will be effective: attack Johnston, make a feint of attacking, or take a position which will prevent him from joining Beauregard. He does neither, but retreats to Charlestown, leaving Johnston free to move in any direction. There is no doubt that Patterson, up to the evening of the 16th, intended to attack, but that Fitz-John Porter, his adjutantgeneral, for some reason was opposed, and did what he could to persuade him to move to Charlestown. So, on the morning of the 17th, we see the army especially instructed to prevent a junction of the two Confederate armies deliberately moving away. General Beauregard knew that MeDowell was getting ready to march towards Manassas, and sent Colonel Chestnut, who had been a clerk in the War Department, to Washington to obtain information. He crossed the Potomac below Alexandria in the night, reached the city in the early morning of the 16th, and ate breakfast at the house of a friend. His friend's wife wrote these words on a scrap of paper: "Orders issued to McDowell to march to Manassas to-day." She had a confidential friend in the War Department who secretly sympathized with the South. Colonel Chestnut jumped into a buggy, was driven by a friend down the north bank of the Potomac to a spot where a boat was drawn up beneath the bushes, and was ferried across the river. Before nightfall Beauregard was reading the information. The army under McDowell is in five divisions, commanded by Generals Tyler, Hunter, Heintzelman, Miles, and Runyon. The troops for active service number about twenty-eight thousand, with forty-nine cannon. At noon, July 16th, the division under Tyler takes up the line of march. There has been much talk about masked batteries. The orders for the movement contain the following cautions: "The three following things will not be pardonable in any commander: to come upon a battery or breastwork without a knowledge of its position; to be surprised; to fall back." The march is very slow. The troops stop when they please, to pick blackberries or rest themselves, but the bands strike up now and then, and the column moves on in glee, never doubting that in a few days the army will be in Richmond, and the rebellion ended. On the 17th it is nine o'clock before the troops are on the march, and the movement is slower than ever, for fear of masked batteries. General Tyler comes upon a body of Confederates at Germantown with two cannon who make a rapid retreat. The newspaper correspondents, in their eagerness for news, enter Germantown in advance of the troops. So rapid the retreat of the Confederates that the sick in the hospital are left behind, together with a large amount of flour, several barrels of sugar, with frying-pans and kettles. Just beyond Germantown a baggage wagon has broken down, and the driver has cut the harnesses from the horses and is scampering towards Centreville, all of which puts the troops in the best of spirits. At nine on the morning of the 18th the army is in motion once more, the correspondents in advance, climbing over the abandoned breast works at Centreville, and learning all the news before the troops arrive. At noon Richardson's brigade turns south to reconnoitre the ground towards Bull Run in the vicinity of Blackburn's Ford. The skirmishers discover a Confederate battery with troops. It is Longstreet's brigade. General Tyler orders up Ayres's battery, places two cannon in position, and a shell goes screaming across Bull Run, strikes a house, exploding inside, tearing away the chimney, and spoiling General Beauregard's dinner cooking over the fire. The next moment a shell comes from the woods down by Bull Run which explodes above the Union cavalry, setting the horses to dancing and wounding two men. General Tyler makes a mistake in sending Ayres with his two guns down the slope, followed by Richardson's brigade. Suddenly there comes a volley from beneath the green foliage along the winding stream, and the air is thick with leaden rain. A white cloud rises above the trees, and a wild yell, not a cheer, not a hurrah, but more like the war-whoop of the painted warrior of the Western plains, is heard above the din of battle. It was Longstreet's brigade delivering its first volley, and sending out its first battle-cry, often repeated during succeeding months. Richardson's men hurrah in turn. The firing is quick and sharp. Longstreet's men are thrown into confusion, and he sends to General Early for assistance. General Tyler is beneath the GENERAL LONGSTREET. peach-trees near a small house overlooking the field; he walks nervously, and finally orders the troops to withdraw. Between sixty and seventy men have been killed or wounded. The loss on the Confederate side has been about the same. Tyler had exceeded his orders, and nothing had been gained. The Confederates regarded it as a great victory, while the Union troops looked at it in the light of a repulse. It had disarranged General McDowell's plans. Returning now to the Shenandoah Valley, we see General Johnston at this moment reading this despatch from Richmond: "General Beauregard attacked; go to his assistance." The way is clear, for Patterson marched towards Charlestown at daybreak, and is eighteen miles away. A few moments later the soldiers of Jackson's brigade are on their way towards Ashby's Gap, in the mountain wall bounding the eastern horizon. Seventeen miles will take them to Piedmont on the Manassas Railroad. Major Whiting gallops in advance, to have engines and cars. in waiting. At eight o'clock the next morning the troops are in the cars, whirling towards Manassas. Bull Run is a branch of the Occoquon River, rising in the Bull Run Mountains, running south-east through a beautiful reach of fields, pasture, and woodland. As we go up stream from the Occoquon we come to McLean's Ford. Another mile brings us to Blackburn's. Two miles farther and we are at a stone bridge on the turnpike leading a little south of west from Centreville to Warrenton. There are several places above the bridge where the stream may be forded. Two miles more brings us to Mr. Sud |