battery already in position, and of their serried | ranks near twenty times his own in number, he advanced to the charge; for a time he was covered by a clump of trees, but passing these he came directly in front of the enemy, within easy distance, and made his charge upon them. The result, of course, could not be questioned. "For one ball of his " there were twenty of the enemy, and there could be no expectation but to be ultimately cut to pieces, but he could sell his forces for their utmost value, and he did. The enemy, in fact, recoiled from the intense severity of his onset, but recovering they began to bear him back. Gen. Bee, with his brigade, then came to his support. That again checked the current for an instant. Col. Bartow then came. That again impeded its resistless progress; but the disparity was still too great. Their forces were driven down to the Warrenton turnpike, then across it, and back to the woods, one hundred yards below. When Hampton's Legion came with this a charge was made, which drove the enemy back to the road. From this they were able to recover, and drove our forces back in turn; again they rallied and drove back the enemy, but extending to the left they forced us back again. Jackson and Cocke had also come to maintain the unequal strife, and in the midst of fearful carnage strove to hold their own against overwhelming numbers. Then it was, whilst the victory wavered in the balance, and hope seemed almost gone, that the gallant Second, with Kemper's battery, and the Eighth, of Bonham's brigade, under a previous and well-timed order of Gen. Beauregard, came, sweeping every thing before them, the foe flying from their deadly fire and fierce charges. On the other flank Smith, too, marched with four regiments, fresh from the railroad, to the vicinity of the enemy, put them to flight and commenced the pursuit. The pike, in the direction of Centreville; the others I spoke, last night, of the movement of Generals Jones and Bonham upon the batteries in front of them, but I did not state the full effect of their exertions. They followed on to within sight of Centreville. The enemy had preceded them, and had encamped. Alarmed at their approach, he struck his camp again, worn as he was, and did not stop until far beyond Fairfax. Whether he stopped this side of Alexandria or Washington, does not appear. In his route, he left equipage and baggage, and four of his guns at Centreville, which he had not the spirit even to attempt to save. The number of guns now taken is reported to be fifty-one, and as a conclusive indication of what is the true import and effect of our action, it may be stated that yesterday the Confederate flag was run up at Fairfax. That night the town was in possession of a detachment of our cavalry, and tonight it will be occupied by a force sufficient to hold it. In further evidence of the demoralization of the enemy, it was stated this morning by a gentleman of official position and character in Alexandria, that he left that town unchallenged last night, that he came to our own pickets unquestioned, and that the rumor was, the volunteers whose term of service had expired, have resolved to leave; that it is determined to prevent them, and that the regular soldiers are now called out to keep them in subjection. This is probable. In a house to-day where some forty of the wounded enemy had crept, and where they have since been lying without food or attendance, I met a lad who said the coming of many of the troops was entirely involuntary; that their term of service having expired, they demanded their discharge, but were told they must fight the battle, and that then they would be paid. If not willing to fight, they must do it anyhow. Each in turn had met the successive enfilading columns of the enemy, until at length he had no other enfilading columns to advance. The pluck of our men began to tell against even overwhelming numbers. Their batteries, which they had advanced to the eminences east of the Warrenton road, and near a mile within the line of battle which we took at first, became the objects of attack. The assault was fearful, but the defence was stern and bloody. From Rickett's battery every horse was killed, and even to-day there lie around the place where it stood the bodies of one hundred of the enemy. It was taken twice, but retaken again; and it was only when the regiments of Cols. Cash and Kershaw had cleared the land to the left that the effort to retake it was abandoned. The guns were turned at once upon the enemy, and helped to drive them from the field. Not far to the right the same tragedy was enacted to I mentioned yesterday that much depended the same result. The line of the enemy cut in on the opportune arrival of Col. Elzey with his two at this point was never formed again. brigade. In reference to the time I was misOne portion retreated by the Warrenton turn-taken; his was a portion of the command of Gen. Smith, whose coming, however, was most opportune; and when Gen. Smith was shot, Col. Elzey took command, and did at least his share to secure the victory. When I entered on the field at 2 o'clock of the day of battle, the scene, as I have mentioned, was gloomy, for the battle was undecided, and the chances seemed against us, but I did not mention all that made it painful. In peaceful life we are not familiar with the scenes of war, and it has happened to me, at least, to have seen but little suffering from the casualties or combats of life. I had not, therefore, the advantage of familiarity, and just at once the scene was one to task the nerve of any man. At the first trench I came