about five miles from Martinsburg. The by the federal General M'Dowell, brought Union troops consisted of the 21st and 23rd Pennsylvania volunteers, the Rhode Island battery, and the 2nd regular cavalry. The attack was commenced by the confederate cavalry, 600 strong, which dashed at the federal infantry, not perceiving the battery in its rear. The infantry at once opened their lines, and the Rhode Island artillery pouring in a discharge of grape and shell, emptied the saddles of Stuart's force, and sent it reeling back in confusion. As soon as the ranks were thus broken, the federal cavalry made a vigorous charge, and entirely routed their assailants. On the following morning, nevertheless, General Paterson's entire force moved from Bunker's Hill, in the direction of Charlestown, about nine miles distant, and situate at right angles with the Winchester road, the proposed advance upon that town being abandoned. A number of skirmishes, in which victory alternated, between the combatants, took place during the month of July, without producing any substantial advantage to either party: but at length, on the 21st, the memorable battle of Manassas placed the wreath of victory upon the standards of the confederate army. This event was, however, secondary to the first great event of the war-the battle and rout of Bull-Run, which preceded it by three days. Bull-Run, within the line of which General Beauregard had placed his defensive force, constitutes the northern boundary of Fauquier county, dividing it from Fairfax; and it was upon its banks, about three miles to the north-west of the junction of the Manassas Gap with the Orange and Alexandria railroad, that the memorable action of the 18th of July was fought. The Run is a small stream, flowing nearly from west to east, to its confluence with the Occoquan river, about twelve miles from the Potomac, and draining a very considerable district of country, from its source to within a short distance of the Potomac at Occoquan. Roads traverse and intersect the surrounding country in every direction. The banks of the stream are rocky and precipitous; but there are many fords, which have been long in use, and, of course, were well known. At one of these, Mitchell's Ford, the passage is about equi-distant between Centreville and Manassas, which are some six miles apart. The threatened advance to Richmond, the two forces opposite each other at this memorable spot; and, anticipating the intention of the federal commander, Beauregard had already concentrated his force within the lines of Bull-Run; and, on the morning of the 17th, the confederate troops rested on that stream, from Union Mills Ford, to the Stone bridge, a distance of about eight miles. The next morning the movements of the enemy became threatening; and, at length, he appeared in great force in front of the position occupied by the brigade under General Bonham, which held the approaches to Mitchell's Ford. About mid-day, the federal force opened fire with 20-pound rifle guns, from a hill about a mile and a-half from Bull-Run. The fire was ineffectual for mischief; and the confederate troops, reserving their fire, waited for the opportune moment to act. After a short delay, a light battery was pushed forward by M'Dowell's force; whereupon, Kemper's battery, attached to Bonham's brigade, which occupied a ridge on the left of the Centreville road, poured in a discharge of solid shot, that had the effect of driving back the enemy's battery, and its supports. This repulse, for some time, held the federals in check; while Kemper's guns were withdrawn across Mitchell's Ford, to a spot previously indicated, commanding all the direct approaches to it. "In the meantime," says the historian of the first year of the war, "the enemy was advancing in strong columns of infantry, with artillery and cavalry, on Blackburn's Ford, which was covered by General Longstreet's brigade. The confederate pickets fell back silently across the ford, before the advancing foe. The entire southern bank of the stream, for the whole front of Longstreet's brigade, was covered, at the water's edge, by an extended line of skirmishers. Taking advantage of the steep slopes on the northern bank of the stream, the enemy approached under shelter, in heavy force, within less than a hundred yards of our skirmishers. Before advancing his infantry, the enemy maintained a fire of rifle artillery for half-an-hour; then he pushed forward a column of over 3,000 infantry to the assault, with such a weight of numbers as to be repelled with difficulty by the comparatively small force of not more than 1,200 bayonets, with which Brigadier-general Longstreet met him. The repulse of this charge of the enemy, was movement was generally known in Washington, and congress had adjourned for the purpose of affording its members an opportunity to attend the battle-field. Victory was looked upon as inevitable; and so generally was the idea taken up by the inhabitants of the sovereign city, that people of all classes of society hurried, in every species of vehicle, across the Potomac, that they might be in time to see the grand tournament which was to decide the fortunes of the south, and the supremacy of the northern states." an exhibition of the devoted courage of our troops the most brilliant incident of the day. Not one yard of intrenchment, or one rifle-pit, protected the men at Blackburn's Ford; who, with rare exceptions, were, on that day, the first time under fire, and who, taking and maintaining every position ordered, exceeded in cool, selfpossessed, and determined courage, the best-trained veterans. Twice the enemy was foiled and driven back by our skirmishers and Longstreet's reserve companies. As he returned to the contest with