INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE
In the midst of the battle General Longstreet's big bay horse came galloping out from the bushes along the run, riderless, and wild with the noise and excitement of battle, dashing across the field with head high in air, swaying from right to left, with bridle reins and stirrups flying over his neck and back. We thought sure our General was either killed or badly wounded, but it turned out that General Longstreet had thrown himself off his horse to the ground to escape the fire of some of his own men. The general was unhurt, and was soon again mounted on his horse, though there was dirt on his clothes from the fall to the ground. The smoke of the battle, which was thick and heavy along the run, soon cleared away, the wounded were all carried to the field hospital in the rear, the dead were laid away, and ere the shades of night set in, all was peaceful and quiet along Bull Run, except that now and then the words, "Friends on the other side, pass it down the line," were passed from company to company along the line, our scouts, at intervals, crossing over the run to watch the Yankees, lest, peradventure, they might make another attack. But no other efforts were made to dislodge the Confederates at Blackburn's Ford.
The Yankees were very much surprised at the stubborn resistance they met here. Their newspapers, and other writers since, gave conflicting statements of the affair, some making light of it as a battle, claiming that it was only a reconnoissance in force, a mere skirmish. Others attributed it to the "rash enthusiasm" of Gen. E. B. Tyler, who thought he could easily brush aside the rebels and march on to Manassas. General McDowell, the commander-in-chief, who had established his headquarters at Centreville, contemplated, it was said, turning the Confederates' left flank when all his troops were up and everything ready for the attack. General Tyler had in the fight, Richardson's and Sherman's Brigades of Infantry, and Ayres's Battery. These were met and successfully resisted by Longstreet with his brigade, with eight companies of one of the regiments, the Eleventh, in reserve.
The loss in this engagement was small for the amount of shooting done. The Confederates' loss was about twenty and the Yankees' about one hundred. This engagement on the 18th made General McDowell stop and ponder until the 21st of July, when the battle of Manassas was fought, and won by the Confederates.
About sundown on the 18th the Eleventh Regiment and Early's Brigade relieved the troops who had been engaged, taking position along the run above and below the ford, where they remained on the qui vive all night and the next day, without seeing or hearing of a single Yankee.
The trees and bushes along and in the rear of the line of battle were scarred by big and little shot. The Yankees, being above on the bluff, overshot the Confederates.
Up on the bluff we saw the first dead Yankee—he lay stark and cold in death upon the hillside among the trees in the gloom of the gathering twilight: the pale face turned towards us, upon which we looked with feelings mingled with awe and dread. We had heard and seen many new and strange things that day. Later on in the war, we could look upon the slain on the battlefield with little less feeling than upon the carcass of an animal. Such are some of the hardening effects of war. I don't think we were again as badly scared as on that day; I was not, I am sure.
Longstreet's Brigade remained at and near Blackburn's Ford all through the 19th and 20th of July, waiting for and expecting another attack, discussing the events of the battle, and conjecturing as to what would be the next move in the game of war. I remember talking with Lieut. Jim Hord of Company H along this line, when he remarked, "There will be a big battle Sunday—most all of the big fights come off on Sunday." This prophecy came true. The brigade had received its baptism of fire, the nerves and mettle of the men had been tried, and while it was a nerve-racking ordeal, yet all had stood the test, so far as I remember, except one officer in command of a company in the Eleventh Regiment, whose nerve seemed to fail him. He was taken sick and collapsed; was taken to the rear and never returned to his company.
I think if it had not been for pride and regard for reputation, a good many of us would have been like a negro cook in Company C: George, who belonged to my brother-in-law, Robert Cocke, and had been with the company as one of the cooks, brought down from the camp at Manassas about noon on the 18th some cooked rations, and when the battle commenced, was back in the rear near the hospital. When the Yankee shells began to fall and burst in his vicinity, George broke and ran for dear life back to camp, stopping only long enough to say, "Dem big balls come flying over me saying, 'Whar is you? whar is you?' an' I lit out from dar in a hurry," and away he went up the railroad track four miles to Bristow Station. The boys laughed at George a great many times about his ignominious flight; George, however, never expressed a regret that he took to his heels and made good time out of danger.
