them to the charge. His staff signalized themselves by their intrepidity, Col. Thomas being killed and Major Mason wounded. President's manly form pass by, raise their heads, and heard them give shout upon shout and cheer upon cheer. It has been stated the President commanded the centre and joined in the charge; but this is a mistake. The train had been delayed, and arrived at the Junction been a grievous disappointment. The Washington Artillery, who had drawn their guns up the hill and in front of the house known as Mr. Lewis's-Gen. Cocke's and Gen. Johnston's head-quarters, and which was riddled with shot-commanded by Major J. B. Walton in person, gave the enemy about this time a parting salute. Your correspondent heard Gen. Johnston exclaim to Gen. Cocke just at the critical moment, "Oh, for four regiments!" His wish was answered, for in the distance our reinforce-two hours behind its time, which must have ments appeared. The tide of battle was turned in our favor by the arrival of General Kirby Smith, from Winchester, with 4,000 men of Gen. Johnston's division. Gen. Smith heard while on the Manassas railroad cars the roar of battle. He stopped the train, and hurried his troops across the field to the point just where he was most needed. They were at first supposed to be the enemy, their arrival at that point of the field being entirely unex-powerful than his own, he observed the carpected. The enemy fell back, and a panic seized them. Cheer after cheer from our men went up, and we knew the battle had been won. With the aid of our glass, which was more riage of a gun some two miles off. He gave the order for another fire, and Lieut. Dearing pointed the piece. Before the ball had well reached the point aimed at, a whole regiment Thus was the best-appointed army that had of the enemy appeared in sight, going at "douever taken the field on this continent beaten, ble-quick" down the Centreville road. Major and compelled to retreat in hot haste, leav- Walton immediately ordered another shot "to ing behind them every thing that impeded help them along," as he said, and two were their escape. Guns, knapsacks, hats, caps, sent without delay right at them. There was no shoes, canteens, and blankets, covered the obstruction, and the whole front of the regiment ground for miles and miles. At about 5 o'clock was exposed. One-half were seen to fall, and if we heard cheer upon cheer, and the word Gen. Johnston had not at that moment sent an "Davis" ran along the ranks, and we saw in order to Major Walton to cease firing, nearly the the distance the tall, slender form of our gal-whole regiment would have been killed. Of lant President, who had arrived upon the field in time to see the total rout of the army which threatened his capture, and the subjugation of the South. The President left Richmond at 6 o'clock in the morning, and reached Manassas Junction at 4, where, mounting a horse, accompanied by Col. Joseph R. Davis and numerous attendants, he galloped to the battle-field, just in time to join in the pursuit by a magnificent body of cavalry, consisting of 1,500 men, commanded by Lieut.-Col. Stewart.* This sight, of itself, was worth the fatigue of the day's journey. We saw the poor wounded soldiers on the roadside and in the fields, when they observed the Soon after prayer in the Confederate Congress, on the morning of the 22d, the following despatch was read to that body: around were filled with wounded. the Washington Artillery, only one member of Of the pursuit, already the particulars are known. Suffice it to say, we followed them on the Leesburg road and on the Centreville road as far as Centreville and Fairfax. The poor wretches dropped their guns, their knapsacks, their blankets, and every thing they had-they fell on their knees and prayed for mercy. They received it—Southerners have no animosity against a defeated enemy. We have captured 900 prisoners, and they will be treated with kindness. We have also captured 67 pieces of cannon, among them numerous fine pieces, Armstrong guns, and rifled cannon, hundreds of wagons, loads of provisions, and ammunition. The credit is accorded them: they fought well and long, but their cause was bad-they were on soil not their own, and they met their about 40,000, and the entire force of the United States near equals, who were fighting in defence of their "MANASSAS JUNCTION, Sunday night. "Night has closed upon a hard-fought field. Our forces were victorious. The enemy was routed, and fled precipitately, abandoning a large amount of arms, ammunitions, knapsacks, and baggage. The ground was strewed for miles with those killed, and the farm-houses and the ground "Pursuit was continued along several routes towards Leesburg and Centreville, until darkness covered the fugitives. We have captured several field-batteries, stands of arms, and Union and State flags. Many prisoners have been taken. Too high praise cannot be bestowed, whether for the skill of the principal officers, or for the gallantry of all our troops. The battle was mainly fought on our left. Our force was 15,000; that of the enemy estimated at 35,000. "JEFFERSON DAVIS." Another despatch says the entire Confederate force was 80,000. No particulars are received of the dead and wounded. -Richmond Enquirer. homes, their liberty, and their honor. -Richmond Dispatch, and Baltimore Sun, August 1. Doc. 3.