increased numbers, General Longstreet had been re- Orders were issued by General M'Dowell inforced from Early's brigade, with two for the grand army of the Potomac to be in regiments of infantry, and two pieces of motion, en route for its different positions, artillery. Unable to effect a passage of so that they might be reached before daythe stream, the enemy kept up a scattering break of the 21st. It was also commanded. fire for some time. The fire of musketry that each man should have four days' was soon silenced, and the affair became rations cooked, and in their haversacks; one of artillery. The enemy was superior anticipatory of their gaining Manassas, and in the character as well as in the number holding it until supplies could reach them of his weapons; provided with improved by rail from Alexandria. munitions, and every artillery appliance; at the same time occupying the commanding position. In the onset, the fire of the confederates was directed against the federal infantry, whose bayonets, glistening in the sun, alone indicated their presence and force. This drew the attention of a battery on a ridge, which commanded the position; but for a time the aim of the federals was inaccurate. This at last was corrected, and shot and shell fell thick, and burst in the midst of the confederate battery, which, nothing daunted, continued its destructive fire. By degrees, the battery was then advanced, by hand, out of the range which the enemy had ascertained. From this new position the confederate guns continued their deadly fire, until, at length, that of the enemy slackened: the intervals between their discharges grew longer and longer, and finally ceased. It was then visible to the confederate army, that the lines of their baffled enemy had broken, and that the whole army was flying in wild confusion and utter rout, strewing their line of retreat with castaway guns, blankets, and knapsacks, and dotting the route they had taken with the wounded and killed of their army." The repulse at Bull-Run only stimulated the federal commander-in-chief to further efforts; and, having quickly determined upon his order of battle, General Scott, on Sunday, the 21st of July, ordered General On the part of the confederates, it does. not appear that any preconcerted plan of battle had been formed; and that the whole of the movements depended upon the development of the enemy's designs, and the tact, activity, and energy called into action to meet the exigencies of the occasion. General Johnstone being the senior in rank, assumed command of the confederate forces then concentrating at Manassas; but as he entirely approved the tactics of General Beauregard, he did not at all interfere with the carrying out the designs of that officer. Returning to the narrative before referred to, it is said that the effective confederate force, of all arms, ready for action in the field, on that eventful morning, was less than 30,000 men, divided into eight brigades, occupying the defensive line of BullRun. In his entire ignorance of the enemy's plan of attack, General Beauregard was compelled to extend his force along the stream for some eight or ten miles, while the enemy developed his purpose. He had abandoned his original plan of marching on Manassas by the town routes from Washington and Alexandria, and had resolved upon turning the left flank of the confederate army. Soon after sunrise on the 21st, the enemy appeared in force in front of a position held by Colonel Evans, at the Stone bridge, and opened a brisk cannonade. In this quarter the two armies were engaged in slight skirmishes for more than an hour, while the main body of the federals was marching through the Big Forest, to cross Bull-Run some two miles above the confederate left, and thus to take the southern forces in flank and rear. This movement was discovered in time to check its progress, and ultimately gave opportunity to form a new line of battle, nearly at right angles with the defensive line of Bull-Run. The enemy having crossed the stream, began his detour from the turnpike, at a point nearly half-way between Stone bridge and Centreville, pursuing a winding narrow track of a rarely used road, through a dense wood, until near the Sudley road. The column numbered 16,000 men of all arms, with twenty-four pieces of artillery, eighteen of which were rifled guns. The brigade of General Burnside here, as well as at Fairfax Court-house, led the advance; and, about 9.45 A.M., debouched from a wood in sight of the position occupied by General Evans, and about 500 yards distant from the Louisiana battalion commanded by Brigadier Wheat. An attack upon the latter was immediately made, and continued with vigour for more than an hour; but so determined was the valour with which the assailants were resisted, that, galled and staggered by the torrents of fire poured upon them by Wheat's battalion, reinforcements were called for, and arrived, increasing the attacking force to 3,500 bayonets, and eight pieces of artillery, opposed to less than 800 men, and two 6-pounder guns. But, despite these great odds, the confederate troops maintained their front to the enemy for more than an hour, when General Bee came to their aid with his command. The joint force, little exceeding five regiments, with six field-pieces, was now opposed to 15,000 federal troops. A fierce and destructive conflict ensued: a withering fire poured fast from either side; while the numerous artillery of the federals swept the confederate lines. The action now became general: more of the federal brigades had been brought into the conflict; and heavy losses were sustained on both sides. At length the order was given by General Bee to retire. As the shattered battalions fell back, the