men under General T. A. Morris toward the same point, by way of Philippi. Another body under General Hill was sent to a point eastward of Philippi, to prevent the escape of the insurgents over the Alleghany Mountains to join Johnston at Winchester.

When the Nationals approached Garnett's position, it was ascertained that Colonel John Pegram, with a considerable body of Confederates, was strongly intrenched in Rich Mountain Gap in the rear of his chief. McClel lan immediately dispatched Colonel (afterward General) W. S. Rosecrans, with a body of Ohio and Indiana foot soldiers and a troop of cavalry, in light marching order, to dislodge Pegram. By a circuitous and perilous mountain march in the darkness, and under a heavy rain-storm, they made their way to the top of a ridge of Rich Mountain, above Pegram's camp and only a mile from it (July 11, 1861); but they were not unobserved. Pegram had discovered their approach, and now attacked them furiously with nine hundred men armed with muskets and cannon. A severe engagement ensued. The Confederates were repulsed; and for his gallantry on that occasion Rosecrans was commissioned a brigadier-general.

The National troops were in a perilous situation on Rich Mountain, for Pegram confronted them with an overwhelming force. McClellan had heard the sounds of battle, and pushed forward with troops for their relief. Pegram did not wait to be attacked, but stole away in the night, and so uncovered Garnett's rear. Advised of this fact, Garnett also withdrew in the darkness, leaving most of his cannon, tents and wagons behind, and fled toward Huttonsville. Headed off by McClellan, his forces were scattered in the mountains of the Cheat River region. Meanwhile Pegram and six hundred of his followers had surrendered (July 14) to McClellan. The other fugitives were pursued by General Morris, accompanied by Captain H. W. Benham (McClellan's chief engineer), and were overtaken at Carricksford, on a branch of the Cheat River. There a sharp engagement occurred, when Garnett was killed and his forces were dispersed. Another portion of Garnett's troops had fled toward Staunton, pursued to the summit of the Cheat Range, where an Indiana regiment established an outpost. Meanwhile Cox had driven Wise out of the Kanawha region, and at the middle of July (1861) the war in Western Virginia seemed to be at an end. On the 19th, McClellan said, in a despatch to the War Department, "We have completely annihilated the enemy in Western Virginia. Our loss is about thirteen killed and not more than forty wounded; while the enemy's loss is not far from two hundred killed; and the number of prisoners we have taken will amount to at least one thousand. We have captured seven of the guns of the enemy, in all."

CHAP. XI.

DEALINGS WITH MARYLAND SECESSIONISTS.

1515

The Confederates were not disposed to abandon the granary that would supply Eastern Virginia, without another struggle. General Robert E. Lee succeeded Garnett in the chief command in that region. John B. Floyd, the treacherous National Secretary of War, had succeeded Wise as a leader; but he, too, was now superseded by a better man, and after awhile the war in the mountain region of Virginia was renewed. McClellan had been called to the command of the Army of the Potomac, and was succeeded in Western Virginia by General Rosecrans.

At the beginning of June, it was manifest that a powerful combination of Secessionists in Baltimore were preparing to act with the armed insurgents in Virginia, in efforts to seize the National capital. The Legislature of the State were in sympathy with the Confederates, and a committee of that body assured Jefferson Davis that the people of Maryland were with him in sentiment. The National Government took energetic measures to avert the evil. General N. P. Banks was appointed to the command of the Department of Annapolis, with his headquarters in Baltimore; and he was so satisfied of a conspiracy ripening there, that he sent a force of armed men into the city, who arrested Chief of Police Kane and put him into Fort McHenry. At the same time Banks proclaimed that he had appointed Colonel (afterward General) John R. Kenly, of the First Regiment of Maryland Volunteers, provost-marshal. Kenly was a well-known and highly respected citizen of Baltimore, and acted with wisdom and energy. He was put at the head of the Police Department; but the old Board of Police Commissioners, who were Secessionists, refused to acknowledge him and defied the Government. They were arrested and sent as prisoners of State to Fort Warren in Boston harbor, and very soon afterward the Unionists of Maryland were encouraged to assert their loyalty. Banks withdrew the troops, and thereafter Maryland was justly counted one of the loyal States of the Union; yet for three years the Confederates were deceived by a belief that the people were Secessionists at heart. But the delusion was dispelled when, in 1863, General Lee invaded the State, set up his standard, and expected thousands would rally around it. On the contrary, he lost manifold more men by desertion than he gained by recruiting.