to, which was just beyond the range of bullets, lay one hundred, at least, in every stage of suffering and endurance. One had his leg shot off with a cannon ball, another had his arm broken, another had his jaw shot away. Col. Hampton met us with the appearance of having had a ball in his temple, and he said he had been in- | sensible from the effects, but he hoped soon to be upon the field again. A few steps further on I saw a Palmetto boy with his under jaw shot off at the instant. I met Col. Shingler, riding before an ambulance, which, he said, contained the late lamented Gen. Bee. The General lay prostrate, and almost expiring, from the wound in his abdomen, which of necessity must prove mortal. A few steps further still, and there lay the helpless form of my late friend, Col. Johnson. Others there were-aged men, whose gray hairs proclaimed them sixty and more; boys whose young hearts yearned, I know, for softer hands and sweeter faces than were around them there. To this spot all had been impelled by the wounded soldiers' constant want of water. The stream, by the constant crossing, was so muddy, it was scarcely fluid, but they drank it; and, with the night approaching, through which they must either be under the cold sky or bear the jolting of a journey to Manassas, and without attendance or the certainty of medical attendance, they yet were cheerful, or, if not, enduring. No one added to the sufferings of others by exhibitions of his, and during the time I felt at liberty to stay for the order came for all able to bear a gun to enter in the ranks for a final stand-I heard no solitary groan from any one. But of all imaginable scenes of horror, the battle-field to-day excels. Upon the hills from which the enemy was last driven, still lay the dead they had not time to remove. Some had been buried by our own men, but the task was too repulsive, and the most of them were left upon the bare ground without a leaf to shade them, bloated, blackened, and rotting in the sun, for birds and insects to devour. And it was scarcely possible not to commiserate the fate of men who had offered up their lives for a country that would not show to them the cold charity of even a grave to lie in. Nor was it better with the poor starved wretches who had crawled into the storehouse upon the field of battle. Sick, famished, friendless, and without a home or country they could love or honor, it were scarcely better to be alive than dead. I spoke of the fact to Gen. Evans, in whose military department they are at present, and he promised to keep them from starving at least; but in the mean time the country people were coming in with offers of assistance, and one was taking one poor fellow off to his house at Brentsville. Battles make singular developments. My friend, Dr. Shepardson, visiting the prisoners yesterday, found a college-mate among them. One of our soldiers found among them his own brother. Gen. Evans found among them Major Tillinghast, long known in Charleston, who had been his classmate-at the instant of recognition, Major T. was at the point of death, and died soon after; and also in a horse that was taken at Fairfax, the charger upon which he rode in the service of the United States. And Col. Mullins, in a customer that was skulking on the road to Centreville upon the evening of the battle, and whom he made his prisoner, the Hon. Mr. Ely, of New York. There is a feeling of regret for all the gallant men who fell in this engagement, but for none more than for the gallant Bartow. He had gone into this war with such uncalculating zeal and fidelity to the great cause, and bore himself so nobly in the fight, that if there were the wish to, it were hard to withhold our admiration. When his horse was shot, he led the Eighth Georgia regiment, on foot, to storm a battery. This was cut to pieces, and retiring to put himself at the head of the Seventh, be asked of Gen. Beauregard what he would have him do. The General said, "There is the battery." He started for it again. The colorbearer was shot down, when he seized the colors, and bearing them on, he received a shot in his left breast. Nor less lamented is the death of Gen. Bee. He has been regarded as one among the best military appointments, and has won opinion in every act of his military life. He was first in the field to sustain our leading column at every succeeding crisis of the contest. He was present at the passage of the turnpike; at the gallant charge of the Hampton Legion; at the storming of the batteries; and at last fell near the fatal spot where also had fallen the gallant Bartow. Of his aids were Gen. Gist, Col. Shingler, and Major Stevens, who was slightly wounded, shared his pains, and remained to the further fortune of the contest. Nor is less sympathy experienced for the sufferings of Gen. Smith. He came to stem the current of our backward fortunes, and leading his brigade to the very head of the flanking column, fell almost at the first fire, pierced through the breast with a grape shot. Hopes, however, are entertained for his recovery. On his staff were our townsmen, Col. Buist and Capt. Tupper, who were with him when he fell. Of Col. Johnson, the career was short and brilliant. The Legion arrived in the night, and in a few hours after, almost unfit for service, it was thrown into the very thickest of the fight, and Col. Johnson fell, with Col. Hampton, on the spot upon which their columns had been planted. I sent the casualties of Col. Kershaw's regiment by telegraph to-day; but those of | the other regiments, so scattered as they are, and in weather so exceedingly unsuitable to travelling as it has been, I have not yet been able to obtain. President Davis left the army this morning in the cars for Richmond. Though the Chief Magistrate of a great republic at the most salient period of its greatness, were arrogated no special privilege, he took his seat with others in an overcrowded car; and in that, and in every other instance of his intercourse with his fellow-citizens here, he exhibited but the appearance and bearing of a well-bred gentleman, as he unquestionably is. