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606

PANIC AT CUB RUN AND CENTREVILLE.

Bull's Run, from the Stone Bridge to Sudley's Ford, pursued by Confederates of all arms, who made many prisoners. Still greater would have been the number of captives, had not many of the troops been free from panic, and in condition to cover the retreat and give encouragement to the disordered mass. When McDowell perceived that the day was lost, and retreat inevitable, his first care was to protect his army in its flight. For this purpose he detailed Colonel Porter and his regulars, with the cavalry. He also sent word to Miles to order a brigade to the Warrenton Road, at Cub Run, for the same purpose, and Blenker was sent. McDowell himself hastened to the left, where he found much confusion that might prove dangerous, caused by orders and counter-orders of Miles and his brigade commanders. He was informed that Miles had been intoxicated nearly all day, and playing the buffoon, to the disgust of his officers and men. So he took command of the division himself, for Miles could not be trusted.

Porter performed his duties admirably. He kept the Confederates in check; and after the retreat had fairly begun, according to orders, there was not much panic or confusion visible, until those who crossed at and near the Stone Bridge, and others at the fords above, met in converging streams (one along the Warrenton Turnpike, and the other down the forest road traversed by Hunter and Heintzelman in the morning) near the bridge over Cub Run, which was barricaded by a caisson' that had been overturned on it by a solid shot from the pursuers. Schenck's Brigade had already crossed, and gone on to Centreville, but many civilians in his rear were caught here by the hurrying mass of soldiers. The excitement was intense. The number of the pursuers was magnified by fear from five hundred to five thousand, and they were not far behind. Shots from their Flying Artillery were coming too near to be harmless. Frightened teamsters cut their horses loose, mounted them, and scampered away, leaving their wagons to block the road. The drivers of artillery horses did the same, and left their cannon behind to be seized by the Confederates. Full one-third of the artillery lost that day was left between Cub Run and the Stone Bridge.'

The caisson on the bridge was soon removed, and onward the excited mass pressed. Blenker's protecting brigade, lying across the road, opened and let them pass; and at twilight the fugitives were all behind the lines at Centreville, where the Fifth Division, intact, formed a strong protecting force. Ignorant of the number and exact position of McDowell's reserves, only five hundred cavalry of the pursuing force crossed Bull's Run that even

1 A caisson is an ammunition-chest on wheels, for the service of artillery in battle.

2 The Nationals lost twenty-seven cannon, ten of which were captured on the field, and the remainder were abandoned during the flight to Centreville. They had forty-nine pieces in all, of which twenty-eight were rifled. All but two were fully horsed and equipped. Only twenty-eight of the forty-nine pieces crossed Bull's Run before the battle, and only one was brought safely back to Centreville. Besides these cannon, the Nationals lost a large amount of small arms, ammunition, stores, provisions, and clothing. A large number of the knapsacks and blankets that were lost had been laid aside by the soldiers before going into battle, on account of the heat of the day.

Beauregard reported his spoils of victory to be twenty-eight field-pieces captured, with over one hundred rounds of ammunition for each gun: also thirty-seven caissons; six forges; four battery-wagons; sixty-four artillery horses completely equipped; five hundred thousand rounds of small arms ammunition; four thousand five hundred sets of accouterments, and over five thousand muskets. His engineer-in-chief, Captain E. P. Alexander, reported in addition as captured, a large number of intrenching, carpenters', and blacksmiths tools; camp and cooking utensils; clothing and blankets; twenty-two tents, and a large quantity of medicines and hospital supplies.

RETREAT TO THE LINE OF THE POTOMAC.

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ing; and when, at dusk, these encountered some of Blenker's pickets in the gloom, they wheeled and hastened back to the Stone Bridge, when some of his brigade went boldly forward, and brought away two of the cannon abandoned near Cub Run.' In the mean time a part of Beauregard's. reserves, which had been ordered up, had arrived.