We have observed that Jefferson Davis issued commissions to privateers, and that a Confederate naval bureau was established. The first vessel of the Confederate navy was named the Lady Davis; and when the National Congress assembled on the 4th of July, there were no less than twenty Confederate armed vessels afloat and depredating upon the commerce of the United States. So early as the 1st of June they had sent twenty vessels, captured on the sea, into the port of New Orleans alone, as prizes. One of

these privateers (the Savannah) was captured, and her crew were tried and condemned as pirates; but the Government found it expedient to treat them as prisoners of war. Another (the Petrel) went out of Charleston harbor and mistaking the United States frigate Lawrence for a richly-laden merchantman, attempted to capture her. She opened her ports, and instantly the Petrel became a wreck. A flash of fire, a thunder-peal, the crash of timbers and engulfment in the sea, was the experience of a minute for her crew, four of whom were drowned, while the vessel went swiftly to the bottom of the ocean. Other privateers active during the war will be noticed hereafter.

It was now midsummer, 1861. A large body of troops were gathered around the National capital. General Irwin McDowell was in command of the Department of Virginia, with his headquarters at Arlington House. At Manassas Junction, about half way between the eastern range of the Blue Ridge and the Potomac at Alexandria, and thirty miles from Washington, were about forty thousand Confederate troops. It was considered the strongest military position between Washington and Richmond, and is connected with the capital of Virginia and the fertile Shenandoah Valley by railways. It was fortified by strong redoubts on which were mounted heavy Dahlgren guns, which the insurgents had seized at the Gosport Navy-yard, and these were managed by naval officers who had deserted their flag. At Winchester, Johnston had almost as strong a force, to prevent McClellan and his troops issuing from the mountain region and joining Patterson on the Potomac.

The loyal people had become impatient because of the delay of the troops at the capital in moving against the insurgents. They were delighted when, on the afternoon of the 16th of July, the telegraph spread the news over the land that fifty thousand soldiers, under General McDowell, had begun to move toward Manassas, leaving fifteen thousand behind to guard the capital. They were in five divisions, commanded respectively by Brigadier-Generals Daniel Tyler and Theodore Runyon, and Colonels David Hunter, Samuel P. Heintzelman, and Dixon S. Miles. The Confederate forces against whom they moved were distributed along Bull's Run, a tributary of the Occoquan, from Union Mills, where the Orange and Alexandria Railway crosses the stream, to the stone-bridge on the Warrenton turnpike, a distance of about eight miles, with reserves near Manassas Junction. They also had an outpost at Centreville, and slight fortifications at Fairfax Court-House, ten miles from their main army, in the direction of Washington.

General Patterson was at. Martinsburg, charged with the duty of keep

CHAP. XI.

THE ARMY AT WASHINGTON IN MOTION.

1517 ing General Johnston from reinforcing Beauregard. He had crossed the Potomac at Williamsport on the 2d of July; and near Falling Waters, his advance-guard under Colonel Abercrombie, chiefly composed of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania troops, horse and foot, with a section of a battery, encountered Johnston's advance led by "Stonewall" Jackson, assisted by J. E. B. Stuart and his afterward famous cavalry corps. They fought sharply for half an hour, when Colonel George H. Thomas's brigade, coming to the support of Abercrombie, caused the Confederates to flee. They were hotly pursued five miles, when a heavy Confederate force appearing, the chase was abandoned. On the following day General Patterson and his army entered Martinsburg, and were speedily reinforced by troops under General Sandford of New York. There he remained in enforced inaction for a fortnight.

