Excerpt from National History of the War for the Union, Civil, Military and Naval, Vol. 3 of 3: Founded on Official and Other Authentic Documents The question was, now, in what way should the attack upon General Lee's army be made - for an early demonstra tion of some kind was not to be long de layed, the removal of General mcclellan absolutely requiring a Show at least of prompt and vigorous action on the part Of his successor. As General Sumner afterwards said of the military counsels of this period, in the Army of the Poto mac, he was in favor Of crossing the Rappahannock, because I knew that neither our Government nor our people Would be satisfied to have our army re tire from their position, or go into winter quarters, until we knew the force which was on the other side of the river; and the only way in which we could learn that was by going over there and feeling of them. The-bridges over the creeks, on the Acquia Railroad, having been re built, and cars and engines brought down the Potomac, the line was in Operation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.