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Slidell heard from Shaftesbury that a decision regarding Southern recognition was “close at hand, a very few weeks at the furthest.” Ironically, of all the concerns that might delay or precipitate the decision, Palmerston and Russell never mentioned slavery or public opinion as being among them. They were far more worried that the North would simply reject Britain’s offer to mediate. The Duke of Argyll had warned Palmerston at the beginning of September that the Americans would never accept any interference from Europe. “I think it right to tell you of a letter we have had from Sumner,” wrote the duke on September 2. “He says that there is no thought of giving up the Contest. He speaks, indeed, as if doing so were simply impossible.” It would therefore “be folly, I think, to attempt any intervention.”13

But there had been more momentous news from America since Russell and Palmerston had agreed to hold a cabinet meeting on the subject. General Lee had apparently marched with his Confederate army north into Maryland. “The two armies are approaching each other to the North of Washington and another great conflict is about to take place,” Palmerston wrote to Russell on September 22. “Any proposal for mediation or armistice would no doubt just now be refused by the Federals. [But] if they are thoroughly beaten … they may be brought to a more reasonable state of mind.”14 Two days later, on the twenty-fourth, Palmerston informed a delighted Gladstone about the mediation plan. “The proposal would naturally be made to both North and South,” he wrote. “If both accepted we should recommend an Armistice and Cessation of Blockades with a View to Negotiation on the Basis of Separation.” If only the South accepted, “we should then, I conceive, acknowledge the Independence of the South.” Russell had suggested that the cabinet meeting should be held at the end of October, but Palmerston was now thinking it should be sooner. “A great battle appeared by the last accounts to be coming on … a few Days will bring us important accounts.”15

—

Britain was waiting for news even as thousands of American families were already grieving after the single bloodiest day of the war. Forty-eight hours after his victory at Second Bull Run, Robert E. Lee had indeed ordered his Army of Northern Virginia to move north. On September 4, his exhausted and underfed troops traversed the Potomac River into the border state of Maryland. Lee’s plan was to reach Pennsylvania, cut the rail links there, and isolate Washington from the rest of the country. He understood as well as the Confederate government that Europe was waiting for a clear-cut victory, but this was not the reason behind his decision to invade the North. He hoped that the very presence of Confederate soldiers on Northern soil would give President Davis the authority to demand “of the United States the recognition of our independence.”16 If that failed, Lee thought it would be a sufficient shock to the North to make the upcoming elections, which included several state governorships, turn in favor of the antiwar Democrats.

On September 12, Lincoln overruled his cabinet and reinstated General McClellan to lead the Army of the Potomac. The soldiers trusted Little Mac, as they called him, and Lincoln felt strongly that this was no time for Washington to play favorites. Among the 80,000 troops who chased after Lee were Ebenezer Wells of the 79th New York Highlanders and George Herbert of the 9th New York Zouaves. Five major battles and twelve engagements in eighteen months had drained the regiments of their lifeblood. In the words of one chronicler, the Highlanders had withered to a “body of cripples.”17

Ebenezer Wells had been wounded during the Second Battle of Bull Run. “My Sargent said to me, Wells, leave the field,” he recalled. “I said what for, he pointed to my leg. I looked and saw blood, I soon felt where it came from: I had been shot in the side.… [In] the intense excitement of that minute I only remember of having felt a slight stitch.” He was well enough to join the exodus from Washington