ADVANCE OF THE NATIONAL ARMY.

Valley; and General Patterson was at Martinsburg, a few miles below him, charged with the duty of keeping Johnston from re-enforcing Beauregard at Bull's Run. The subjoined map indicates the theater of operations on which the four armies were about to perform.

where, it was expected, the Confederates would offer battle.

Tyler, with the right wing, moved along the Georgetown Road. Hunter, with the center, advanced by the Leesburg and Centreville Road; and a portion of the left wing, under Heintzelman, went out from near Alexandria,

ed. The conquest had been so easy, that the troops, in high spirits, and under the inspiration of a belief that the march to Richmond was to be like a pleasure excursion, committed some excesses, which the commander promptly rebuked. He reminded them that they were there "to fight the

THE ARMY AT CENTREVILLE.

587 enemies of the country, not to judge or punish the unarmed and defenseless, however guilty they may be." The excesses were not repeated.'

General McDowell, pretty well informed concerning the strong position of the Confederate force, intended to turn its right flank at Manassas by a sudden movement to his left, crossing the Occoquan River below the mouth of Bull's Run, and, seizing the railway in the rear of his foe, compel both Beauregard and Johnston to fall back from their positions, so menacing to the National Capital. With this view, he made a reconnoissance on the morning of the 18th, while Tyler moved forward with his division, and at nine o'clock marched through Centreville without any opposition, and halted in a little valley between it and Bull's Run. This movement was intended as a feint, but ended in a sharp engagement.

Centreville was a small village on the west side of a ridge running nearly parallel with the

general course of Bull's Run, which was west of it five or six miles, and near it the Confederates had erected strong earthworks. These were occupied by a brigade of South Carolinians under General Bonham, who fled, at the approach of Tyler, to the wooded banks of

Bull's Run.

Several roads, public and private, led

THE STONE BRIDGE.2

renton Turnpike, that crossed at the Stone Bridge, a structure of a single arch that spanned the Run; another led to Mitchell's Ford, midway between Centreville and Manassas Junction; and still another led to Blackburn's Ford, over which General James Longstreet was watching.

Toward noon, Tyler went out on a reconnoissance toward Blackburn's

1 Many of the inhabitants abandoned their houses and fled in terror at the approach of the troops. Some of these houses were entered and plundered by the National soldiers, and some barns and other out-houses on the outskirts of the village were burnt, one of the troops, it was said, having been shot by a man concealed ia one of them. Some of the soldiers appeared in the streets in the evening, dressed in women's apparel, which they had found in the houses; and one man, with the gown and bands of a clergyman, which he had founi, went through the streets with an open book, reading the funeral service of the "President of the Southern Confederacy." These shameful scenes were soon ended when the conduct of the soldiers was reported to the officers. General McDowell issued a stringent order, and threatened the severest penalties for a violation of it. This is a view of the Stone Bridge and its vicinity, as it appeared after the battle there on the 21st of July, and, with pictures of several buildings mentioned in connection with that event, was kindly given to me by Mr. Gardiner, the well-known photographer of Washington City, who took them from nature.

588

SKIRMISH AT BLACKBURN'S FORD.

Ford, taking with him Richardson's brigade, a squadron of cavalry, and Ayres's battery, and holding Sherman's brigade in reserve. He found the Confederates in heavy force. Beauregard, who had been informed of all of McDowell's movements by spies and traitors,' was there, and had ordered up from Manassas some North Carolina and Louisiana troops, who had just arrived there on their way to Winchester. The woods were so thick that his forces were mostly concealed, as well as his batteries, excepting one on an open elevation. Hoping to draw their fire and discover their position, Ayres's battery was placed on a commanding eminence, and a 20-pound cannon, under Lieutenant Edwards, was fired at random. Only the battery in view responded, and grape-shot from it killed two cavalry horses and

wounded two men. Richardson now sent forward the Second Michigan regiment as skirmishers. They were soon engaged in a severe contest in the woods, on a level bottom near the Run. The Third Michigan, First Massachusetts, and Twelfth New York were pushed forward to support the advance, and these, too, were soon fighting severely. The cavalry and two howitzers were now sent forward, and were furiously assailed by musketry in the woods, and at the same time a severe enfilading fire came from a concealed battery on a ridge six hundred yards in front of the Ford. In the mean time, Longstreet had called up some re-enforcements from Early's

1 Washington City, as we have observed, was filled with spies and traitors. Even Cabinet secrets were made known to the Confederates. Information seemed to go out to them regularly from the head-quarters of the General-in-chief. For example, a military map of the region west of Washington had been completed at the War Department only two days before Tyler's advance on Centreville. When the Confederates left there in haste, they left many things behind them. Among these was a copy of that map, which was supposed to be known only to some of the higher officers in the Army.

2 This map shows a geographical plan of the country between Washington City and Manassas Junction. with the roads traversed by the troops, and the relative position of the opposing forces in the skirmish on the 18th of July.

EFFECT OF THE SKIRMISH.