-WM. H. RUSSELL'S LETTERS ON THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. WASHINGTON, July 19, 1861. tion, which to-morrow's news must outstrip, cease here, and let us examine the composition of the forces actually engaged with the Confederates. The head of the naval and military forces of the United States is the President, in theory and in the practice of appointments; but Lieut.-Gen. Winfield Scott is "Commander-inChief" of the United States Army. His staff consists of Lieut.-Col. E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant-General, Chief of the Staff; Col. H. Van Renssellaer, A. D. C. (Volunteer ;) Lieut. Col. George W. Cullum, United States Engineer, A. D. C.; Lieut.-Col. Edward Wright, United States Cavalry, A. D. C.; Lieut.-Col. The subjoined general order gives the organization of the standard of the several divisions of the army under Brig.-Gen. McDowell, now advancing into Virginia from the lines opposite Washington.* Some changes have been made since this order was published, and the corps has been strengthened by the accession of two regular field-batteries. The effective strength of the infantry, under McDowell, may be taken at 30,000, and there are about sixty field-pieces at his disposal, and a force of about ten squadrons of cavalry.t The division under Gen. Patterson is about 22,000 strong, and has three batteries of artil The army of the North is fairly moving at last, and all the contending voices of lawyers and disputants will speedily be silenced by the noise of the cannon. Let no one suppose that the war will be decided in one or two battles, or conclude from any present successes of the Federalists that they will not meet with stern opposition as they advance. The Confederates uniformly declared to me after their failure to take either Faneuil Hall or the Capitol, they would wait in Virginia and "entice" the Fed-Schuyler Hamilton, Military Secretary. eralists into certain mysterious traps, where they would be "destroyed to a man." There is great reliance placed on "masked batteries" in this war, and the country is favorable to their employment; but nothing can prove more completely the unsteady character of the troops than the reliance which is placed on the effects of such works, and, indeed, there is reason to think that there have been panics on both sides -at Great Bethel as well as at Laurel Hill. The telegraph is faster than the post, and all the lucubrations of to-day may be falsified by the deeds of to-morrow. The Senate and Congress are sitting in the Capitol within the very hearing of the guns, and the sight of the smoke of the conflict which is now raging in Virginia.lery attached to it; and Gen. Mansfield, who Senators and Congressmen are engaged in commands the army of Washington and the disputations and speeches, while soldiers are reserve watching the Capitol, has under him a working out the problem in their own way, corps of 16,000 men almost exclusively volunand it is within the range of possibility that a teers; Gen. McDowell has also left a strong disastrous battle may place the capital in the guard in his intrenchments along the right bank hands of the Confederates; and the news which of the Potomac, guarding the bridges and covhas just come in that the latter have passedering the roads to Alexandria, Fairfax, and Bull Run, a small river which flows into the Falls Church. The division in military occuPotomac, below Alexandria, crossing the rail-pation of Maryland under Gen. Banks, most of road from that place, is a proof that Fairfax Court-House was abandoned for a reason. It is stated that the Confederates have been repulsed by the 69th (Irish) Regiment and the 79th (Scotch) New York Volunteers, and as soon as this letter has been posted I shall proceed to the field (for the campaign has now fairly commenced) and ascertain the facts. If the Confederates force the left of McDowell's army, they will obtain possession of the line to Alexandria, and may endanger Washington itself. The design of Beauregard may have been to effect this very object while he engaged the bulk of the Federalists at Manassas Junction, which you must not confound with Manassas Gap. The reports of guns were heard this morning