a third division embarked on vessels for Alexandria, a short distance below Arlington Heights. As soon as the Confederates heard of the approach of the Union men they retreated, and the shore of the Potomac opposite Washington was occupied without great difficulty. Louis was just about to retire for the night when the sudden roll of the drum made him leap to his feet. In a few seconds Harry Bingham came rushing into the tent. “We are off, Louis!” he ejaculated. “The war has begun.” “Off! Where to?” burst from Louis’s lips.