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At Centreville, McDowell held a brief and informal council with his officers, when it was determined to continue the retreat to the defenses of Washington, for the shattered and demoralized army was in no

STONE CHURCH, CENTREVILLE

condition to resist even one-half of the Confederates known to be at Manassas. They had been on duty almost twenty-four hours, without sleep, without

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much rest, and many of them without food; and during seven or eight hours of the time, a greater portion of those who came over Bull's Run had been fighting under a blazing sun. They needed rest; but so dangerous did it seem to remain, that the soldiers cheerfully obeyed the order to move forward. Indeed, large numbers of them had already done so. Leaving the sick, and wounded, and dying, who could not be removed, under proper caretakers in a stone church at Centreville (which was used a long time as a hospital), the army moved forward at a little past ten o'clock, with Colonel Richardson's brigade as a rear-guard. Most of them reached the camps near Washington, which they had left in high spirits on

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16th, before daylight. Richardson left Centreville at two o'clock in the morning, when all the other troops and batteries had retired, and twelve hours afterward he was with his brigade on Arlington Hights. The survivors of the conflict had left behind them not less, probably, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, than three thousand five hundred of their comrades,

1 Beauregard, in his official report, gives as the reason for relinquishing the pursuit, a report that McDowell's reserves, "known to be fresh and of considerable strength," he said, "were threatening the position of Union Mills Ford," near which lay the forces under Ewell.

608

RESULTS OF THE BATTLE.

though the official report made the number somewhat less. The Confederates, who held the field, lost not less, it is believed, than twenty-five hundred, though Beauregard in his Report gave the number about nineteen hundred.'

Such was the immediate and most dreadful result of this first great conflict of the Civil War, known as the BATTLE OF BULL'S RUN. We shall hereafter observe its effects upon public sentiment-how it increased the arrogance of the conspirators, and the number of their adherents-how it quickened into powerful and practical action the feeling of nationality and intense love for the Union latent in the hearts of all loyal Americans-how it produced another and more important uprising of the faithful People in defense of the Republic, and how it made the enemies of the Union in Europe hopeful that it would utterly perish in the struggle then earnestly begun.

ers.

1 In the compilation of this account of the BATTLE OF BULL'S RUN, I have drawn the materials chiefly from the various official Reports of Generals McDowell, Beauregard, and Johnston, and their subordinate commandMcDowell reported his loss at four hundred and eighty-one killed, and one thousand and eleven wounded. Of the missing, many of whom afterward re-appeared, and a large portion were prisoners, he made no report. They were estimated at about fifteen hundred, which would make the total National loss two thousand nine hundred and ninety-two. Beauregard reported his loss three hundred and seventy-eight killed, one thousand four hundred and eighty-nine wounded, and thirty missing-in all, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven. His estimate of missing is much below the mark. More than one hundred, captured during the day, were sent to Washington.

Among the killed of the National Army were Colonel James Cameron, of the Seventy-ninth New York (Highlanders); Colonel John Slocum and Major Ballou, of the Second Rhode Island; and Lieutenant-Colonel Haggerty, of the New York Sixty-ninth (Corcoran's Irish Regiment). Among the wounded were Colonels Hunter, Heintzelman, Wilcox, Gilman, Martin, Wood, H. W. Slocum, Farnham, and Corcoran, and Major James D. Potter. Wilcox, Corcoran, and Potter, were made prisoners.

2 The Confederate commanders, and the writers in their interest, call it the BATTLE OF MANASSAS. It was fought much nearer Bull's Run than Manassas, and the title above given seems the most correct. About four years after the battle, when the war had ceased, National soldiers erected on the spot where the conflict raged most fiercely, about three hundred yards from the site of Mrs. Henry's House, a substantial monument of stone, in commemoration of their compatriots who fell there. A picture of it is given on the preceding page. It is made of ordinary sandstone, found near Manassas Junction. Its total hight is twenty-seven feet, including the base, and it stands upon an elevated mound. On each corner of the base is a block of sandstone, on which rest elongated conical 100-pounder shells, the cone pointing upward. The top of the shaft is also surmounted by one. On one side of the monument are these words:-" IN MEMORY OF THE PATRIOTS who fell at BulL RUN, JULY 21, 1861." On the other side:-" ERECTED JUNE 10, 1865." It was constructed by the officers and soldiers of the Sixteenth Massachusetts Light Battery, Lieutenant James McCallom (who conceived the idea), and the Fifth Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, Colonel Gallup. Generals Heintzelman, Wilcox, and others, who fought in the battle, were present at the dedication of the monument at the date above named. The picture is from a photograph by Gardner, of Washington City. A hymn, written for the occasion by the Rev. John Pierpont, then eighty years of age, was sung. The services were opened by Rev. Dr. McMurdy, of Kentucky; and several officers made speeches.

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