pectations, and I may fitly say, that by his presence in the right place, at the right moment, among his men, by the exhibition of characteristic coolness, and by his words of encouragement to the men of his command, he infused a confidence and spirit that contributed largely to the success of our arms on that day. Col. Early brought his brigade into position, and subsequently into action, with judgment; and at the proper moment he displayed capacity for command and personal gallantry. Col. Moore, commanding the 1st Virginia volunteers, was severely wounded at the head of his regiment, the command of which subsequently devolved upon Major Skinner, Lieut.Col. Fry having been obliged to leave the field in consequence of a sun-stroke. on Bull Run. Called from the head of his regiment by what appeared to me an imperative need of the service, to take charge of the superior duties of the Quartermaster's Department, with the advance at that critical juncture, he accepted the responsibilities involved, and was eminently efficient. For further information touching officers and individuals of the 1st brigade, and the details of the retrograde movement, I have to refer particularly to the report of Brigadier-General Bonham, herewith. It is proper here to state, that while from the outset it had been determined, on the approach of the enemy in force, to fall back and fight him on the line of Bull Run, yet the position occupied by Gen. Ewell's brigade, if necesAn accomplished, promising officer, Major sary, could have been maintained against a Carter H. Herrison, 11th regiment Virginia largely superior force. This was especially the volunteers, was lost to the service while lead-case with the Fifth Alabama volunteers, Coloing two companies of his regiment against the nel Rodes, which that excellent officer had enemy; he fell, twice shot, mortally wounded. made capable of a resolute, protracted defence Brigadier-General Longstreet, while finding against heavy odds. Accordingly, on the mornon all sides alacrity, ardor and intelligence, ing of the 17th ult., when the enemy appeared mentions his special obligations to Cols. Moore, before that position, they were checked and Garland, and Corse, commanding, severally, held at bay, with some confessed loss, in a regiments of his brigade, and to their field- skirmish in advance of the works, in which officers, Lieut.-Cols. Fry, Funsten, and Mun- Major Morgan and Capt. Shelly, Fifth regiment ford, and Majors Brent and Skinner, of whom Alabama volunteers, acted with intelligent he says: they displayed more coolness and gallantry; and the post was only abandoned energy than is usual among veterans of the old under general but specific imperative orders, in service." General Longstreet also mentions conformity with a long-conceived, established the conduct of Captain Marey, of the 17th plan of action and battle. Virginia volunteers, as especially gallant on one occasion, in advance of the Ford. The regiments of Early's brigade were commanded by Colonel Harry Hays, and Lieutenant-Colonels Williams and Hairston, who handled their commands in action with satisfactory coolness and skill, supported by their field officers, Lieut.-Col. DeChoiseul and Major Penn, of the 7th Louisiana, and Major Patton, of the 7th Virginia Volunteers. The skill, the conduct, and the soldierly qualities of the Washington Artillery engaged were all that could be desired. The officers and men attached to the seven pieces already specified, won for their battalion a distinction which, I feel assured, will never be tarnished, and which will ever serve to urge them and their corps to high endeavor. Lieutenant Squires worthily commanded the pieces in action. The commander of the battalion was necessarily absent from the immediate field, under orders in the sphere of his duties, but the fruits of his discipline, zeal, instruction, and capacity as an artillery commander, were present, and must redound to his reputation. On the left of Mitchell's Ford, while no serious engagement occurred, the conduct of all was eminently satisfactory to the general officer in command. It is due, however, to J. L. Kemper, Virginia forces, to express my sense of the value of his services in the preparation for, and execution of, the retreat from Fairfax Court House Capt. E. P. Alexander, Confederate States engineer, fortunately joined my head-quarters in time to introduce the system of new fieldsignals which, under his skilful management, rendered me the most important service preceding and during the engagement. The medical officers serving with the regi ments engaged were at their proper posts and discharged their duties with satisfactory skill and zeal; and, on one occasion at least, under an annoying fire, when Surgeon Cullen, First regiment Virginia volunteers, was obliged to remove our wounded from the hospital, which had become the special target of the enemy's rifle guns, notwithstanding it was surmounted by the usual yellow hospital flag, but which, however, I hope, for the sake of past associa tions, was ignorantly mistaken for a Confederate flag. The name of each individual medical officer I cannot mention. On the day of the engagement, I was attended by my personal staff, Lieutenant S. W. Ferguson, A.D.C., and my volunteer aides-decamp, Colonels Preston, Manning, Chestnut, Miles, Chisholm, and Heyward, of South Carolina, to all of whom I am greatly indebted for manifold essential services in the transmission of orders on the field, and in the preliminary arrangements for occupation and maintenance of the line of Bull