When the Federals under General Patterson again crossed the river, General Jackson with his brigade was sent forward to support the cavalry under Stuart and to destroy the railway engines and cars at Martinsburg. Jackson then remained with his brigade near Martinsburg, while his front was protected by Colonel Stuart with a regiment of cavalry.
On July 1, General Patterson advanced toward General Jackson, who went forward to meet him, with only the Fifth Regiment, several companies of cavalry, and one piece of artillery. The Confederate general posted his men behind a farm house and barn, and held back Patterson so well that he threw forward an entire division to overpower the small force of Jackson. The latter then fell back slowly to the main body of his troops, with the trifling loss of two men wounded and nine missing.
While supporting Jackson in this first battle in the Shenandoah valley, known as the battle of Haines’ Farm or Falling Waters, Colonel Stuart had a remarkable adventure. Riding alone in advance of his men, he came suddenly out of a piece of woods at a point where he could see a force of Federal infantry on the other side of the fence. Without a moment’s hesitation, he rode boldly forward and ordered the Federal soldiers to pull down the bars.
They obeyed and he immediately rode through to the other side, and in peremptory tones said, “Throw down your arms or you are dead men.”
The raw troops were so overcome by Stuart’s boldness and commanding tones that they obeyed at once and then marched as he directed through the gap in the fence. Before they recovered from their astonishment, Stuart had them surrounded by his own force which had come up in the meantime, thus capturing over forty men—almost an entire company.
After some marching backward and forward, General Johnston retired to Winchester; while General Patterson moved farther south to Smithfield as if he intended to attack in that direction. Stuart with his small force was now compelled to watch a front of over fifty miles, in order to report promptly the movements of the Federals, yet he did this so efficiently that later on when General Johnston was ordered west, he wrote to Stuart:
“How can I eat, sleep, or rest in peace, without you upon the outpost?”
General Johnston now received a call for help from General Beauregard who commanded a Confederate army of twenty thousand men at Manassas Junction. Beauregard was confronted by a Federal army of thirty-five thousand men, including nearly all of the United States regulars east of the Rocky Mountains. This army, commanded by General McDowell, was equipped with improved firearms and had fine uniforms, good tents, and everything that money could buy to make good soldiers. The North was very proud of this fine army and fully expected it to crush Beauregard and to sweep on to Richmond.
Beauregard was indeed in danger. He had a smaller army and his infantry was armed, for the most part, with old-fashioned smooth-bore muskets, and his cavalry with sabers and shotguns. One company of cavalry was armed only with the pikes of John Brown, which had been stored at Harper’s Ferry. Beauregard stationed his forces in line of battle along the banks of Bull Run from the Stone Bridge to Union Mills, a distance of eight miles. On July 18, the Federals tried to force Blackburn’s Ford on Bull Run, but were repulsed with heavy loss. Beauregard, knowing that the attack would be renewed the next day, sent a message to Johnston at Winchester, sixty miles away.
“If you are going to help me, now is the time,” was Beauregard’s message.