CHAP. XI. BATTLE OF BULL'S RUN. 1519 discovered the departure of the army of the Shenandoah, had given chase or was hastening to reinforce McDowell. Colonel Evans was soon satisfied that Tyler's attack and the cannonade below was only a feint. He had been informed of the march of heavy columns through the forests on his left, and before ten o'clock scouts told him that one column was crossing Bull's Run at Sudley Church. It was Hunter's, composed of Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Massachusetts troops, with the batteries of Griffin and Reynolds, the whole led by Colonel Burnside. Evans at once prepared to meet them; and General Bee, who commanded reserves, was sent forward to assist him. Very soon the Nationals appeared in the open field, and a battle began. Only a small stream in a little vale separated the combatants. Hard pressed, Evans's line began to waver, when General Bee advanced with fresh troops and gave it strength. The National line then began to tremble, and Burnside called for help. Colonel Andrew Porter responded by sending a battalion of regulars under Major Sykes. The battle now raged furiously. Hunter was severely wounded and Colonel Slocum of Rhode Island was killed, when the youthful Sprague, governor of the little Commonwealth, took command of the troops from that State. At length Porter came up with his men and poured such a heavy fire upon Evans's left, that his line again began to bend. At that moment the head of Heintzelman's column appeared; also Sherman's brigade, whom Tyler had sent, under Colonel Corcoran, to assist Burnside. These reinforcements were timely; for the Nationals, who had been on their feet since midnight, were nearly exhausted. A furious charge made by a New York regiment under Colonel H. W. Slocum, shattered the bending Confederate line, and the troops fled in confusion to a plateau whereon General T. J. Jackson had just arrived with reserves. "They are beating us back!" exclaimed General Bee. "Well, sir," calmly replied Jackson, "we will give them the bayonet!" Bee was encouraged. "Form! form!" he cried to the fugitives. "There stands Jackson like a stone wall." The effect of these words was wonderful. Their flight was checked, and order was soon brought out of confusion. Ever afterward, the calm general was called "Stonewall Jackson." It was now noon. Alarmed by the unexpected strength of the Nationals, Johnston and Beauregard sent bodies of troops, under Holmes, Early, and Ewell, in the direction of the sounds of battle, four miles distant. The two commanders hastened to the plateau, when Johnston, the chief by seniority, after reorganizing the shattered columns, left Beauregard in command on the field and hastened to a position from which he had a view of the whole area of operations and of the country toward Manassas, whence reinforcements from the Shenandoah Valley were momentarily expected. Without these, he had small hope of success. From his new position he also sent forward reinforcements; and at two o'clock in the afternoon, when the conflict was renewed, the Confederates had ten thousand soldiers, with twenty-two heavy guns in battle order on the plateau. Meanwhile the Nationals had been preparing for the struggle. At one o'clock they had gained possession of the Warrenton Turnpike, the grand objective of the march against the Confederate left; but their enemies must be driven from the plateau before victory would be secured. To accomplish this five brigades, namely, Porter's, Howard's, Franklin's, Wilcox's and Sherman's, with the batteries of Rickett's, Griffin and Arnold, and cavalry under Major Palmer, were to turn the Confederate left, while Keyes was sent to annoy them on the right. Colonel Heintzelman accompanied McDowell as his lieutenant on the field, and his division began the attack. They pressed forward in the face of a storm of balls from batteries, and gained possession of a portion of the plateau. There was an elevation near that commanded the whole plateau, and McDowell ordered Ricketts and Griffin to plant their batteries upon it, with the immediate support of Ellsworth's Fire Zouaves, under Colonel Farnham. It was accomplished, while New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota troops took a position to the left of the batteries. As the artillery and Zouaves went boldly forward in the face of a severe fire from the enemy, they were suddenly attacked on the flank by Alabamians in ambush, and then by two companies of Stuart's Black-horse cavalry, in the rear. The Zouaves recoiled, and the horsemen dashed entirely through the shattered column. Colonel Farnham rallied his men, and with some assistance they attacked the Confederate horsemen so furiously that they were dispersed. When the Zouaves gave way, Heintzelman ordered up a Minnesota regiment to the support of the batteries. Suddenly the Confederates, in overwhelming force, delivered a murderous fire that disabled the batteries by prostrating the men, when the struggle for the plateau became fearful. Both sides suffered dreadfully. Johnston heard of the slaughter and lost heart. He had ordered Early up, at eleven o'clock, with three fresh regiments, but they did not come. It was now three o'clock. "Oh for four regiments!" said Johnston, bitterly, to Colonel Cocke. His wish was more than satisfied. Just then he saw a cloud of dust in the direction of the Manassas Gap Railway. It was caused by a part of his own Shenandoah army, four thousand strong, under General E. Kirby Smith. They were received with joy, and were ordered into action immediately. Beauregard's CHAP. XI. FLIGHT OF TROOPS AND CIVILIANS. 