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, CAMP PICKERS, Wednesday, July 24. The great battle at Stone Bridge has been the theme for days, but still is not exhausted. It stirred our hearts so deeply that they cannot take the current of another thought. Nor is it necessary. The military event of this age, and the event upon which hung suspended the private feeling and the public interests of the South, it is scarcely to be thought of that I should offer, or you should ask, the reason why I dwell upon it. In writing yesterday, I endeavored to present that at one time the fortunes of the day were doubtful-hung suspended on a thread-and that by Beauregard's order, the victorious ad vance of the Second and Eighth Carolina regiments, with Kemper's battery from the centre at 2 o'clock, after several fierce struggles determined fortune in our favor. At 3 o'clock, too, Gen. Smith, leaving the railroad cars, formed his four regiments and marched against the enemy on the extreme left wing, driving them before him. I hesitate to dwell, however, upon certain incidents which, however apparently established, were yet contested, or seemed to be so, and I was unwilling to commit myself to statements until I had made every reasonable effort to obtain the truth. The first of these was the taking of a battery by Hampton's Legion. Your readers will now have had some faint conception of the battle-ground. It occurred, they will remember, on the turnpike road from Centreville to Warrenton, just after it crosses Bull Run, on the Stone Bridge. The road at this point pursues its path between two ridges or ascending slopes, the summits of which are near a mile apart. The woodland for near a mile has been all cleared away, and it was upon this splendid theatre, and all in full view, were made those constant movements to outflank each other, upon which fate depended. The enemy having made the detour by Sudley's Ford to get upon our flank, of which I spoke first, broke the cover of the trees which crowned the eminence on which we rested, by planting a battery of rifled cannon. Gen. Evans met it the best he could by planting his two guns, the one to the right and the other to the left of his position, and advanced under such cover as they gave to meet the enemy. He could not permanently check them, however; they drove him back across the road, and with him his pieces of artillery. One was disabled; but the others, under Lieut. Davidson, of Latham's battery, took position in the road, and with almost unexampled intrepidity continued to play upon the enemy advancing up the road, into which they had entered lower down, until they were already rising the eminence upon which he stood. Before that, however, Capt. Imboden, with his battery, from Staunton, had been placed within about one hundred yards of the road, and had opened a most galling fire. Gens. Bee and Bartow, and Hampton's Legion, rallied to sustain him. The fight was bloody, but nearer to the road, in position to rake their entire line, the enemy had planted another battery. Fresh columns were thrown from the eminence beyond, across the field upon the road. Our gallant men were forced back by the pressure of these overwhelming numbers. They crossed the road and planted two batteries, the one Rickett's and the other a section of Sherman's, it is supposed, upon our side, but about two hundred yards off from Imboden's, to rake the hill with grape and canister. From these, even, Imboden's was compelled to fall back, which he did, and carried off his guns, when it seemed impossible that any human power could save him. To take these batteries, so established upon our side, or to quit the field, was then the only option left us. Of these the one, Rickett's, of four guns, was beyond a little house owned and occupied by a man named Henry, and the other to the right of it and lower down the hill. Against the first of these it was that Bee and Bartow fought and fell, and at length, at fearful sacrifice of life, the men and horses were shot down and the guns were silenced, but the other still kept on. No single movement could be made below the brow of the hill against the turning colunns of the enemy until this was taken, and against that the legion, as a forlorn hope, was led. In their first charge they had advanced to Henry's house, and were passing through the garden, when Col. Hampton was shot down. Without his further orders they were confused. Thus, Lieut.