Run. Col. Thomas Jordan, Assistant AdjutantGeneral; Capt. C. N. Smith, Assistant Adjntant-General; Col. S. Jones, Chief of Artillery and Ordnance; Major Cabell, Chief Quarter-prised burned to the ground. The only citizens master; Capt. W. H. Fowle, Chief of Subsist- visible were females, looking intensely woeence Department; Surgeon Thos. H. Williams, begone, as though crushed to earth by the preMedical Director, and Assistant Surgeon Bro-vious oppression of the secessionists, and the die, Medical Purveyor of the General Staff at- recent vandal acts of arson committed by our tached to the army of the Potomac, were ne- then uncontrolled troops. They said that all cessarily engaged, severally, with their respon- the able-bodied men of the village had been sible duties at my head-quarters at Camp Pick-pressed into the traitor service on the day beens, which they discharged with an energy and intelligence for which I have to tender my sincere thanks. Messrs. McLean, Wilcoxen, Kincheloe, and Brawner, citizens of this immediate vicinity, it is their due to say, have placed me and the country under great obligation for the information relative to this region, which has enabled me to avail myself of its defensive features and resources. They were found ever ready to give me their time, without stint or reward. fore at the point of the bayonet, before which they were driven in the direction of Manassas. Leaving there for Centreville, I found our troops strewed along on each side of the road, resting at their noon halt. The whole road was lined with them thus. A portion of Col. Heintzelman's division was in the rear, in and around Germantown. Those seen on the road to Cen.. treville were principally of Gen. Tyler's column -the Maine, Connecticut, and other regiments. Two and a half miles east of Centreville I heard firing in the advance, and, on reaching there, learned that an engagement was evidently in progress before the enemy's intrenchments at Bull Run, half way from that village to Manassas Junction. Our casualties, in all 68 killed and wounded, were fifteen killed and fifty-three wounded, several of whom have since died. The loss of the enemy can only be conjectured; it was unquestionably heavy. In the cursory exami- I learned that the enemy had evacuated his nation which was made by details from Long-slight Centreville works as early as 1 A. M. this street's and Early's brigades, on the 18th July, of that part of the field immediately contested and near Blackburn's Ford, some sixty-four corpses were found and buried, and at least twenty prisoners were also picked up, beside 175 stand of arms, a large quantity of accoutrements and blankets, and quite one hundred and fifty hats. The effect of this day's conflict was to satisfy the enemy he could not force a passage across Bull Run in the face of our troops, and led him into the flank movement of the 21st July, and the battle of Manassas, the details of which will be related in another paper. Herewith I have the honor to transmit the reports of the several brigade commanders engaged, and of the artillery. Also, a map of the field of battle. The rendition of this report, it is proper to say in conclusion, has been unavoidably delayed by the constantly engrossing administrative duties of the commander of an army corps composed wholly of volunteers-duties vitally essential to its well-being and future efficiency, and which I could not set aside or postpone on any morning. They were situated on the crest of the ridge immediately east of the village, consisting of thirty or forty poor and straggling houses, stretching down the west slope of the ridge on either side of the Warrenton turnpike. No male citizens were visible in the village, and the few white females there wore brighter countenances than their sisters of Germantown. When the enemy evacuated the place, (its males having been impressed the day before,) the women fled to the woods with their children and movables, leaving one only there. They had been told that it was the purpose of the d-d Yankees to burn the town and kill all the male white children. The women left, on realizing that no harm whatever was being done to person or property by our advance on entering the village, and brought those who had fled back, by a negro messenger. I found no detachment of our troops in the abandoned works or the village, though Federal stragglers were lounging about both. Gen. Tyler had ordered all the front doors to be left open, (to prevent assassin shots from the houses,) and the men were freely passing in and out of them, for water, &c. Not a disrespectful word even had been uttered in Centreville, by a single Federal soldier, nor had any one there been robbed to the value of a penny by them. The effect of their capital behavior there has been most happy, indeed, making up for it at Fairfax and Germantown. I proceeded as soon as possible on towards the direction of the firing, and 24 miles out of Centreville saw on the crest of a ridge scattered battle in progress at or near its west base. On soldiers and civilians evidently watching the rising the bill it was in full view. A portion of Sherman's battery, which had been in the advance, had opened upon the ene my from near the west base of the hill, a low ground flat of some four hundred yards intervening between its position and the creek, and between the barn on the right (on our side of the creek) in which they had learned secession cavalry were concealed. The enemy's small armed forces were behind intrenchments in the woods, on the west side of the creek, so covered by