[Footnote: In this attack, Major Theodore Winthrop, who had achieved some literary reputation, was killed; as was, also, Lieutenant Greble, who gave great promise as an officer.]
WESTERN VIRGINIA adhered to the Union, and was ultimately formed into a separate State. The Confederates, however, occupied it in force. The Federals, under General George B. McClellan, afterward commander of the Potomac army, defeated them at Philippi, Rich Mountain, and Carrick's Ford, thus wresting the entire State from their control. Shortly afterward, Governor Wise and General Floyd (President Buchanan's Secretary of War) led a Confederate force into that region; but Floyd was suddenly attacked by General Rosecrans at Carnifex Ferry, and, Wise failing to support him, was compelled to retreat. General Robert E. Lee, McClellan's future antagonist on the Potomac, having been repulsed at Cheat Mountain (September 14), now came to the rescue. Nothing decisive being effected, the Confederate government recalled their forces. The only Union victories of this year were achieved in this region (map opp. p.223).
BATTLE OF BULL RUN (July 21).—The Northern people, seeing so many regiments pushed forward to Washington, were impatient for an advance. The cry, "On to Richmond!" became too strong to be resisted. General Irvin McDowell, in command of the Army of the Potomac, moved to attack the main body of the Confederates, who were strongly posted under Beauregard at Bull Run.
[Footnote: This is near Manassas Junction about twenty-seven miles from Alexandria]
After a sharp conflict the Confederates were driven from the field. They were rallied, however, by General T. J. Jackson and others, on a plateau in the rear. While the Federal troops were struggling to drive them from this new position, at the crisis of the battle, seventeen hundred men, under Kirby Smith, rushing across the fields from Manassas Station, struck the Union flank and poured in a cross fire. The effect was irresistible. McDowell's men fled. As the fugitives converged toward the bridge in the rear, a shell burst among the teamsters' wagons, a caisson was overturned, and the passage choked. The retreat now became a panic-stricken rout. Traces were cut, cannon abandoned, mounted men went plunging through the struggling mass, and soldiers threw away their guns and ran streaming over the country, many never stopping till they were safe across the Long Bridge at Washington.
[Footnote: General Bee, as he rallied his men shouted 'There's Jackson standing like a stone wall' "From that time" says Draper "the name he had received in a baptism of fire displaced that he had received in a baptism of water and he was known as Stonewall Jackson.">[
[Illustration: STONEWALL JACKSON AT BULL RUN]
[Footnote: These troops composed a part of General Johnston's command at Winchester. General Patterson, with twenty thousand men, had been left to watch him, and prevent his joining Beauregard. Johnston was too shrewd for his antagonist, and, slipping out of his hands, reached Bull Run in time to decide the battle.]
The Effect of this defeat was momentous. At first the Northern people were chagrined and disheartened. Then came a renewed determination. They saw the real character of the war, and no longer dreamed that the South could be subdued by a mere display of military force. They were to fight a brave people—Americans—who were to be conquered only by a desperate struggle. Congress voted $500,000,000 and five hundred thousand men. General McClellan, upon whom all eyes were turned, on account of his brilliant campaign in Western Virginia, was appointed to the command of the Army of the Potomac.
[Footnote: Soon after, General Scott, weighed down by age, retired from active service, and General McClellan became General-in-Chief of all the armies of the United States.]