-Col. Johnson had fallen, and Capt. Conner, of the Washington Light Infantry, senior captain, led them back to form them; retiring under cover of the hill, they found the Seventeenth Virginia regiment, Col. Withers, and through Adjutant Barker, proposed that he should join them, which he did. They formed their line of battle; Capt. Conner led the legion. They tore down upon the enemy through a storm of balls. They reserved their fire until within a certain distance of the enemy. With a single volley they swept the | which, seeing themselves under the guns of guns of men and horses. The infantry sustain- an enemy, they promptly did. It improves our ing them gave way before the charge of bay- feelings towards them to fight them, so it is onets, and raising their colors over one, and said, at least, and so it seemed to be in this not knowing in exactly what form to assert a case. At the crisis of the fight, when it was priority of claim to the other, Capt. Gary got doubtful if we would not be whipped, and astride of it, and thus, for the first time, the when men, sinking from their wounds, were line of battle of the enemy was broken. The coming from a fight in which their friends and fighting was not ended. It raged with unabat- relations had been cut to pieces, some three or ed fury on either side, and great destruction four prisoners brought in were rather in the of life. The guard that undertook to defend way of being roughly treated. The proposiRickett's battery were at last driven off by tion was made and responded to, to shoot them. the regiments of Kershaw and Cash; and thus I passed them on the way when the fight was in the hands of these Carolinians the possession going on, and greatly feared that something of this battery permanently rested; and then, might be done to shame us, but a few words turned upon the flying enemy, it contributed, in brought the sufferers to their senses, and the no slight degree, to swell the current of mor- prisoners were spared. In every other intality that flowed upon them. stance, however, after the act of battle was over, the feeling was kinder than it could have been before the fight began. I saw the soldiers share their water with them, which they could hardly spare themselves. Many of them were taken and cared for by the very men who shot when the fight was over, passed two wounded men, the one from Georgia, the other from New York. The New York man asked for water, and the wounded Georgian begged my friend for God's sake to give it to him; for that he himself had called upon a soldier from New York for water when his column was in retreat, and, though it was at the risk of his life, he ran to the trench and brought it. At the crisis of this contest, it happened also to Gen. Bee to have contributed, in a special way, to the result, which it were but just to his memory to mention. He it was who had the office of assigning positions to the batteries which were first in position after those sustain-them, and a friend, passing through the field ing Gen. Evans, and upon a field so swept by musketry and ordnance he had little leisure for selection. Dashing over the field with Imboden, he gave him in an instant a position, which was the very best that could have been selected. The slight elevation just before and on either side of him gave many of the advantages of an embrasure, while his position commanded the entire field of operations of the enemy. When forced to retire, the same advantages facilitated his escape. The next position on the eminence, to the rear, upon which other batteries had been placed, and to which Imboden was also ordered, was equally as fortunate. Without these positions it might have been impossible to have kept the enemy in check while our shattered regiments were reforming and the conquering reinforcements arrived; without these advantages it would have been impossible to hold them. The least mistake might have been fatal; and the promptness of his ac- When the fire so raged around the house of tion, under such particularly trying circum- Henry in the effort to take the batteries, the stances, was more like the inspiration of genius family were in it; they were utterly unconthan the ordinary exercise of skill and judg-scious it was to be the theatre of battle, and ment. I spoke of the efficiency of Capt. Kemper's action on the flying enemy, but I did not mention that the captain was himself taken prisoner. Early in the day, when the fight was fiercest, and matters were so mixed that it was difficult to distinguish enemies from friends, Capt. Kemper was surrounded by about twenty Zouaves, and his sword was demanded. He asked for an officer, declaring that he would only surrender to an officer. They told him to follow, and they would take him to one; he saw a column moving near them, whom he recognized as friends; pointing to these he said, "There is one of your regiments, take me to it." They started, and approaching a few steps nearer, he told them they were mistaken, and it was for them to surrender, It was in search of water that Adjutant S. M. Wilkes, of the Fourth regiment, lost his life. He had escaped the perils of the fight, and rode to the camp for a drink of water; when starting back, he met a party of the flying enemy, who shot him. Col. Johnson fell the instant he entered into battle. They marched down to take position in the Warrenton turnpike, and before the legion had fired a gun, he was struck by a ball in the forehead, and fell without a word. made no effort to escape until it was too late to do so. Among them was an aged mother, whom the son and daughter carried to a gully, and for the first charge kept her out of the way of balls; but when the fight pressed on, they brought her in again; and when it returned they could not move her again. She lay in bed, therefore, until the batteries were taken. The house was literally riddled with balls, and when the old lady was looked for, she had been sent to her long account. Many balls passed through her, and she was perfectly at rest. Of individual experience, there were scarcely room to speak. One lad, Oakley, from Alabama, taken prisoner, was tied; but, when the enemy was fighting, he cut the cords, found a musket, plunged it in a Zouave endeavoring to detain him, and started to his friends