slaughter was deplorable; and the enemy fondly imagined the field won. News of victory was carried to the rear; and, in less than an hour afterwards, the telegraph had flashed the intelligence through all the cities of the north, that the federal troops were completing their victory, and, ere night, the struggle would be over for ever with the southern states. The exultation thus occasioned, was, however, but of short duration, and its intensity rendered the disappointment that followed doubly mortifying. The retreat of the confederate troops was arrested by the energy and resolution of General Bee, aided by the support of the Hampton Legion, and the timely arrival of General Jackson's brigade, which consisted of five regiments. "A moment before," it is recorded, "General Bee had been well-nigh overwhelmed by superior numbers. He approached General Jackson with the exclamation-" General, they are beating us back." To which the latter responded-" Sir, we'll give them the bayonet.' Bee immediately rallied his overtasked heroes with the words "There is Jackson, standing like a stone wall.* Let us determine to die here, or to conquer." Up to this moment the event of the day was undecided. The enemy, considering himself master of the field, was advancing large bodies from his centre, to complete the victory already supposed to be within his grasp. Beauregard, who had watched the course of the battle from a hill commanding the whole panorama, found, to his infinite chagrin, that orders he had given in the morning for a division on the flank and rear of the enemy at Centreville, had miscarried, and that it was necessary new combinations should be adopted to meet the arrangements of the federal commanders. "About noon, the scene of the battle was unutterably sublime. The hill occupied in the morning by Generals Beauregard, Johnstone, and Bonham, and their staffs, placed before the spectator a grand moving diorama, of which the accompaniment was the roar of artillery, which rolled round the base of the hill like protracted thunderbursts. For one mile in length the valley seemed a boiling crater of dust, smoke, and fire. Occasionally, the yells of the contending forces, as they advanced towards each other in the mortal strife, and alternately fell back, were heard above the roar of the artillery." The condition of the field became, at length, desperate: the left flank of the second effort for the recovery of the disconfederate force was overpowered, and puted ground was made by General Beauinstant support was necessary to avert in- regard, in which the whole line shared, evitable defeat. Fortunately for the south and himself led in person. The result of ern cause a reinforcement was at hand. At this impetuous movement was, that the this moment, the Generals Johnstone and entire open ground was swept clear of the Beauregard galloped upon the field, and enemy, and the plateau remained finally in were instantly occupied in the reorganisa- the possession of the confederate troops, tion of the troops that had so gallantly with the greater part of the batteries placed withstood the shock of battle, and the upon it by the federals. At this juncture weight of superior numbers. With the General Bee was mortally wounded, at the colours of the 4th Alabama regiment borne head of the 4th Alabama regiment; and by his side, General Johnstone charged to Colonel Burton also fell, shot through the the front, and confidence was at once re- heart. This officer was struck while graspstored. General Beauregard took the coming the standard of his regiment, and mand of the left wing, while Johnstone calling upon the remnants of his troops to retained the supreme direction of the whole follow him. After he had fallen, he said army; and the battle was again re-estab- to the men who gathered round him-“To lished. But the aspect of affairs was criti- your ranks! They have killed me; but cal in the extreme. Beauregard's force never give up the field." The last comin front of the enemy, at this moment mand of this noble soldier was implicitly numbered 6,500 infantry and artillerists, obeyed: his men silenced and captured the with thirteen guns, and two companies of battery he had died to obtain. Stuart's cavalry. The enemy's force bearing down upon his position, consisted of a body of 20,000 infantry, seven companies of regular cavalry, and twenty-four pieces of improved artillery. Besides these overwhelming odds, heavy reserves of infantry and artillery were massed in the distance around the fords of the river, visibly ready to advance at any moment. Conscious of this vast disparity of force, General Beauregard, as he posted his lines for the impending shock of battle, addressed the troops in words of encouragement and confidence. He was answered with loud and eager cheers, and all felt assured of victory. The conflict raged with terrific vigour. The enemy, driven back on several points, fought with desperate resolution, and had rallied under cover of a strong reserve posted on a plateau, near the intersection of the turnpike and the Sudley or Brentsville road, whence demonstrations were made to out flank and drive back the left of the confederate force, and to cut it off from Manassas. It is unnecessary to detail the movements by which this design was frustrated. At length, the federal commander made his last effort to retrieve the fortune of the day: but a simultaneous attack by the confederate force, on his front, his right flank, and rear, was irresistible. Forced While these events were taking place in over the narrow plateau made by the inthe confederate army, the federals had tersection of the roads mentioned, he was taken possession of a plateau occupied in driven into the fields, where all order and the