If there were individual instances of cruelty on either side, and this is possible—let us remember that there was kindness too; and when the day shall come—God grant it may be quickly—when we are one people again, let the cruelty be forgiven and the kindness only remembered.
And now our record of the battle of Bull Run is at an end. It was valiantly contended on both sides, and won only from superior numbers and reinforcements of fresh troops, poured upon the exhausted soldiery of the Union. To gain this contest the South sent her best and very bravest generals. Her forces were led by Beauregard and Johnston, both experienced officers. They were also cheered by the near presence of Jefferson Davis, who came upon the field when the victory was assured, amid the shouts of a soldiery, the more enthusiastic because they had just been rescued from almost certain defeat. They had the choice of position and had fortified it with wonderful skill; a thorough knowledge of the country, and troops unwearied by long marches—indeed, the advantages were altogether on their side. The North, never dreaming that an open rebellion would break out, was utterly dependant on undisciplined troops; while the South, having premeditated resistance to the Government, had been drilling men for months, if not years. There was no one point except in the actual bravery of their leaders and soldiers in which the enemy was not superior to the Union forces. In personal valor the Southerners themselves have never claimed to surpass that exhibited in this battle by their foes.
The smallest estimate of the forces actually engaged on the Southern side is eighteen thousand—while the Union forces which crossed Bull Run did not at any time count more than thirteen thousand. One brigade of McDowell’s eighteen thousand was not in the action, except in a vain effort to check the retreat. This brigade, of General Tyler’s division, was stationed at Stone Bridge, and never advanced upon the actual battle-field. The attack repulsed by Davies on the left wing, at Blackburn’s Ford, took place nearly two hours after the army was in retreat.
In the loss of officers, the enemy was even more unfortunate than the Union army. The fall of General Bee, one of the bravest of their leaders, Bartow, Colonel Thomas, Colonel Hampton, Colonel Johnson, Lamar, and others, shed a gloom upon their victory, and greatly weakened their cause in the future. The Union loss was heavy, for the men who fell or were taken prisoners were among the bravest that marched with the army, but the loss of officers by death was inferior to that of the enemy, and though Corcoran and Wilcox were wounded and taken prisoners, they were not lost to their country. In ordnance and munitions of war the conquest was less important than might have been supposed. Many of the Union guns were rescued from the field during the next day. Of the fine horses attached to the ordnance a large proportion were killed, and others were saved by their drivers, who cut the traces, and rode them from the scene of battle. The loss in killed and wounded on the Union side, was 481 killed, 1,011 wounded, and 1,216 missing: total, 2,708. That of the enemy numbered, by Beauregard’s report, 393 killed, 1,200 wounded.
The victory was a very important one to the South, as it gave prestige and force to a rebellion which, had the position of things been reversed, would, it is probable, have expired before the year went out. But in the North it only served to arouse the people to a pitch of excitement hitherto unparalleled; if troops had been sent forth in regiments before, they came in brigades after that defeat.
WESTERN VIRGINIA.
Virginia has three grand divisions, viz.: the Eastern Section, extending from tide-water up to the Blue Ridge Mountains; the Great Valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies; Western Virginia, stretching from the Great Valley to the Ohio river.
The contest between the people of the eastern and western portions of the State for supremacy had been one of long duration, dating back for many years. Internal improvements appear to have been the cause of this dissension—Western Virginia claiming that the East had enjoyed and been benefitted by them hitherto exclusively. In this jealousy the inhabitants of the Valley sympathized, and the completion of the James River and Kanawha Canal to the Ohio aroused a feeling of such bitter rivalry, that even the Governor favored the project of a division of the State. Added to this was the complaint of unequal taxation. The eastern portion being the large slaveholding district, paid per capita, without regard to value, while the wealth of the western, consisting of land and stock, was taxed ad valorem. This strife, of necessity, was carried from the people into the Legislature, and stormy debates followed. The feeling of the West on the slavery question, also, added fuel to the flame, and the loyalty of that section was attacked.
In the State Convention which passed the ordinance of secession, the western delegates took a firm and bold stand against it. When the Act was about to be consummated, great excitement prevailed in regard to the action of the western members, both inside and out of the Convention, and some of them were obliged to leave Richmond. In May, when the ordinance was submitted to the people, the north-western counties voted largely against it.