An excerpt from On to Richmond
by John R. Thompson
circa 1862

McDowell!  McDowell!  weep, weep for the day
When the Southrons you meet in their battle array;
To your confident hosts with its bullets and steel
'Twas worse than Culloden to luckless Lochiel.
Oh!  the generals were green and old Scott is now blue,
And a terrible business, McDowell, to you,
Was that pleasant excursion to Richmond.

Editor's Notes:  The conclusion to a lengthy U.S. Civil War poem by John R. Thompson of Virginia.  It was "after Southey's 'March to Moscow.'"  The poem was included in "War Poetry of the South," edited by William Gilmore Simms, 1867.  It has been dated to 1862, the year that Union forces unsuccessfully marched on Richmond.

The McDowell so prominently mentioned was Irvin McDowell, a close associate of recently retired (November 1861) Commanding General of the U.S. Army, Winfield Scott, who is also mentioned above.  McDowell was commander of the Union Army south of the Potomac and suffered a great defeat against Confederate forces at the Battle of Bull Run in the summer of 1862, while on a mission to "take" Richmond, the new base of the Confederate government.