in the direction of the Junction, and it is probable that McDowell, advancing from Centreville, has met the enemy, prepared to dispute his passage. which is concentrated in and around Baltimore, consists of 7,400 men, with some field-guns. The corps at Fortress Monroe and Hampton, under Gen. Butler, is 11,000 strong, with two field batteries, some guns of position, and the fortress itself in hand. Gen. Lyon, who is operating in Missouri with marked success, has about 6,500 men. Gen. Prentiss at Cairo commands a division of 6,000 men and two fieldbatteries. There are beside these forces many regiments organized and actually in the field. The army under the command of Gen. Beauregard at Manassas Junction is estimated at 60,000, but that must include the reserves, and a portion of the force in the intrenchments along the road to Richmond, in the immediate neighborhood of which there is a corps of 15,000 men. At Norfolk there are 18,000 or 20,000, at Acquia Creek 8,000 to 9,000, and Johnston's corps is estimated at 10,000, swollen by the débris of the defeated column. The railways from the South are open to the Confederates, and they can collect their troops There are some stories in town to the effect that Gen. Tyler has met with a severe check on the right, but the advance of McDowell was very cautious, and he would not let his troops fall into the ambuscades against which they have been especially forewarned. Let specula- Western Virginia. For this order, see page 1, ante. ↑ Here follows an account of McClellan's Division in rapidly, so that it is not at all beyond the reach | pulse of the Federalists, decided as it was, of probability that they can collect 150,000 or 160,000 men in Virginia, if that number is not now actually in the State. In cavalry they have a superiority, but the country is not favorable for their operations till the armies approach Richmond. In field-artillery they are not so well provided as the Federalists. They have, however, a great number of heavy batteries and guns of position at their disposal. Food is plentiful in their camps; the harvest is coming in. In general equipments and ammunition the Federalists have a considerable advantage. In discipline there is not much difference, perhaps, in the bulk of the volunteers on both sides, but the United States forces have the benefit of the example and presence of the regular army, the privates of which have remained faithful to the Government. If we are to judge from what may be seen in Washington, there are mauvais sujets in abundance among the United States troops. might have had no serious effects whatever beyond the mere failure-which politically was of greater consequence than it was in a military sense—but for the disgraceful conduct of the troops. The retreat on their lines at Centreville seems to have ended in a cowardly rout-a miserable, causeless panic. Such scandalous behavior on the part of soldiers I should have considered impossible, as with some experience of camps and armies I have never even in alarms among camp-followers seen the like of it. How far the disorganization of the troops extended, I know not; but it was complete in the instance of more than one regiment. Washington this morning is crowded with soldiers without officers, who have fled from Centreville, and with "three months' men," who are going home from the face of the enemy on the expiration of their term of enlistment. The streets, in spite of the rain, are crowded by people with anxious faces, and groups of wavering politicians are assembled at the corners, in the hotel passages, and the bars. If, in the present state of the troops, the Confederates were to make a march across the Potomac above Washington, turning the works at Arlington, the Capitol might fall into their hands. Delay may place that event out of the range of probability. The various foreign ministers have been so much persecuted by soldiers coming to their houses and asking for help, that sentries were ordered to be put at their doors. Lord Lyons, however, did not acquiesce in the propriety of the step, and in lieu of that means of defence against demands for money, a document called "a safeguard" has been furnished to the domestics at the various legations, in which ap- The North will, no doubt, recover the shock. plicants are informed that they are liable to Hitherto she has only said, “Go and fight for the penalty of death for making such solicita- the Union." The South has exclaimed, “Let tions. Gen. McDowell writes in his despatch us fight for our rights." The North must put from Fairfax Court-House: "I am distressed its best men into the battle, or she will inevito have to report excesses by our troops. The tably fail before the energy, the personal hatred, excitement of the men found vent in burning