wily enemy "had a trap set somewhere" for him,* feared either to demonstrate or attack. His conduct was certainly feeble; and his marches and countermarches, made far from the enemy, were ridiculous. At Martinsburg his position was a false one, where, instead of threatening the enemy, the enemy threatened him. At length, when informed that the army in front of Washington was actually under way, he (July 15th) advanced his force from Martinsburg to Bunker's Hill, from which point he, on the 17th, fell off upon Charlestown, near Harper's Ferry, and Johnston was left free to move to form a junction with Beauregard! This was precisely what Johnston now found occasion to do. As will presently appear, McDowell's reconnoitring parties appeared in front of Bull Run on the 18th of July. On the same day a message reached Johnston from Beauregard: "If you wish to help me, now is the time." Johnston promptly availed himself of the opportunity to escape unmolested. Making a rapid flank march by way of Ashby's Gap, he took cars on the Manassas Gap Railroad at Piedmont, and joined Beauregard with his advance brigades on Saturday, the 20th. What part they played in the coming battle will presently appear. General McDowell moved his army from the banks of the Potomac on the afternoon of July 16th. The movable column consisted of four divisions-the First Division, under General Tyler; the Second, under General Hunter; the Third, under General Heintzelman; the Fifth, under Colonel Miles. The Fourth Division, under General Runyon, was left in the works on the south bank of the Potomac. These divisions made an * Patterson: Narrative of the Campaign in the Valley of the Shenandoah, p. 57. General Johnston, in conversation with the writer touching this point, made a ludicrous comment on Patterson's statement of his numbers. On my mentioning to him that Patterson, in a Narrative recently published, had put down the Confederate strength at forty thousand, General Johnston laughingly exclaimed: "Why, if he had really thought that I had forty thousand, or half that number, sooner than have cr the Potomac he would have thrown himself headlong into it." aggregate of about thirty-five thousand men. They moved in four columns: one by the turnpike; one by the lateral country roads on the right; one on the left of the railroad; and another between the turnpike and railroad, following what is known as the " Braddock” road.* It was known that Fairfax Courthouse was held as an outpost by a brigade of South Carolina troops, and the three right columns were directed to co-operate on that point with the view of capturing this force; but on entering the place, at three o'clock on the afternoon of the 17th, it was found abandoned. General McDowell had hoped to have his columns concentrated at Centreville that night, but the troops being unused to march, did not arrive till the following day. As it was, however, the march was really made with a good deal of rapidity. From Centreville, General McDowell proceeded to push out reconnoissances, with a view to the projected manoeuvre by his left; but examination soon proved the impracticability of the ground for this purpose. Moreover, the character of General McDowell's move was revealed to Beauregard by an affair which the weak ambition of a division commander brought on that afternoon at Blackburn's Ford, on Bull Run. General Tyler had been ordered with his division to occupy Centreville, and thence "observe the roads to Bull Run," but was cautioned "not to bring on any engagement."+ In obedience to this he pushed a brigade forward to Blackburn's Ford, which proved to be about the centre of Beauregard's true defensive line along Bull Run. Reaching the heights on the northern side of the stream, he opened an artillery fire with two twenty-pounder rifle-guns, which had the effect of first developing and afterwards silencing the enemy's battery near the ford. Thus far he had not exceeded his instructions; but he had the impression that the enemy would run whenever seriously menaced; and he declared that "the great man of the war would be the * So called from its having been made by that general on his memorable march to Fort Duquesne, in 1754, which terminated in his disastrous defeat and death. + McDowell's order: Report on the Conduct of the War, vol. i., p. 46. man that got to Manassas, and he meant to go through that night."* His notion of the method of executing this project was to file his brigade down to the stream, draw it up parallel to the other shore, and open an unmeaning fusillade. While engaged in this foolery, a force crossed the stream from the other side, and striking his left flank (the Twelfth New York), disrupted it completely. This admonished General Tyler to defer his intended visit to Manassas that night, and he withdrew. The loss was inconsiderable, but the effect on the morale of the raw troops, was bad. In consequence of the abandonment of the plan of operation on the Confederate right, the next two days (July 19th and 20th) were spent by the engineers in reconnoitring and determining how and where the attack should be made. It was found that there was a good ford over Bull Run at Sudley Spring, two miles above the point where the direct road from Centreville to Warrenton crosses Bull Run by the Stone Bridge. It was also found that this ford was unguarded by the enemy, and that above that point the stream was almost everywhere easily passable. On these data was based the plan of attack, which was as follows: The Fifth Division (Miles) to remain in reserve at Centreville, and to make with one of its brigades, added to Richardson's brigade of Tyler's division, a false attack at Blackburn's Ford; the First Division (Tyler) to move by the turnpike up to the Stone Bridge at daybreak, threaten that point, and, at the proper time, to carry it or cross if uncovered from above. Meantime, the principal column, consisting of the two divisions of Hunter and Heintzelman, of about twelve thousand men, was to diverge from the turnpike to the right a mile beyond Centreville, and, by a detour, reach Sudley Ford; thence, descending the right bank of Bull Run, it would take the defences of the Stone Bridge in reverse. The united force would then give *My authority for this statement is Colonel Alexander, of the Corps Engineers, then engineer on Tyler's staff. Barnard: The Battle of Bull Run, p. 49. |