1521 force was almost doubled by these and other fresh troops; and the blow that now smote McDowell's troops, just as they were about to grasp the palm of victory, was sudden, unexpected, heavy, and overpowering. In fifteen minutes the Nationals were swept from the plateau. As regiment after regiment gave way and hurried toward the turnpike in confusion, panic seized others, and at four o'clock a greater portion of the National army were flying across Bull's Run toward Centreville. With many it was not a retreat but a disorderly rout. They left behind them over three thousand men killed, wounded, or made prisoners. The Confederates lost over two thousand. The Confederate congress had assembled at Richmond the day before; and Jefferson Davis, who arrived on the battle-field just as the flight began, sent back to his associates an exultant shout of victory, by the telegraph. It was echoed, in varying notes, over the Confederacy, while the vanquished army was hastening, in fragments, back to the defence of the capital. For a moment the gloom of deep despondency settled upon the hearts of the loyal portion of the nation. The gravity of the occasion was so little appreciated, that when it was known at Washington that McDowell was to attack Beauregard on Sunday, the 21st, scores of men, and even women-Congressmen, officials of every grade, and plain citizens-went out in carriages as to a spectacular show for amusement. Passes from military commanders were like tickets to a Roman gladiatorial combat in the circus; and the vicinity of the battle-field was gay, on Sunday morning, with civilians, who indulged in wine and cigars at the headquarters of Colonel Miles at Centreville. The heights there were crowded with spectators; and as the battle went on, and bombs "bursted in air," their cheeks were made to glow with delicious excitement. Before night those cheeks were made pale by terror as the crowd of spectators rushed back, pell-mell, toward places of safety, pursued by the Confederates. Soldiers and citizens and well-dressed women were mingled in picturesque confusion in the line of fugitives who crowded the highways. In several places the roads were blocked with overturned vehicles or abandoned cannon; and horses and human kind seemed equally eager to escape from the whirlwind of destruction that followed in fury behind them for awhile. But the pursuit of the Confederates was soon stayed by misinformation. Had they pressed on, their coveted prize, the National capital, might have been in their possession before Monday morning. The battle at Bull's Run depressed the loyal people only for a moment, and there was a quick rebound from despair to hope. Another uprising by the loyalists in favor of the Union took place, and the gaps in the National armies were more than filled within a fortnight by new recruits. The Con federates were weakened by their victory, for it gave them undue confidence in their strength and prowess, and made them neglect to profit by it. But circumstances soon afterward caused a "solid South" to be arrayed against the National Government, and the Confederate armies were wonderfully sustained by their people. General Patterson was unjustly censured for his failure to hold Johnston at Winchester or to reinforce McDowell. When the truth was made known by positive testimony, it appeared clear that he did all an obedient soldier, bound by instructions, could do under the circumstances, and the public mind was satisfied. While the events we have just considered were occurring in the East, the war was making rapid progress in the West, especially in Missouri, where General Lyon, as we have seen, had taken vigorous measures to quell the rebellion. The disloyal governor of Missouri, who raised the standard of revolt at Jefferson City, fled westward with troops who were led by General Price, and took a stand at near Booneville. There they were attacked by Lyon and defeated, when they retreated toward the southwestern portion of Missouri, and halted not far from the Arkansas border. Lyon now held military control over the whole region northward of the Missouri River, and east of a line from Booneville to the Arkansas border, thus giving to the Government the important points of St. Louis, Hannibal, St. Joseph, and Bird's Point on the Mississippi, as bases of operations, with railways and rivers for transportation. General Lyon remained about a fortnight at Booneville preparing for a vigorous campaign against the insurgents whom Jackson was gathering around him in southwestern Missouri. He issued a proclamation which quieted the people and strengthened the Union cause, for he assured them that his Government had no other end in view than the maintenance of its authority over the persons and property of the whole people of the State. On the 1st of July (1861) there were at least ten thousand loyal troops in Missouri, and as many more might have been thrown into it from camps. in Illinois, in the space of forty-eight hours. At the same time, Colonel Franz Sigel, a German soldier and patriot, was pushing eager soldiers toward insurgent camps on the borders of Kansas and Arkansas. On the 5th of July he encountered a considerable force under Jackson and Brigadier-General Rains, near Carthage. Their force was much greater in number than his own, and after a sharp fight he was pressed back and retreated in good order to Springfield. Lyon, who was then at the head of a small force, eighty miles from Springfield, satisfied of Sigel's peril, hastened forward to his relief, by forced marches, and encamped not far CHAP. XI. MILITARY EVENTS IN MISSOURI. 1523 from him on the 13th of July and took command of the combined forces. In the meantime troops from Texas under Generals McCulloch, Rains, Pearce and McBride, had joined Price, making his whole force about twenty thousand men. They were now marching on Springfield. To confront tham Lyon had not more than six thousand men, horse and foot (the former about five hundred in number), and eighteen pieces of artillery. With this comparatively feeble force Lyon went out to meet his enemies, and at Dug Springs, about nineteen miles west from Springfield, they met and fought a desperate battle on the 2d of August. The Confederates were led by General Rains. So furious was the charge of Lyon's cavalry, in the engage. ment, led by Captain Stanley, that Confederate prisoners seriously inquired: "Are they men or devils?" The Confederates were beaten and fled to Wilson's Creek, about ten miles south of Springfield, where they encamped on the evening of the 9th wearied and half-starved. |