and the superior fighting powers of her antagand pillaging, which, however soon checked, onist. In my letters, as in my conversation, I distressed us all greatly." What will take have endeavored to show that the task which place at the close of a hardly contested action the Unionists have set themselves is one of no in the front of populous towns and villages? ordinary difficulty; but in the state of arroThe vast majority of the soldiers are very well-gance and supercilious confidence, either real behaved, but it will require severe punishment to deter the evil-disposed from indulging in all the license of war. The energy displayed in furnishing the great army in the field with transport and ambulances is very great, and I have been surprised to see the rapidity with which wagons and excellent field hospitals and sick carts have been constructed and forwarded by the contractors. The corps in Virginia under McDowell may be considered fit to make a campaign in all respects so far as those essentials are concerned, and the Government is rapidly purchasing horses and mules which are not inferior to those used in any army in the world. These few lines must suffice till the despatch of the mail on Wednesday. or affected to conceal a sense of weakness, one might as well have preached to the pyramid of Cheops. Indeed, one may form some notion of the condition of the public mind by observing that journals conducted avowedly by men of disgraceful personal character-the bewhipped, and be-kicked, and unrecognized pariahs of society in New York-are, nevertheless, in the very midst of repulse and defeat, permitted to indulge in ridiculous rhodomontade toward the nations of Europe, and to move our laughter by impotently malignant attacks on our rotten old monarchy," while the stones of their bran-new Republic are tumbling about their ears. It will be amusing to observe the change of tone, for we can afford to observe and to be amused at the same time. July 22.-I sit down to give an account- On Saturday night I resolved to proceed to not of the action yesterday, but of what I saw Gen. McDowell's army, as it was obvious to me with my own eyes, hitherto not often deceived, that the repulse at Bull Run and the orders of and of what I heard with my own ears, which the General directed against the excesses of his in this country are not so much to be trusted. soldiery indicated serious defects in his armyLet me, however, express an opinion as to the not more serious, however, than I had reason affair of yesterday. In the first place, the re-to believe existed. How to get out was the get across until after 5 o'clock in the morning. When McDowell moved away, he took so many of the troops about Arlington that the camps and forts are rather denuded of men. I do not give, as may be observed, the names of regiments, unless in special cases-first, because they possess little interest, I conceive, for those in Europe who read these letters; and secondly, because there is an exceedingly complex system-at least to a foreigner-of nomenclature in the forces, and one may make a mistake between a regiment of volunteers and a regiment of State militia of the same number, or even of regulars in the lower figures. The soldiers lounging about the forts and over the Long Bridge across the Potomac were an exceedingly unkempt, "loafing" set of fellows, who handled their firelocks like pitchforks and spades, and I doubt if some of those who read or tried to read our papers could understand them, as they certainly did not speak English. The Americans possess excellent working materials, however, and I have had occasion re which they construct earthworks. At the Virginia side of the Long Bridge there is now a very strong tête de pont, supported by the regular redoubt on the hill over the road. These works did not appear to be strongly held, but it is possible men were in the tents near at hand, deserted though they seemed, and at all events reinforcements could be speedily poured in if necessary. difficulty. The rumors of great disaster and repulse had spread through the city. The livery stable keepers, with one exception, refused to send out horses to the scene of action-at least the exception told me so. Senators and Congressmen were going to make a day of it, and all the vehicles and horses that could be procured were in requisition for the scene of action. This curiosity was aroused by the story that McDowell had been actually ordered to make an attack on Manassas, and that Gen. Scott had given him till 12 o'clock to be master of Beauregard's lines. If Gen. Scott ordered the attack at all, I venture to say he was merely the mouthpiece of the more violent civilians of the Government, who mistake intensity of feeling for military strength. The consequences of the little