their works and thick undergrowth, that glimpses of them were rarely obtained. As soon as our artillery opened on the barn their cavalry rushed out of it and got out of the way, (behind timber, I believe.) When they left it, a concealed battery near the barn opened on our forces, with very little effect, I fancy. Shortly afterwards, more of our artillery came up, and when that opened upon the enemy's position in the woods along the creek border, a second masked battery of theirs, surrounded by their infantry in the woods, replied. That did us considerable damage. I saw four or five of our killed or wounded carried past me to the rear on litters. Dr. Pullston, of Pa., Mr. McCormick, of the N. Y. Evening Post, Mr. Hill, of the N. Y. Tribune, Mr. Raymond, of the N. Y. Times, myself, and a few other civilians, were at that time standing, surrounded by a few straggling soldiers, quietly looking on from the top of the hill, immediately where Gen. Tyler had taken his station. One of the first shells fired from that second battery of the enemy passed between the shoulders of Dr. Pullston and Mr. McCormick, who were arm-in-arm, and burst against a small building three yards in the rear of them. It grazed Mr. McCormick's shoulder. Just then the enemy's infantry fired a volley of Minié balls, which took effect in our group, wounding half a dozen, all slightly, however. Lieut. Lorain, of New York, was most hurt by a flesh wound. We non-combatants quickly sought different and safer positions. ligence of the particulars of the engagement just as I was passing him, and went ahead immediately with increased pace. After passing through Fairfax Court House, I was overtaken by a special messenger, who had remained on the ground after I left. Ere he started, according to the message sent me, the enemy's infantry had essayed to cross the creek to advance upon ours, and had been driven back by the New York 69th and 79th, who charged on them with fixed bayonets. He represents, that as he was leaving, it was judged that the enemy had been fairly whipped by that charge. It was then clear that in a short time he would probably be forced to fall back through the woods towards Manassas Junction. I may mention that, after every volley fired by the enemy while I was at Bull Run, his men uttered a shout that made the welkin ring, and his banners were waved and flaunted defiantly in our faces. Just before his second battery opened fire, clouds of dust in his rear betokened that he was being reinforced from Manassas Junction. NEW YORK "TIMES" NARRATIVE. CENTREVILLE, Va., Thursday evening, July 18, 1861. This has been an eventful day for the army of advance, and the result will unquestionably be represented as a great victory on the part of the rebels. In a word, the affair was a reconnoissance in force of a wood at Bull Run, whose contents were unknown. It proved to be a masked battery, behind which some 5,000 of the rebels had intrenched themselves, and our five reginients, which were sent against it, were repulsed with considerable loss-a loss, the extent of which I cannot state with any accuracy, but which probably amounted to not far from 150 killed and wounded. On our side, Sherman's battery, under Capt. Ayres, was the only one engaged. It behaved with great gallantry, but the extent of damage inflicted cannot be known, as it fired constantly into dense woods. Our forces were all withdrawn to the rear, the most of them as far back as Centre Just then the New York Sixty-ninth and Seventy-ninth came up and took position near our other infantry on the flat. Gen. Tyler, on finding that the fire of the second of the ene-ville, four miles from Bull Run, which is itmy's batteries was likely to prove destructive, manœuvred the infantry into a different position, falling them back with wheeling them. They were all as cool as cucumbers, and executed his orders with as much precision as though engaged in a dress parade on Pennsylvania avenue. I was compelled, by my engagement, to return to Falls Church by nightfall, and then left to return. About six miles from the scene of the engagement I met General McDowell in his carriage, with his staff on horseback. Ere meeting him-indeed, immediately after the arrival of the Sixty-ninth and Seventy-ninth on the field of action, and the change of position of our infantry engaged-the firing on both sides ceased for the time being. It was renewed, however, before I reached where I met General McDowell. He received his first intel self about the same distance from Manassas Junction. The attack will unquestionably be renewed in the morning, not only upon this masked battery, but upon the entire rebel force at Manassas-with what result I shall probably be able to tell you to-morrow. So much for the general result; now for the details of the affair, so far as they came under my personal observation. I left Fairfax Court House at a later hour than I intended, and reached Centreville at about 11 o'clock. The rebels here had thrown up intrenchments on a high hill, overlooking the road as it debouches from a fine wood, and a large open field, admirably fitted for defence. They had abandoned them, however, and this confirmed the general impression that they did not mean to fight. The troops which had been brought forward, comprising only a portion of Gen. Tyler's brigade, were here halted for rest, and remained three or four hours. My carriage had become entangled in the baggage train, and was some two miles in the rear. I began the tour of Centreville in search of food, as I had had no breakfast, and was nearly famished. While