Soon the firing in our front ceased. Our ammunition was all expended, we having been under fire for nearly four hours, and had driven the enemy from that portion of the field. This position, from which we had forced the enemy to retire, and which we then held, is known as Buck's Hill, and was regarded as a position of much importance for our forces.
The Third Division had now arrived, and were coming up to our support, and a battalion each of Regular infantry and United States Marines now came up and occupied our position, while our brigade was marched back into the woods for a brief rest and for a fresh supply of ammunition. Having stacked our muskets, the roll was called by the 1st sergeant, and men detailed to look after the dead and wounded. George C. Almy, Christopher Barker and myself were detailed to go for water. Taking as many of the men's canteens as we could carry, we wended our way toward a small, one-story gambrel roof farm house, which was being used by our surgeons as a field hospital, near which was a well of water. The grounds about the house were covered with wounded and dying men, and it was almost like fighting, to get a supply of water from that well. We however succeeded in filling a portion of our canteens and returned with them to the company. Almost immediately after our arrival back to where the company were resting, the order was given to "fall in." Heavy firing was now again heard on our right, and our officers informed us that the regiment was to change position. Soon troops began to march past us in great confusion; our regiment marched out upon the road and halted. A body of troops passed us headed for the rear, among them two companies of Regular cavalry, whose principal participation in the day's engagement had been the performance of semi-aide-de-camp duty.
We were by this time satisfied in our minds that our army was retreating. At this juncture our brigade started back on the road along the edge of the woods, and soon reached the Warrenton road leading to the Stone Bridge. Our regiment preserved good order until they had nearly reached the bridge; the enemy had a battery in position to rake the road over which the retreat was being conducted, and on arriving in proximity to the bridge, we found it to be completely blocked with teams; a large army wagon had, in crossing, been struck by a shell and the horses killed. The battery of the 2d Rhode Island Regiment were there, and four of their six guns; after getting one of these over, they dismounted and spiked the remaining three, the men and horses fording the stream. In our regiment it was impossible to preserve order, and ours, like that of the others, became a go-as-you-please march in fording the stream; Governor Sprague strove to halt the regiment and make a stand to beat back the enemy, whereupon Colonel Burnside very promptly informed the Governor, in unmistakable and incontrovertible language, that himself was in command of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. After crossing, the road branched off to the left, beyond the range of the enemy's fire, and our regiment re-formed and waited until most of the demoralized troops had passed, after which we marched in good order back to our bush camp at Centreville that we had left in the morning, reaching there at 9 P. M., tired, hungry, thirsty and dusty, and many of the regiment wounded. To add to our general discomfort, a drizzling rain had set in, and we were without blankets, having, as before stated, left them on the field, with our haversacks, before going into action. We, however, lay down in our bush huts, expecting to remain until morning; but about midnight we were aroused and ordered to start on the road to Washington. The drizzle had not abated and the night was dark; we had been in a state of continued and unusual activity since 2 o'clock the previous morning, and in addition had been all day without food. Footsore and weary we started on our march of twenty-six miles to Washington, and soon after daylight, Monday, July 22d, reached Long Bridge, where we made a halt and rations were served to us, and at 8 A. M. we crossed over to Washington, and marched across the city to our old home at Camp Sprague. The roll was called, a ration of whiskey was given us, and all turned in for a much needed and well earned rest.
OPINIONS ON THE BATTLE.
