"On the twenty-first of July, 1861, was fought the battle of Bull Run, the first of a long series of engagements on these historic plains. The battles of Bristoe, Groveton, Manassas, Centreville, and Chantilly succeeded in 1862, and in the summer and autumn of 1863 followed the cavalry actions at Aldie, Middleburg, Upperville, and New Baltimore.
"No battle-ground on the continent of America can present to the generations yet to come such a gigantic Roll of Honor. Here also was displayed the best military talent, the keenest strategy, and the highest engineering skill of our civil war. Here were assembled the great representative leaders of slavery and freedom. Here Scott, McDowell, Pope, and Meade on the Federal side, and Beauregard, Johnson, and Lee on the Confederate side, have in turn held the reins of battle and shared both victory and defeat.
"The action which resulted in the fall of Fort Sumter developed extraordinary talent in the rebel General P. G. T. Beauregard, and brought him conspicuously before the Confederate government. Called for by the unanimous voice of the Southern people, he was now ordered to take command of the main portion of the Confederate army in northern Virginia. He selected Manassas Junction as his base of operations, and established his outposts near Fairfax Court-House, seventeen miles from Washington.
"General Beauregard's forces, on the line of Bull Run, numbered on the sixteenth of July nearly forty thousand men, and sixty-four pieces of artillery, together with a considerable body of cavalry. The threatening attitude of this force, almost within sight of the National capital, led General Scott to concentrate the Union forces in that quarter with a view to meeting the Confederates in battle, and, if possible, giving a death-blow to the rebellion.
"Ludicrous, indeed, in the light of subsequent events, was the general conviction of the hostile sections, that a single decisive engagement would terminate the war. Little did the Unionists then know of the ambitious designs of the pro-slavery leaders, and still less did the uneducated, misguided masses of the South know of the patriotism, resources, and invincible determination of the North. On both sides there was great popular anxiety for a general battle to determine the question of relative manhood: and especially on the side of the South, from an impression that one distinct and large combat resulting in its favor, and showing conspicuously its superior valor, would alarm the North sufficiently to lead it to abandon the war. The New York Tribune, which was supposed at that time to be a faithful representative of the sentiment and temper of the North, said, on the nineteenth of July, 1861: 'We have been most anxious that this struggle should be submitted at the earliest moment to the ordeal of a fair, decisive battle. Give the Unionists a fair field, equal weapons and equal numbers, and we ask no more. Should the rebel forces at all justify the vaunts of their journalistic trumpeters, we shall candidly admit the fact. If they can beat double the number of Unionists, they can end the struggle on their own terms.
"A field for the grand combat was soon found, but its results were destined to disappoint both the victors and the vanquished. The South had looked forward to this field for an acknowledgment of its independence; the North for a downfall of the rebellion."
The chapter on "Brandy Station" affords several illustrations of our author's glowing descriptive power, thus:
"The words Brandy Station will ever excite a multitude of thrilling memories in the minds of all cavalrymen who saw service in Virginia, for this was the grand cavalry battle-ground of the war.
"On these historic plains our Bayard, Stoneman, and Pleasanton have successively led their gallant troopers against the commands of Stuart, Lee, and Hampton. The twentieth of August, 1862, the ninth of June, twelfth of September, and eleventh of October, 1863, are days which cannot soon be forgotten by the 'Boys in Blue' who crossed sabres with the Confederates at Brandy Station.
"Converging and diverging roads at this point quite naturally brought the cavalry of the contending armies together whenever we advanced to, or retired from, the Rapidan. Being both the advance and rear-guard of the opposing forces, our horsemen always found themselves face to face with the foe on this field; in fact, most of our cavalrymen were so confident of a fight here, that as soon as we discovered that we were approaching the station we prepared for action by tightening our saddle-girths and inspecting our arms.