589

brigade, and the Nationals, greatly outnumbered, withdrew behind Ayres's battery on the hill. In this movement, a part of the New York Twelfth were thrown into confusion, but were soon rallied. Just then, Sherman with his brigade came up, having Colonel Corcoran's New York Sixty-ninth in front, when Ayres's battery again opened fire, and an artillery duel was kept up for an hour, the Confederates responding gun for gun. It was now four o'clock in the afternoon. McDowell had just returned from his reconnoissance, satisfied that his plan for turning the Confederate

position was impracticable; and he ordered the whole body to fall back to Centreville.' This severe skirmish was called by the Confederates the BATTLE OF BULL'S RUN, and was claimed by them as a victory. The loss of the combatants was about equal, that of McDowell being seventy-three, and of Beauregard, seventy."

The affair at Blackburn's Ford elated the Confederates and depressed the Nationals. The loss of life saddened the soldiers and the people at home. Yet the result of that reconnoissance was important and useful, in revealing the strength and excellent equipment of the Confederates, which had been much underrated, and caused that circumspection which prevented the Nationals from being allured, by the appearance of weakness and timidity on the part of their foes, into a fatal snare. It appears to have been a part of Beauregard's plan to entice McDowell, by skirmishes and retreats, across Bull's Run, and when he had placed that stream at the back of his antagonist, to fall upon him, front and flank. For this purpose, he carefully concealed his batteries.

McDowell felt the pressing necessity for an immediate and vigorous attack on the Confederates. In the course of a few days he might lose full ten thousand of his best troops, in consequence of the expiration of their term of service, while Beauregard's army was daily increasing. He concentrated all of his forces at and around Centreville on the 18th, and made instant preparations for an advance. He had thirty thousand men there, and five thousand more, under Runyon, were within call, guarding his communications with Washington. He caused a thorough reconnoissance to be made on the 19th with the intention of attacking his foe on Saturday, the 20th.

Beauregard had made his head-quarters, during the engagement, at the house of Wilmer McLean, near McLean's Ford. Soon after this, when military occupation made that region almost untenable, Mr. McLean went with his family to another part of Virginia, near Appomattox Court House, hoping for quiet. There came the same armies, after a lapse of almost four years, and under his roof Grant and Lee signed articles of capitulation early in April, 1865, for the surrender of the Confederate forces under the latter.

2 Report of Colonel Richardson to General Tyler, July 19, 1861; Report of General Tyler to General McDowell. July 27, 1861; Report of General Beauregard to Adjutant-General Cooper, August, 1861; The C. S. A. and The Battle of Bull's Run: a Letter to an English Friend: by Major J. G. Barnard, who was with Tyler's division. The Nationals lost nineteen killed, thirty-eight wounded, and twenty-six missing: the Confederates lost, according to Beauregard's Report, fifteen killed. fifty-three wounded (several of them mortally), and two missing.

590

PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE.

But his needful supplies did not arrive until Friday night, and he was compelled to remain at Centreville a day longer than he expected to. On that evening, his army began to melt away. The term of service of the Fourth Pennsylvania and Varian's battery of the New York Eighth expired that day, and neither the persuasions of the Commanding General, nor those of the Secretary of War, who was at head-quarters, could induce them to remain. They turned their faces homeward that evening, and a few hours later they heard the thunders of the battle at their backs, in which their brave companions were engaged. On the evening of the 20th, McDowell's force consisted of about twenty-eight thousand men and forty-nine cannon.

The reconnoissance on the 19th satisfied McDowell that an attack on the Confederate front would not be prudent, and he resolved to attempt to turn their left, drive them from the Stone Bridge, where they had a strong battery, force them from the Warrenton Turnpike, and, by a quick movement, seize the Manassas Gap Railway, and thus sever the most important connection between Beauregard and Johnston. For this purpose, Tyler was to move along the Warrenton Turnpike, and open fire on the Confederate left at the Stone Bridge, while Hunter and Heintzelman, with about fifteen thousand men, should make a circuit by a forest road, cross Bull's Run at fords near Sudley Church, and fall upon the flank and rear of the Confederates at the Stone Bridge, where Colonel Evans was in command, with his head-quarters at Van Pelt's. In the mean time, Richardson's brigade was to be temporarily attached to Miles's division, which was left, as a reserve, at Centreville, with orders to strengthen the intrenchments there, and see that the Confederates did not cross Bull's Run, and, by a flank movement, capture the supplies and ammunition of the Nationals there, and cut off their line of

retreat. Richardson kept almost the exact position occupied by him on the 18th during the artillery duel.

4 July 20,
1861.

Fully informed of McDowell's force and position by spies and traitors, Beauregard was contemplating an attack upon the Nationals at Centreville at the same time. The orders for an advance and attack by McDowell and Beauregard were dated on the same day." The latter ordered the brigades of Ewell and Holmes to cross Bull's Run at Union Mill Ford, to be ready to support the attack on Centreville. The brigades of Jones and Longstreet were directed to cross at McLean's Ford, for the same purpose; while those of Bonham and Bartow were to cross at Mitchell's Ford, and those of Cocke and Evans at the Stone Bridge, and make the direct attack on Centreville. The brigades of Bee and Wilcox, with Stuart's cavalry (among whom was a dashing corps known as the Grayson Dare-devils), with the whole of Walton's New Orleans Battery, were to form a reserve, and to cross at Mitchell's Ford when called for. Confident of success, Beauregard ordered the Fourth