Many opinions have been given as to the causes that led to the defeat of the Union army at Bull Run. General Sherman, who commanded a brigade in the battle, said it was the best planned and worst fought battle of the war. It has been said by some writers that the plans of the commanding general were not carried out, and that each of the three division commanders whose forces were actually engaged acted on their own responsibility and were governed by circumstances. It is a fact well known to-day, that the Union army, at or in the vicinity of the battle field, were in numbers quite sufficient to have at least held any and every position that a portion of the army had gained. On a map now in possession of Charles E. Lawton Post, G. A. R. of this city, of Bull Run battlefield, drawn under the direction of Generals McDowell and Beauregard, by order of the War Department, the position of every regiment and brigade of both armies at the commencement of the engagement is defined, and in a note appended to the map it is stated that the engagement was commenced by the Burnside brigade, and it is a historical fact recognized at this time, that the battle was fought and won by the Second Division, commanded by Burnside, General Hunter having been wounded before the troops had been brought into position, supported by no other troops, until noon, when a brigade of the Third Division, which had followed us through the forest road, came to our assistance. From 9.30 A. M. to 1 P. M., these seventeen regiments of infantry and four light batteries, unaided by any other troops, fought and drove the enemy from their position on Buck's Hill; and when the two brigades of Tyler's First Division, commanded by Generals Sherman and Schenck, crossed Bull Run river, over Stone Bridge, at 1.30 P. M., there was not a rebel force of any description on the north side of Warrenton road, west of Stone Bridge. At this time victory was assured for the Union army. At the Stone Bridge was Tyler's entire division, comprising fifteen regiments of infantry and three batteries, the Fourth Division, General Runyon, with seven regiments, Fifth Division, General Miles, eight regiments, and one battery. Of these thirteen thousand men, only two brigades of the First Division crossed the river in the afternoon, and they were engaged only about one hour, namely, in the vicinity of the Henry House, when they were repulsed by the enemy, whose forces were now all concentrated at that point. Rickett's Regular battery (formerly Magruder's stationed at Fort Adams previous to the war) was lost, recaptured, and lost again. These two brigades of the First Division retreated, panic stricken, and our reserve of twelve thousand men, at Stone Bridge, retreated without firing a shot, while our Division, the 2d, was holding the position we had gained in the morning. This was the supreme moment, when a Sheridan or a Warren would have swept the opposing forces from the field, or captured their entire army. Colonel Burnside, seeing the aspect matters had assumed, formed his troops into line and fell back to the Warrenton road, fearing he might be cut off at Stone Bridge. Hunter's Division covered the retreat and were the last troops that crossed the bridge, and was the only Division of the army that occupied its former quarters, as these did, at Centreville that night.
DAY AFTER THE BATTLE.
The day after the battle was a busy one in camp; men were straggling in all day, some of them that we had left among the wounded at the field hospital on our departure the evening previous, who had managed to hobble along on the road, and after a while reached camp. Some of these, owing to the darkness of the night, had taken the wrong road from Fairfax and brought up at Alexandria, whence they set out anew, reaching Long Bridge and the camp some hours later. Among these latter was John Fludder, who did not arrive until Monday afternoon, when he surprised us by bringing with him the regimental flag, which we had supposed to have been lost when the regiment "straggled" at Stone Bridge, as no one could give any information in regard to it. Fludder found it where it had been dropped in the confusion of retreat, and in order to save it tore it from the staff and secreting it about his person, thus brought it in. Samuel Hilton, who had been left on the field for dead, also came straggling in; he had been hit in the temple by a partially spent fragment of a shell and laid out senseless and inanimate, and was afterwards revived by the drizzling rain, as were also quite a number belonging to other regiments.
Company F had its full share of losses in killed and wounded. The first man of the company wounded was John B. Landers, shot through the wrist; then followed John Rogers, shot in the leg, Charles Becherer, color sergeant, wounded in the shoulder, Albert N. Burdick, color corporal, wounded in the arm, John P. Peckham, shot in the head and killed, Andrew P. Bashford, shot in the breast and taken prisoner, Theodore W. King, shot through the groin, mortally wounded, taken prisoner, and afterwards died in Philadelphia, when on his way home, Thomas J. Harrington, shot in the head and killed, Allen Caswell, shot in the stomach, Henry T. Easton, wounded in the arm, Samuel Hilton, wounded as above stated, Bartlett L. Simmons, taken prisoner, Robert Crane, never accounted for, but supposed to have been killed during the retreat.
July 24th, Doctor David King and Alderman James C. Powell, of Newport, arrived in camp. Doctor King obtained a pass through the lines for the purpose of attending his son, wounded as above stated, and who was a prisoner in Richmond. Alderman Powell was deputed by the city government of Newport to look after the sick and wounded of Company F on their way home.