“‘The regulars,’ answered somebody.
“‘Second Division, Fifth Corps,’ replied another.
“‘God bless them! they saved the army,’ added the officer.
“Subsequently we learned that he was General Irvin McDowell.
“As we neared the bridge we came upon confusion. Men singly and in detachments were mingled with sutlers’ wagons, artillery caissons, supply wagons, and ambulances, each striving to get ahead of the other. Vehicles rushed through organized bodies and broke the columns into fragments. Little detachments gathered by the road-side after crossing the bridge, crying out to members of their regiments as a guide to scattered comrades. And what a night it was! Dark, gloomy, and beclouded by the volumes of smoke which had risen from the battle-field.”[52]
At six o’clock, General Pope received report of the Sixth Corps, that had marched from Alexandria under General Franklin to the vicinity of Centreville, and ordered the several commands to concentrate about that hamlet during the night. The Second Corps from the Army of the Potomac under General Sumner also joined him at Centreville.
But for the dropping off of two of Wilcox’s brigades from close connection with the right wing, and the deflection of Drayton’s brigade, which was taken off by some unauthorized and unknown person from my right to the support of cavalry, it is possible that my working column could have gained the plateau of the Henry House before it was dark. Or if Jackson had been fresh enough to pull up even with us, he could have retained the commands under Reno and Sykes’s regulars in his front, which could have given us safe sweep to the plateau, an hour before sundown, and in sight of great possibilities.
By morning of the 31st everything off the turnpike was nasty and soggy. Stuart’s cavalry, followed by Pryor’s brigade, were ordered across the Run at Stone Bridge as a diversion, while we were trying another move to reach the enemy’s rear. The Confederates had worked all of the winter before, fortifying this new position, just taken by Pope at Centreville. Direct pursuit by the turnpike against these fortifications would therefore be fruitless.
General Jackson was called to head-quarters early in the morning. Upon receiving General Lee’s orders to cross Bull Run at Sudley’s and march by Little River turnpike to intercept the enemy’s march, he said, “Good!” and away he went, without another word, or even a smile.
Though the suggestion of a smile always hung about his features, it was commonly said that it never fully developed, with a single exception, during his military career, though some claim there were other occasions on which it ripened, and those very near him say that he always smiled at the mention of the names of the Federal leaders whom he was accustomed to encounter over in the Valley behind the Blue Ridge. Standing, he was a graceful figure, five feet ten inches in height, with brown wavy hair, full beard, and regular features. At first glance his gentle expression repelled the idea of his severe piety, the full beard concealing the lower features, which had they been revealed would have marked the character of the man who claimed “his first duty to God, and his next to Jackson and General Lee.” Mounted, his figure was not so imposing as that of the bold dragoon, Charley May, on Black Tom. He had a habit of raising his right hand, riding or sitting, which some of his followers were wont to construe into invocation for Divine aid, but they do not claim to know whether the prayers were for the slain, or for the success of other fields. The fact is, he received a shot in that hand at the First Bull Run, which left the hand under partial paralysis and the circulation through it imperfect. To relieve the pressure and assist the circulation he sometimes raised his arm.