skirmish at Bull Run, ending in the repulse of the Federalists, were much exaggerated, and their losses were put down at any figures the fancy of the individual item who was speaking suggested. "I can assure you, sir, that the troops had 1,500 killed and wounded; I know it." I went off to the head-quar-peatedly to remark the rapidity and skill with ters, and there Gen. Scott's Aid informed me that Gen. McDowell's official report gave 6 killed and 37 wounded. The livery keepers stuck to the 1,500 or 2,000. The greater the number hors de combat, the higher the tariff for the hire of quadrupeds. All I could do was to get a kind of cabriolet, with a seat in front for the driver, to which a pole was affixed for two horses, at a Derby-day price, a strong led horse, which Indian experiences have induced The long and weary way was varied by difme always to rely upon in the neighborhood of ferent pickets along the road, and by the examuncertain fighting. I had to enter into an ination of our papers and passes at different agreement with the owner to pay him for points. But the country looked vacant, in horses and buggy if they were "captured or spite of crops of Indian corn, for the houses injured by the enemy," and though I smiled at were shut up, and the few indigenous people his precautions, they proved not quite unrea- whom we met looked most blackly under their .sonable. The master made no provision for brows at the supposed abolitionists. This porindemnity in the case of injury to the driver, or tion of Virginia is well wooded, and undulatthe colored boy who rode the saddle-horse. ing in heavy, regular waves of field and forest; When I spoke with officers at Gen. Scott's but the roads are deeply cut, and filled with head-quarters of the expedition, it struck me loose stones, very disagreeable to ride or drive they were not at all sanguine about the result over. The houses are of wood, with the of the day, and one of them said as much as in- usual negro huts adjoining them, and the speciduced me to think he would advise me to re- mens of the race which I saw were wellmain in the city, if he did not take it for grant- dressed, and not ill-looking. On turning into ed it was part of my duty to go to the scene of one of the roads which leads to Fairfax Courtaction. An English gentleman who accom- House, and to Centreville beyond it, the distant panied me was strongly dissuaded from going sound of cannon reached us. That must have by a colonel of cavalry on the staff, because, he been about 9 a. M. It never ceased all day; at said, "the troops are green, and no one can tell least, whenever the rattle of the gig ceased, the what may happen." But my friend got his pass booming of cannon rolled through the woods from Gen. Scott, who was taking the whole on our ears. One man said it began at 2 affair of Bull Run and the pressure of the mor- o'clock, but the pickets told us it had really row's work with perfect calm, and we started become continuous about 7 or 8 o'clock. In on Sunday morning-not so early as we ought, a few minutes afterward, a body of men apperhaps, which was none of my fault-for Cen-peared on the road, with their backs toward treville, distant about 25 miles south-west of Centreville, and their faces toward Alexandria. Washington. I purposed starting in the beau- Their march was so disorderly that I could not tiful moonlight, so as to arrive at McDowell's have believed they were soldiers in an enemy's camp in the early dawn; but the aides could country-for Virginia hereabout is certainly so not or would not give us the countersign over-but for their arms and uniform. It soon apthe Long Bridge, and without it no one could peared that there was no less than an entire regiment marching away, singly or in small knots of two or three, extending for some three or four miles along the road. A Babel of tongues rose from them, and they were all in good spirits, but with an air about them I could not understand. Dismounting at a stream where a group of thirsty men were drinking and halting in the shade, I asked an officer, "Where are your men going, sir?" "Well, we're going home, sir, I reckon, to Pennsylvania." It was the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment, which was on its march, as I learned from the men. "I suppose there is severe work going on behind you, judging from the firing?" "Well, I reckon, sir, there is." "We're going home," he added after a pause, during which it occurred to him, perhaps, that the movement required explanation-"because the men's time is up. We have had three months of this work." I proceeded on my way, ruminating on the feelings of a General who sees half a brigade walk quietly away on the very morning of an action, and on the frame of mind of the men, who would have shouted till they