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FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN.

IMIN CRAVED MXPRESSLY POR

Kirby Smith. It was in itself four thousand strong, and was accompanied by other reënforcements.

The panic, as it is called, into which the Union troops were thrown, was by no means a senseless fright. The Federal army was composed generally of remarkably intelligent men, many of them as capable as their officers of forming an opinion for themselves. The scene, as described by many eye witnesses, must have been appalling. In a lull of the battle, there suddenly appeared, far away upon the right, a dense body of fresh men, marching down upon the field. The black, massive column, as it debouched from among the hills, lengthened out regiment after regiment, till ten thousand men appeared in a new line of battle. And still the flood rolled on until it formed three sides of a hollow square, enclosing our exhausted troops with 30,000 combatants, many of them quite fresh. A mass of cavalry occupied the centre, and the whole came moving on in all the pomp and terribleness of war.

"Our awe-struck legions," says one who witnessed the scene, "could not take their eyes from the majestic pageant, and, though experiencing a new necessity, were frozen at the sight. We at once comprehended we were beaten. In vain did our startled faculties dart alertly hither and thither for some hope. In vain did our thoughts turn quickly upon Patterson. It would not do. Johnston was there before us, with his cool, fresh thousands, and our Waterloo was lost."

Slowly, sadly, and in perfect order they commenced the inevitable retreat, protected by Burnside's gallant brigade, and Gov. Sprague's Rhode Islanders, when a body of regulars, still maintaining the fight, got out of ammunition, and sent their caissons back with the horses thundering along, at full gallop, for a fresh supply. These ponderous carriages were driven recklessly and with almost unearthly clamor down the road, scattering the ranks of the regiments in every direction. The inexperienced troops, witnessing these carriages thus rushing to the rear, interpreted it as the frantic flight of the regulars. Their ranks were broken by the reckless driving; remediless disorder ensued; officers and men were intermingled; the teamsters in the vicinity caught the fright, and lashed their horses for escape. A scene of horror ensued which can hardly be exaggerated. At the bridge the passage was choked by overturned caissons and ambulances, while the shells of the rebels, from many batteries, were falling and exploding in the midst of the frantic throng. Sauve qui peut,-"Save himself who can," then became apparently the watchword for one and all.

It is manifest that if Gen. McDowell could have commenced the battle at six o'clock, as he intended, instead of half-past ten, or if Gen. Patterson had appeared on the field with his division, or had even kept Johnston occupied, the victory would have been decisively with the Union troops. An officer in the rebel army wrote to the Richmond Dispatch, July 29th: There is no earthly doubt that our army was overcome several times between twelve and three, and that the bulletins, sent by the enemy, are in the main correct. But, alas! 'the best laid plans of men and mice aft gang aglee,' and, in this instance, verily there was a great slip between the cup and the lip."

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The rout which ensued was terrible, though it has been greatly misrepresented. The whole force which marched upon Manassas, and which was scattered along the ravine of Bull Run for a distance of from eight to ten miles, including the strong body held in reserve at Centreville, amounted, according to the army rolls, to just 32,500 men. Of these, about 13,000 were engaged in the stern conflict at the Stone Bridge. Not one half of these, not more than five thousand men, were thrown into confusion. In their sudden panic all organization was lost. Officers were separated from their men, and these broken regiments became but a tumultuous mass rushing from destruction. Thus the whole road, for a distance of three miles, presented but the most frightful spectacle of a dense, struggling multitude of fugitives, artillery, infantry, cavalry and baggage wagons, all blended in inextricable confusion. A more awful scene than such a rout exhibits earth never beholds. No imagination can picture it.

This tumultuous column, three miles in length, recovered from its frenzy at Centreville. But as all the regiments were broken up, officers and men all scattered, nothing remained but for the flood to roll on the great highway to Washington. But there were 25,000 men who had no share whatever in the panic or the flight, and who returned to their quarters on the Potomac, in as good order as they marched to Manassas. But the flight of the five thousand, as described by many eye witnesses, presented a scene which must have been sublime and appalling. It is not strange that those who gazed upon it, and participated in it, should have imagined that the whole army was destroyed. The rush was like that of a mountain torrent, detached from its bed. For nearly three miles the road was choked, and the fields on either side crowded with the debris. Broken regiments, bleeding men, wounded horses frenzied in agony, army wagons, caissons, heavy guns, cavalry, were all flying so wildly that no individual energy or courage could by any possibility stop the flood. The cool and the brave were swept along by that impulse with which terror goaded the multitude, and which no power but that of God could check. Many riderless horses, in their death agony, plunged through the mass striking down and trampling the fugitives. The exhausted.,and the wounded, by the roadside, seeking the protection of a tree or a rock, appealed piteously, but in vain to their comrades to help them.

