1861.]

STRENGTH OF THE ARMIES.

61

actually moved against the enemy was about twenty-eight thousand with forty-nine guns and a battalion of cavalry.

So little did strict military discipline as yet enter into the policy of the Government that a large

number of civilians, including several members of Congress, obtained passes enabling them to ride out in carriages, close in the rear of the army, to witness the expected battle. A passage from the published journal of one of these, Hon. Alfred Ely, is suggestive. He had called on General

Scott, to obtain a pass for a carriage-load of civilians. "I inquired how many men General Beauregard had at Manassas. He replied, about thirty-eight thousand, not to exceed forty thousand, and that General McDowell's plans and movements had been talked over with him and well considered. On being asked how many troops we had, he gave me this significant reply: 'Enough. General McDowell will win." One member of

62

ACTION AT BLACKBURN'S FORD.

[1861.

Congress, John A. Logan, of Illinois, who had seen service in the Mexican war, left his seat in the Capitol, overtook the army, shouldered a musket, and participated in the battle.

The troops marched by the Warrenton turnpike, and found themselves in the presence of the enemy on the banks of Bull Run on the 18th. This was doing pretty well for green soldiers, though McDowell afterward testified his disgust at their want of respect for orders, and their habit of stopping when they pleased, to get water or pick berries. The enemy's outposts had fallen back as the army advanced, and the first serious. opposition was met at Blackburn's Ford. Tyler had been ordered forward to make a reconnoissance, with instructions not to bring on a battle, as it was only intended to make a feint against that part of Beauregard's line, the real attack to be on the south or right wing. But he exceeded his orders, carried on a brisk artillery duel across the stream, brought up first a regiment and then a brigade to support his battery, became engaged with the enemy's infantry, and finally retired after about sixty men on each side had been killed or wounded. The troops opposed to him were commanded by General James Longstreet, and both his force and Tyler's were somewhat broken up.

McDowell, finding that Beauregard was very strongly intrenched on his right, and that the roads in that direction were not good, changed his plan and determined to attack on the north or left wing. Another reason for doing this lay in the

1861.]

JOHNSTON JOINS BEAUREGARD.

63

fact that McDowell had distrusted Patterson from the first, having no faith that he would hold Johnston, and he had declared at the outset that he could not, with his present force, defeat the combined armies of Beauregard and Johnston. Scott's confident promise that "if Johnston joined Beauregard he should have Patterson on his heels," had not fully reassured him, and he now planned, by striking the enemy's left flank and turning it, to push forward and seize a point on the Manassas Gap railroad, which would enable him to prevent such a junction of the enemy's forces. At the same time Beauregard was planning a movement with his right to turn McDowell's left, and was afraid Patterson would join him before the movement could be executed. The action at Blackburn's Ford had been fought on Thursday. Friday and Saturday were consumed in reconnoissances and searching for a suitable ford on the upper part of the stream, where a column could cross and, marching down on the right bank, uncover the fords held by the enemy and enable the remainder of the army to cross. Such a ford was found at length, and on Sunday morning, the 21st, the army was put in motion. McDowell did not know that Johnston had easily eluded Patterson and with two fifths of his forces joined Beauregard on Saturday.

A remark in Johnston's "Narrative,” taken in connection with an incident of Butler's march to Washington three months before, strikingly illustrates the difference in the material of which the

64

A CONTRAST IN MEN.

[1861.

two armies were composed. Johnston says: "Enough of the cars, sent down in the morning to convey about two regiments, were brought back before midnight; but the conductors and engineers disappeared immediately, to pass the night probably in sleep instead of on the road. And it was not until seven or eight o'clock Saturday morning that the trains could be put in motion, carrying the Fourth Alabama and the Second Mississippi regiment, with two companies of the Eleventh. General Bee and myself accompanied these troops." When Butler's force was marching from Annapolis to Washington, repairing the railroad as it went, a locomotive was found overturned in a ditch. The commanding officer expressed a desire to know whether it could be placed on the track again and repaired. "Well," said one of a group of soldiers that had been examining it, "I built her, and I guess I can fix her." No train intended for the transportation of National troops would ever have stood still for want of engineers and conductors.

While a part of McDowell's force marched directly along the turnpike to the stone bridge, a heavy column turned to the right and crossed the stream at Sudley Ford, two and a half miles above. This column came down upon the Confederate left and began the fighting. Concerning many of the particulars of what took place thereafter, there is dispute among those who should know best; but the essential facts are well established. The Confederate commanders had actu

1861.]

THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN.

65

ally ordered a forward movement of their own right wing; but as they saw the development of McDowell's plan they recalled that, and gradually strengthened their left to meet the onset. Hunter's attack, as his columns came down the road from Sudley Ford, was conducted with great skill and bravery, and was met with equal courage and skill. Hunter himself was wounded by a fragment of shell, and had to leave the field, his command then devolving on Andrew Porter. The brigades of Sherman and Keyes, which had struck the stream at the stone bridge, found it fordable half a mile above, crossed there, and took part in the conflict. The battle-ground was a plateau, wooded and broken, crossed by a small stream that flowed into Bull Run. The enemy was steadily driven back for nearly a mile, but only retired step by step, and the fighting was constant and destructive. Every field-officer of the Fourth Alabama regiment was shot down, leaving it without a commander. General Bernard E. Bee, of South Carolina, who was killed later in the day, rallied his wavering men by appealing to them to follow the example of Jackson's brigade, "standing there like a stone wall"-which gave General Thomas J. Jackson the name by which he has since been known.

As the Confederate line fell back, it gained. higher and more defensive ground, and also received accessions from the right wing. At the same time, the National army as it advanced became separated and fought in detachments. Batteries were thrown forward, ambushed by sharp-shooters,