swallowing a cup of very poor coffee, which I persuaded the servants of a deserted mansion to sell me, I heard the sound of cannon in the direction of Manassas, I immediately pushed forward on foot, under a blazing sun, and after a brisk walk of three miles, during which the only refreshment I could procure was a little vinegar and water, I came to a wood through which the road leads over a high rise of ground, with an oat-field on the right, and on the left a meadow, in which is placed a small house, with an adjoining shed. In the oat field, on the right, were stationed two of the Parrott guns, under Lieut. Benjamin. As you pass the crest of the hill, your eye falls upon a gentle slope of meadow on the left of the road, bordered on the lower side by a thick growth of low trees, and rising, after passing a ravine, to high ground on the other side. At the right of the wood was an open plain, with a house and barn some fifteen or twenty rods from the wood. As I approached the first hill, I saw Sherman's battery drawn up on the left, behind the crest, and the First Massachusetts regiment, in line of battle, some twenty paces behind, in a hollow, to be out of reach of the rebel batteries. they scarcely fired a single shot at them, but were shattered by the deadly fire thus suddenly opened upon them. At intervals of perhaps a minute this volley was repeated five or six times-the rebels accompanying each fire with tremendous shouts. Two howitzers, belonging to Sherman's battery, were sent past me through the field into the wood, and opened fire, which was returned by the same volleys. After a few minutes, a rebel battery of cannon, planted upon a small cleared space in the woods, which could see very distinctly with my glass, opened fire, first upon the howitzers in their vicinity, but after two or three shots, they sent half-a-dozen balls into the field where I stood, and over my head into the group of officers and soldiers gathered about the house to watch the firing. One shot struck some 20 feet from me, another went through the shanty adjoining the house, and a shell exploded in the field some 20 rods from where I stood, without doing any damage. At 2 o'clock, a company of cavalry, Texas Rangers, belonging to the regular force, had crossed the field and taken possession, the men dismounting, armed with carbines, immediately in front of the wood. While stationed on the hill during the first firing, one of the rebel shots had fallen in their midst and severely wounded one of them, who had been carried back into the wood. After the firing from cannon and musketry which I have mentioned had been continued some twenty minutes,-many of the musket shots reaching the point where I stood, At about 1 o'clock, as the head of our column rose over the crest of the hill, it was saluted by-I saw the Twelfth New York regiment rush a shot from the rebel battery quite across the ravine, which fired eight or ten rounds from two guns, and was briskly answered by Capt. Ayres. After about ten minutes, their firing ceased, and it was supposed that the rebels had retreated. They had fired no rifled cannon, and it was believed they had none. Skirmishers were at once thrown out from the whole brigade, which was commanded by Col. Richardson, and consisted of five regiments, into the woods on the left, while the First Massachusetts was drawn up in line of battle immediately in front of the woods, and the Twelfth New York, Col. Walrath, just at their right. The Second and Third Michigan regiments were sent to the extreme right, and marched in a right line from the road, towards the wood, and drew up in line of battle. The skirmishers pushed into the wood, and were permitted to penetrate to some distance without being fired on. Soon a few scattering shots were fired at them, and then the First Massachusetts regiment and the Twelfth New York were pushed in together. I had gone into the field bordering the wood, about one-third of the way to the wood, and watched them enter. They had been gone perhaps five or ten minutes, when a full, round volley was fired directly in their faces from a breast work in the ravine, behind which the whole rebel force had been drawn up. They could not see their assailants, pell-mell out of the wood, followed by the Massachusetts men, marching in good order. Their appearance was the signal for a general retreat of the forces in that neighborhood. The regular cavalry wheeled and ran their horses up the hill at the top of their speed-putting those of us who were on the hill-side in greater peril of life and limb than we had been before during the day. Two companies of the New York Twelfth kept their ground well, and came off in good order. The rest made good time in leaving a position which it could not be expected for a moment that they could hold. The Michigan regiments, on the right, kept their position for a time, but soon drew off with the rest. It was clear that the rebels were intrenched in great force in the wood, and that they had a powerful battery there, some of the guns being clearly rifled cannon from the noise the balls made as they passed over our heads. Clouds of dust, coming towards the front from the hills in the rear, indicated that they were bringing up reinforcements. The withdrawal of our troops was in pursuance of a purpose to change the plan of attack. Orders were sent back for reinforcements. Sherman's whole battery was ordered into the garden on the left of the road, just in front of the house; two guns were planted in the oat-field on the opposite side, and at three and a half