were hoarse about their beloved Union-possibly have hunted down any poor creature who expressed a belief that it was not the very quintessence of every thing great and good in government, and glorious and omnipotent in arms-coolly turning their backs on it when in its utmost peril, because the letter of their engagement bound them no further. Perhaps the 4th Pennsylvania were right, but let us hear no more of the excellence of three months' service volunteers. And so we left them. The road was devious and difficult. There were few persons on their way, for most of the Senators and Congressmen were on before us. Some few commissariat wagons were overtaken at intervals. Wherever there was a house by the roadside, the negroes were listening to the firing. All at once a terrific object appeared in the wood above the trees-the dome of a church or public building, apparently suffering from the shocks of an earthquake, and heaving to and fro in the most violent manner. In much doubt we approached as well as the horses' minds would let us, and discovered that the strange thing was an inflated balloon attached to a car and wagon, which was on its way to enable Gen. McDowell to reconnoitre the position he was then engaged in attacking -just a day too late. The operators and attendants swore as horribly as the warriors in Flanders, but they could not curse down the trees, and so the balloon seems likely to fall into the hands of the Confederates. About 11 o'clock we began to enter on the disputed territory which had just been abandoned by the Secessionists to the Federalists in front of Fairfax Court-House. It is not too much to say, that the works thrown up across the road were shams and make-believes, and that the Confederates never intended to occupy the position at all, but sought to lure on the Federalists to Manassas, where they were prepared to meet them. Had it been otherwise, the earthworks would have been of a different character, and the troops would have had regular camps and tents, instead of bivouac huts and branches of trees. Of course, the troops of the enemy did not wish to be cut off, and so they had cut down trees to place across the road, and put some field-pieces in their earthworks to command it. On no side could Richmond be so well defended. The Confederates had it much at heart to induce their enemy to come to the strongest place and attack them, and they succeeded in doing so. But, if the troops behaved as ill in other places as they did at Manassas, the Federalists could not have been successful in any attack whatever. In order that the preparations at Manassas may be understood, and that Gen. Beauregard, of whose character I gave some hint at Charleston, may be known at home as regards his fitness for his work, above all as an officer of artillery and of skill in working it in field or in position, let me insert a description of the place and of the man from a Southern paper : "MANASSAS JUNCTION, VIRGINIA, June 7, 1861. "This place still continues the head-quarters of the army of the Potomac. There are many indications of an intended forward movement, the better to invite the enemy to an engagement, but the work of fortification still continues. By nature, the position is one of the strongest that could have been found in the whole State. About half-way between the eastern spur of the Blue Ridge and the Potomac, below Alexandria, it commands the whole country between so perfectly, that there is scarcely a possibility of its being turned. The right wing stretches off toward the head-waters of the Occoquan, through a wooded country, which is easily made impassable by the felling of trees. The left is a rolling table-land, casily commanded from the successive elevations, till you reach a country so rough and so rugged that it is a defence to itself. The key to the whole position, in fact, is precisely that point which Gen. Beauregard chose for his centre, and which he has fortified so strongly, that, in the opinion of military men, 5,000 men could there hold 20,000 at bay. The position, in fact, is fortified in part by nature herself. It is a succession of hills, nearly equidistant from each other, in front of which is a ravine so deep and so thickly wooded that it is passable only at two points, and those through gorges which 50 men can defend against a whole army. It was at one of these points that the Washington artillery (of New Orleans) were at first encamped, and though only half the battalion was then there, and we had only one company of infantry to support us, we slept as soundly under the protection of our guns as if we had been in a fort of the amplest dimensions. Of the fortifications superadded here by Gen. Beauregard to those of nature, it is, of course, not proper for me to speak. The general reader |