3-003-846 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The War in America: the Chain-Bridge across the Potomac above Georgetown, looking towards the Virginian shore - from a sketch by our special artist, 1861. 'The two great armies still stand at bay on the lines of the Potomac, and the chain-bridge across that river, above Georgetown...is a position of great interest just now, as the Confederates are continually making threatening movements in the neighbourhood, either with the intention of destroying the bridge or of crossing by it into Maryland. On the heights on the Virginian shore are seen the tents of the Federal advance, which throws out pickets to a distance of two miles beyond. The Maryland end of the bridge is commanded by an upper and a lower battery, both of them very strong positions...Our artist writes: "I have just come from a cruise down the Potomac, and while away I fell in with the officer who was bringing the news of the Scracoke affair to the Navy department. The Sketch is done over his own lines on the paper...I expect to go out west...but we may have an attack here from hour to hour, and I dare scarcely leave. Both sides are now awfully close together, and very, very strong. I am waiting to get some definite notion of the next move on the cards and shall then act promptly".' From "Illustrated London News", 1861.