on the all the movements. To have risked a battle by attacking superior numbers, entailing defeat upon us, would doubtless have crushed our proud republic in its inception. When General Johnston (who has always been in correspond way. On an officer's prospecting, he went up towards him, and when near enough, he or dered him to surrender; the officer did so, and young Oakley bore him in triumph in to headquarters. He proved to be Col. Corcoran. One of the most obvious features of the battle-ence with General Beauregard in regard to field is a group of horses, and the men beside them. The caisson had exploded. Men and horses were all killed, apparently near the close of the engagement, and now lie all together bloated in the sun. The mortality among horses was large; as many as one hundred, at least, may be seen upon the field, and it is of regret for their loss that they were particularly fine ones. the junction of the armies, and who, for weeks, has also pointed out to the President the absolute necessity of such a movement) received orders to form the junction, it came at a fortunate moment, when Patterson had moved to Charleston, twenty-four miles distant, and had placed it out of his power to attack us in the rear. Only ten thousand of our column arrived in time for the battle, but they were enough. In the percussion shells, with which the enemy so liberally bespattered the country, the To return, however, to the battle. Our line enemy have left their sting behind them. Few was extended over a distance of eight miles, in explode in falling. Of twenty fired into the a position nearly assimilating to a semicircle. hill on which we first stood, not one exploded, On Saturday night General Johnston assumed but they do explode easily when struck upon command, and nearly the entire night was conthe right point; and these handled by the sol-sumed by the staff of both generals in writing diers, and dropped carelessly, are liable to do great injury. Two in this way have been exploded, and one killed one man in Col. Preston's regiment, and badly wounded two others. L. W. S. -Charleston Mercury, July 29. LETTER TO THE RICHMOND DISPATCH. orders to the different brigades to prepare for a forward movement in the morning. General Beauregard's plans were to be carried out in a great measure, and the rout of the enemy would have been more signal, and doubtless Washington would now be in our possession, if our attack had not been converted into a defence by the movements of the enemy. We intended to move about eight o'clock, and they commenced their attack before our movement could be made. From a letter written by one of the enemy, dated July 20, nine P. M., and afterwards found by the writer, their position was taken, and movements commenced at that hour. The following statement was prepared by an officer in the rebel army, who is said to have borne a conspicuous part on the field of battle RICHMOND, July 27, 1861. It may not be unacceptable to your readers to learn something of the battle of Manassas from an eye-witness, who had better opportu- To understand the battle, you must know nities of observation, perhaps, than any one that our line was faced towards Bull Run, and else. The first gun fired by the enemy was at immediately back of it, defending the various five minutes past six o'clock in the morning, fords. By turning our flank, the line of battle batteries opening against our centre as a feint was changed to a direction perpendicular to to conceal the movement against our left. A the one which we had assumed, and commencshort time afterwards General Johnston and ing at our left extended back for a mile and a General Beauregard, with their staff, rode off quarter. When the musketry betrayed the to the nearest point of elevation and observa- "cat in the meal-tub," away went the generals tion convenient to the centre, and there awaited and their staff, flying upon the wings of the developments whilst the iron hail whistled wind to reach the scene of action, distant three around and over them. A singular misconcep- miles. The country was a rolling one, thickly tion seems to pervade the public mind, which interspersed with pine thickets, and the battlehas not yet been corrected, that General Beaure-ground was an open valley, with a hill upon each gard fought the battle, and that General John- | side, rising some 100 feet above the low ground, ston yielded to preconceived plans. Whilst, and distant from each other about 600 yards. according to General Beauregard, all the merit The struggle was an alternate movement of to which he is entitled-and there does not live regiments. When the head of McDowell's a more gallant gentleman and officer, nor one column reached Sudley's Spring, a ford much for whom I have a higher admiration as a Gen- higher than it was anticipated they would eral-it is due to General Johnston to say, that cross, as the Stone Bridge was the point we he planned the battle. Essentially a man of were defending upon our extreme left, quietly judgment, General Johnston has never risked they sneaked along, getting in behind us, until during the campaign any battle where our discovered, I believe, by General Evans's brichances were not good. Though our men mur- gade, who opened fire upon them. mured vastly when ordered to go backward from Harper's Ferry, from Bunker's Hill, from Darksville, and from Winchester, no one can now dare to dispute the sagacity which planned Then in quick succession the enemy's regiments deployed in line to their right, whilst ours came up on our left. The engagement grew hot and heavy; their column numbering |