The aged General Scott was too feeble in mind and body to take command in the field, and that imbecility caused disaster. The duty devolved upon General McDowell. The latter ordered General Tyler to advance to Vienna on the evening of the 16th of July; and early the next morning the remainder of the army moved in four columns, with the intention, by making feints, to throw the Confederates off their guard, gain their rear, seize the railway, and compel both Beauregard and Johnston to fall back from their positions, so menacing to the seat of Government. But spies and traitors, yet swarming in Washington, kept Beauregard continually advised not only of the movements, but of the intentions of the National troops. There were traitors, evidently, in possession of the secrets of the office of the Generalin-Chief, for a copy of a military map was found in a deserted Confederate camp only two days after the original was completed.

McDowell's columns moved by different roads, without much opposition. They entered the village of Fairfax Court-House unopposed; and when they approached Centreville, the Confederates fled. The Nationals were in high spirits, for it appeared as if the march to Richmond would be a pleasant excursion. But Beauregard was alluring them into a perilous position, as they found, on the 18th, when General Tyler made a reconnoissance in force at Blackburn's Ford, on Bull's Run, which was guarded by General James Longstreet with a strong force of men and concealed batteries. A severe conflict ensued, in which Michigan, Massachusetts and New York troops, with Ayers's battery, were engaged. At length the Nationals, defeated, withdrew to Centreville; and McDowell was satisfied that his plan for gaining the rear of the Confederates was impracticable.

The affair at Blackburn's Ford revealed the strength of the Confederates and McDowell perceived the necessity for an immediate and vigorous attack

upon the enemy, for the term of enlistment of about ten thousand of his troops was about to expire. He then had thirty-five thousand men under his immediate command. These were massed around Centreville ready to move; but for want of needed supplies they were detained until the close of the 20th, when the army had begun to melt away from the cause just mentioned.

At two o'clock the next morning (July 21, 1861) the troops moved from Centreville in three columns, the moon shining brightly, to attack the left flank of the Confederates. General Tyler, with the brigades of Schenck and Sherman, and the batteries of Ayres and Carlisle, moved on the Warrenton turnpike toward the stone-bridge, leaving Miles and Richardson to watch and guard Blackburn's Ford. The object was to make a feigned attack near the bridge, while the two columns of Hunter and Heintzelman should cross Bull's Run at Sudley Church, and fall upon the Confederate left. These movements were very slow; and General McDowell, who was ill, and in a carriage, becoming impatient, mounted his horse and with his cavalry escort, commanded by Colonel A. G. Brackett, he rode forward, passed the two columns toiling along a rough forest road, and first entered the open field which became a battle-ground.

Meanwhile important movements had been made on the Confederate side, of which McDowell was ignorant. When he advanced to Fairfax Court-House, Beauregard informed Davis, at Richmond, of the movement, who ordered Johnston to hasten to join the forces at Manassas with the army of the Shenandoah. It was necessary for Johnston to fight and defeat Patterson or elude him. He accomplished the latter, and with six thousand infantry he hastened to Manassas, where he arrived at noon on the 20th, the remainder of his army following at a slower pace. This reinforcement made Beauregard's army outnumber McDowell's by four thousand men, and being strongly fortified, he had an important advantage. Johnston, the senior in rank, took chief command.

General Tyler opened the memorable battle by firing a shell among the Confederates near the stone-bridge, commanded by Colonel Evans. Others followed; and Beauregard, believing it to be a real attack, sent reinforcements to Evans. At the same time Johnston ordered a quick and vigorous attack upon McDowell's left wing at Blackburn's Ford, not doubting, because of the superior force of Confederates in that quarter, that they would win a complete victory. The assailants were led by General Ewell. The movement miscarried; and from an eminence Johnston and Beauregard watched the opening conflict with great anxiety. A cloud of dust seen far to the northward gave Johnston apprehensions that Patterson, when he