The Confederate lines extended along the south side of Bull Run about eight miles, that small and insignificant stream having been chosen by General Beauregard as his line of defense, instead of waiting, as was expected by the inexperienced, for the enemy to come on to Manassas, which position had been fortified and the forts mounted with big guns. Of course, the enemy would have never attacked this place, but flanked it, viz., marched around the place and forced the Confederates to evacuate. On Bull Run the right of the Confederate lines was at Union Mills, with General Ewell in command. Next up the run was McLean's Ford, where General Jones and his brigade were posted. Next came Blackburn's Ford, where, as before said, was posted Longstreet's Brigade; then came General Bonham at Mitchell's Ford with his brigade; next above this was Ball's Ford, with Gen. Phillip St. George Cocke in command of a brigade, and lastly the Stone Bridge, the extreme Confederate left, in charge of General Evans with his brigade. The general direction of Bull Run is from west to east, or rather, from northwest to southeast.
General Holmes with his brigade and Colonel Early with his brigade, and maybe others, were back in reserve, and when Generals Jackson, Bee, and Bartow arrived with their brigades, they were also held in reserve. There were also batteries of artillery along the lines near the several fords, with cavalry on the flanks, and at intervals back from the run.
Along Bull Run, nearly all the way, grew trees and bushes, and much of the ground back of the stream on either side was covered with second-growth pines and scrub-oaks, the ground being rolling, though tolerably level.
McDowell's command was concentrated at and near Centreville, about a mile north of Bull Run, and consisted of thirty-five or forty thousand men. Beauregard had twelve or fifteen thousand men; Gen. Jos. E. Johnston brought to his relief in the very nick of time on the 21st some ten or twelve thousand men.
CHAPTER V
The Battle of First Manassas—General Johnston
to the Rescue—Gen. Kirby Smith
Turns the Tide of Battle—The Rebel
Yell—The News of Victory—The
Enemy Not Pursued—Gathering
the Spoils
On Sunday morning, the 21st of July, quite early, on the left, up the run, the ball opened again, and "partners, to your places," was the order, or in army parlance, "Fall in!" "Attention!" The Yankee General, McDowell, stole a march on General Beauregard that morning.
Beauregard had planned to take the aggressive, by making an attack on McDowell's left near Centreville, and when General Johnston reached Beauregard about noon on the 20th, he approved the plan; accordingly orders were issued that night to begin the battle the next morning at sunrise. The right wing of the Confederate forces was to cross the run and attack the left wing of the Yankee army. McDowell had also been doing some planning himself, and as he got in the first lick, frustrated the Confederate general's scheme.
He, too, proposed to use his right arm in an attack on the Confederate left wing. McDowell put his army in motion before daybreak on the morning of the 21st of July, moving out from Centreville. A small column of infantry, artillery and cavalry, in battle array, marched out on the road leading to the stone bridge, the Confederate left, and at daylight formed line of battle and opened fire at long range, while the main body of the army was making a detour through the woods still higher up the run, and crossing at Sudley's Ford two miles above the stone bridge unopposed, marched down on the Confederate left flank and rear. As soon as General Evans, who was in command at the stone bridge, was apprised of this movement on the left, he changed front with a part of his brigade to meet the attack and sent for reënforcements. Generals Bee and Bartow first came to his relief, and in a short time the battle was raging fiercely. Generals Johnston and Beauregard hearing the firing to the left, and learning the extent and object of this movement of the enemy, at once abandoned their contemplated attack with their right wing, and bent every energy to resist the attack on their left. Beauregard went immediately to the front and displayed great gallantry, personally leading the troops in the charge, while Johnston remained back to direct the forwarding of the troops to reënforce the hard-pressed left.
Before sufficient reënforcements could reach the scene of conflict, the heavy columns of the enemy drove back the small forces confronting them. The position at the stone bridge being flanked by the enemy and abandoned by the Confederates, the Yankee column in front of this position crossed over and joined the flanking column of the enemy. Some desperate fighting was done here, and noble deeds of valor performed by men and officers never before in battle.
Bee and Bartow, two young generals from South Carolina and Alabama, won immortal fame, both giving their lives to the cause on that (to them) fateful day. Reënforcements were hurried forward as fast as possible, but still the Confederate lines were pressed slowly back, contesting every foot of ground, which was covered in many places with second-growth pines.