No man seemed to think of his neighbor. The artillery horses, goaded to their utmost speed, dragged the heavy guns thundering along, overpowing and crushing every thing in their way. An artilleryman was running between the fore and after wheels of his gun carriage, where he had got entangled in the flight. He could not extricate himself, for the drivers were spurring their horses to the top of their speed. He was hanging on with both hands, vainly striving to leap upon the gun. A more agonizing expression was never stamped upon a human face. His strength was failing. He could not cling much longer. As they were descending a steep hill, the carriage bounded from some irregularity of the road, when he lost his hold and fell. The ponderous wheel passed over him, crushing flesh and bones, and leaving hardly the semblance of humanity in the mangled mass behind. Borodino hardly exceeded the scene in its confusion and

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tumult. The rout did not cease until Centreville was reached. It was only checked by the sight of Miles' reserve, there marshaled in order on the hill. During this rout a gentleman in citizen's dress, who had thrown off his coat and seized a musket, was seen trying desperately to rally the soldiers at the point of the bayonet. It was the Hon. Mr. Washburne, from Illinois. Another member of Congress, the Hon. Mr. Kellogg, was bravely, but unavailingly, trying to aid him in this effort. At Germantown, Lieut. Brisbane, a truly chivalrous young officer, formed a line of artillerists across the road, and effectually arrested further disorder.

The question is often asked, Why did not the foe pursue? This question is satisfactorily answered in their own words. Gen. J. E. Johnston says, in his official report, "The apparent firmness of the United States troops at Centreville, who had not been engaged, checked our pursuit; the strong forces occupying the works near Georgetown, Arlington, and Alexandria; the certainty, too, that Gen. Patterson, if needed, would reach Washington, with his army of thirty thousand men, sooner than we could; and the inadequate means of the army in ammunition, provisions and transportation;-prevented any serious thoughts of advancing against the Capital. It is certain that the fresh troops within the works were, in number, quite sufficient for their defense."

The Federal loss in this disaster consisted of 471 killed, 1011 wounded, and about 1,000 prisoners, many of whom were wounded. We also lost 25 cannon, 17 of them rifled, 2,500 muskets, 8,000 knapsacks and blankets, 13 wagon loads of provisions, and a large quantity of ammunition. The rebels, in whose statements but very little reliance can be placed, declare their loss in killed and wounded to be 1,599.

The large loss of knapsacks, &c., was owing to the fact that many of our troops, before going into the fight, divested themselves of these encumbrances. They were deliberately taken off and piled in heaps, ready to be resumed when the conflict was over. In the retreat, but few of the regiments left by the same route over which they had advanced, and thus these articles were abandoned, to be gathered up by the rebels at their leisure. Several of the teamsters, who had passed beyond Centreville, had unhitched their teams to rest and feed. When the panic arose, they leaped upon their horses and galloped from the field. Thus, thirteen wagon loads of provisions were left, and also wagons containing three thousand bushels of oats. The boasting of the rebels was marvelous. They claimed to have taken 22,000 stand of arms, 20,000 haversacks and blankets, and "an amount of provision sufficient to feed 50,000 men for a year."

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Volumes might be filled with incidents gleaned from this battle-field. Just in the path of the artillery of our victorious columns, as they swept across the great Warrenton turnpike, there was the dwelling of a widow, Mrs. Judith Henry, an estimable Christian lady. She was confined to her bed with sickness which did not allow of her removal. There she lay, all helpless, just between the contending armies, as the storm of war raged around her dwelling, bullets piercing it, and shot and shells crashing through the walls and the roof. Three times her own body was pierced by bullets or fragments of shells. Her bed was drenched with blood.

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