o'clock, a shot side of the intrenched camp, from this point, -N. Y. Times, July 20, 1861. N. Y. "TRIBUNE" NARRATIVE. from the rebels flying over my head, followed by two from the Parrott guns in the oat-field rushing in the opposite direction, satisfied me that the safest place during an engagement was not between two hostile batteries. We fell back, therefore, behind the crest of the hill. The firing on both sides grew very brisk, and the shot from the rebels nearly all passed overhead, crushing among the trees of the wood be- The skirmish of yesterday, as I have before yond, and wounding several of the great num-intimated, was, after all, an affair of very slight ber of persons, troops and others, who had col-consequence. It is true that an attempt upon lected there for shelter. Just then the Sixtyninth New York regiment came up through the wood-the cars of its men being constantly saluted by these whistling balls-and was ordered to form in the field behind the house. It was soon followed by the Seventy-ninth, who did not, however, go out of the wood. The firing, which had commenced at three and a half o'clock, ceased on both sides at five minutes before four, and our entire force was ordered to withdraw on Centreville. the enemy's position was begun, and that it failed; but it was not made in force, and it occasioned us no serious loss. It is difficult to understand, even now, the precise intention of our Generals in arranging the attack. The preparations were too important for a skirmish or reconnoissance, and not sufficiently so for an effective engagement. The fact probably is, that our operations were conducted on no particular plan, and that the successive dispositions of our troops were guided by vague impulses, rather than by sound judgment. Unfortunate errors certainly were committed, both at the commencement and during the progress of the skirmish, but to what extent they may have affected the result can now only be conjectured. After the position shall have been taken, and the ground examined, we can judge more surely. I last night sent an extremely hasty account of the affair, to which some details may be added to-day, at the risk of occasional repetitions. This is the whole of it, and I have no time to add comments, as this hasty letter must be sent at once by a special messenger, who may reach Washington in time for the four and a half o'clock mail to-morrow morning. General McDowell, who had been to visit the other column, came up just as the engagement was over. I believe he says the existence of this battery was well known, and that the men ought not to have been sent against it. Gen. Tyler, formerly of the U. S. Army, is an officer of merit and experience. He displayed great coolness throughout the whole affair. I met a son of Gen. Leavenworth coming off the field, a lad of seventeen, who had stayed in the wood to bathe his feet, after the Twelfth, to which he belonged, was driven out, and who says he was surprised to find he was not half as much scared as he had expected to be. While on the side-passed through Centreville, (where, by the way, hill, being half famished with thirst, I asked a swallow from the canteen of a portly gentleman who was passing. He gave it to me, and I found it was Hon. Mr. Lovejoy, of Illinois. There were half-a-dozen private gentlemen present as spectators. When the head of our division left the encampment near Centreville on Thursday morning, it was supposed that the four brigades would follow regularly, and that the movement was, as it had been the previous day, one of magnitude and force. Under this impression, we we learned that five or six thousand rebel troops, with artillery and cavalry, had marched from Fairfax toward Manassas the night before, and there we might have intercepted them had we advanced instead of halting for the night between Germantown and Centreville, and thus prevented their joining the rebel force at Bull Run, or elsewhere,) and made gradual progress southward. The skirmishers were somewhat less cautiously posted, and, indeed, the entire line of march seemed to be less carefully preserved than during the day before. The second brigade, as it afterward appeared, was upward of a mile behind the first, and the remaining The criticism which will be made on this mishap will be that men should not have been thus thrust upon a masked battery-that it is a repetition of the old Big Bethel and Vienna affairs. Gen. Tyler, however, says that it was only a reconnoissance in force-that the object he had in view was to determine what force and batteries the enemy had at that point-and that he now understands this perfectly. Un-two were left at such a distance as to forbid doubtedly, this is so; the only question is, any hope of prompt reinforcement from them, whether the knowledge was not purchased at in case of an engagement. The day was excestoo dear a cost. Upon one thing you may rely: sively warm, and the troops, excepting those This misfortune will not delay the attack on of the advance, marched languidly. They were Manassas. On the contrary, it will hasten it. halted at about a mile from Bull Run, to await But I think that, instead of leading troops di- the result of a reconnoissance by Gen. Tyler, rectly against batteries, whether masked or not, who preceded by the skirmishers, and attended Gen. McDowell will turn their entire position. by a squadron of cavalry, under Capt. Brackett, The movement of troops, to-night, indicates a rode forward to the position which was subse purpose to throw the troops upon the northquently taken up by our forces. |