GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE AT MANASSAS
TIRED and hungry, the Federal soldiers were driven from the Virginia Valley. The cutting off of supplies had placed them in a precarious condition. There was nothing left for them to do but retreat to the nearest provisions. Even the 4,000 horses in the cavalry were so broken down and footsore that not more than 500 of them were fit for riding. The only considerable depot of supplies was at Manassas Junction and it had fallen into the hands of the Confederates. A strong body of cavalry under "Jeb" Stuart, with 500 infantry, had raided it during the night three days before the battle. These stores were destroyed by the Confederates as a safer way to force back the Federals by starvation. While they brought little succor to the rank and file of the Confederate army they left the Union soldiers without food. One of Brady's cameras reached Manassas Junction shortly after the destruction and this is the negative that was taken. The railroad train is wrecked, the engine is derailed, and the cars have been looted. 50,000 pounds of bacon, 1,000 barrels of corned beef, 2,000 barrels of salt pork, 2,000 barrels of flour, two train loads with stores and clothing, large quantities of forage, 42 wagons and ambulances, 200 tents, 300 prisoners, 200 negroes, eight pieces of artillery with their horses and equipments, and 175 horses other than those belonging to the artillery fell into the possession of the enemy. Immense quantities of quartermasters' and commissaries' stores were burned. Only rations enough for a single day were saved by the captors. The conflict was too hot and the action too swift to allow carrying them along on the movement into the North. With these provisions gone the Union army was in dire want.
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT RUINS OF MANASSAS JUNCTION, VIRGINIA, IN 1862
THE pursuit by the Confederates toward the very gates of Washington, after the route of the Union army along Bull Run, was stopped only by the thoughtfulness of the retreating Federals in destroying their bridges. Lee, in his report after the battle, says: "After a fierce combat, which raged until after nine o'clock, Pope's Union Army was completely defeated and driven beyond Bull Run. The darkness of the night, his destruction of the Stone Bridge after crossing, and the uncertainty of the fords, stopped the pursuit." This photograph is an actual verification of the truth of Lee's excuse. Brady arrived on the following day and this picture shows the ruins as he found them. It would have been foolhardy for an army in the blackness of night to have attempted to tramp through wreckage, the extent of which they knew nothing, and water the depth of which was questionable. Bull Run was a treacherous stream with its rocks and holes. Moreover, the Confederate soldiers, after the fearful struggle through which they had passed, were not in a condition to travel through the night in drenched and mud-soaked clothing. The Union forces at the fierce battle of Manassas were: Army of Virginia, under Pope—1st Corps under Major-General Franz Sigel; Third Corps under Major-General Irvin McDowell; Second Corps under Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks; Army of the Potomac—Third Corps under Major-General S. P. Heintzelman; Fifth Corps under Major-General Fitz John Porter; Ninth Corps under Major-General Jesse L. Reno.