morning by General Bee. Here some discipline was lost; and the masses combatteries were placed, and brought into menced to break up in every direction immediate action, playing with destruc- towards Bull-Run. The whole of the artive effect upon the forward battalions tillery advanced to the last scene of conof the southern army. At length, about flict, had fallen into the hands of the con2 P.M., General Beauregard gave orders federates: the entire force was demoralised for the right of his line to advance and, and utterly beaten; and there were no recover the plateau. The attempt was made, possible combinations by which the success and, for a moment, was successful. The of the confederates could be further disfederal lines were broken, and swept back puted. from the open ground; but, reinforced by fresh regiments, the troops were rallied, recovered their ground and guns, and resumed the offensive. From the long-contested hill, the retreating masses of the federal host were seen rushing over the country, in fierce haste, as the panic in their rear gathered strength general. The fields were covered by swarms of soldiers, madly rushing from the echoing yells and mocking cheers of their victors. The fugitive host was pursued, but did not need such pursuit to complete its disorganisation. The discomfited troops were followed to within range of the federal position at Cub-Run bridge, when a shot took effect upon a crossing team; and the waggon being overturned, obstructed the passage of the bridge. As the frightened masses crowded towards this chance of escape, the confederate guns made deadly havoc with the train-carriages and artillery waggons, which were quickly shattered into useless fragments. Cannon and caissons, ambulances and train-waggons, intermingled with hundreds of soldiers, rushed down the hill in one common heap, struggling and screaming, to cross the stream and get away from their pursuers. Sights of wild and terrible agony met the eye in every direction. The retreat did not in the least slacken until Centreville was reached; and there the sight of Miles' brigade, the reserve, formed in order on the hill, seemed somewhat to reassure the van of the fugitives. But the rally was soon ended by a few discharges of artillery, which the confederates had got into position. The rout was renewed, and teams and men poured on, passing their own camp, and rushing frantically for the distant Potomac. The road over which the grand army of the Potomac had but recently traversed southward, gay with unstained banners, and echoing with shouts of anticipated triumph, was now, for more than ten miles, covered with the fragments of a panic-stricken and scattered army. Such were the results of a single day's disaster. It is impossible, we are told, to conceive a more deplorable spectacle than was presented in Washington on the night of the 21st of July, as the remnants of the force came struggling in. During the evening of the previous day, it had been reported, in the federal capital, that the army had achieved a brilliant and decisive victory; and the elation of the people was excessive. But, the next morning, the news of the defeat was brought by successive arrivals of panic-stricken fugitives. One of the boats from Alexandria was nearly sunk by the mass of retreating soldiers upon its decks. Others rushed to the depôt, to continue their flight from Washington; and the authorities were compelled to put it under a strong guard, to keep off the fugitives who struggled to get on the northern trains. Some fled wildly into the country; and many escaped across the Susquehanna, compelling the negroes whom they met, to exchange their clothes with them for the uniforms: and thus, for four or five days, was the excitement kept up, and increased by momentary apprehensions of the advance of the confederate army, flushed with victory, and intent upon further conquest. For some unaccountable reason this important step was not taken, and the opportunity offered for a crowning triumph to the confederate arms was lost. The loss on both sides, in this tremendous affair, was serious. The confederate troops lost 360 killed, 1,483 wounded, and 150 missing. The federal army also counted 481 killed, 1,011 wounded, and 1,216 missing giving a total, on the one side, of 1,902; on the other, of 2,708. The southern reports of the federal loss, estimated it, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, at upwards of 4,500, besides twenty-eight pieces of artillery, 5,000 muskets, nearly half a million of cartridges, a garrison flag, and ten colours; sixty-four artillery horses, harnessed; twenty-six waggons, and a large amount of camp equipage, clothing, and other property, abandoned in the flight. The result of the rout of Bull-Run, and the yet more deplorable failure at Manassas, necessitated a change in the military government of the United States. General Scott was, therefore, virtually superseded; and General G. B. M'Clellan received an appointment to the command of the army of the Potomac. His fitness for the important trust will be hereafter seen. The new commander was a favourite, in consequence of some successes in NorthWestern Virginia, which had been exaggerated into great victories. He was only in his thirty-fifth year. The determination of the southern people to establish the independence of their country at all hazards, and at any cost, may be conceived from the following announcement and invitation, published in the Richmond Whig, on the 24th of July, and reproduced in most of the secessionist papers : "[THE DEVOTED BAND]-The shortest path to peace is that which carries havoc and desolation to our invaders. It is believed that there are five or ten thousand men in the south ready and willing |