The battle raged furiously until 3 o'clock. The chief object was to get possession of Henry's Hill. Beauregard, like McDowell on the other side, led his men in the thickest of the battle. His horse was killed by a bursting shell, but he mounted another and continued. At about 2 o'clock the Confederates were driven from the field and McDowell thought he had won the victory, but General Kirby Smith had arrived from Manassas with the remainder of the Confederate army and was now on the field, after a double-quick march for four miles under a hot July sun. Beauregard determined to make another effort and ordered his troops forward with fresh courage. When the Union army saw the Confederates again approaching, supported by fresh troops, their courage failed and they began to retreat. McDowell tried in vain to rally his men, the Confederates pressed on, the retreat of the Federals became a panic. He again tried to rally his men and make a stand at Centreville but to no avail, the troops refused to listen to his commands. Some of the troops did not stop until they reached Washington, and the first great battle of the Civil war was now over.
The Federal force engaged was about 19,000 men, of which the loss in killed, wounded and missing was about 3,000.
The Confederates had about 18,000 men on the field, and their total loss in killed, wounded and missing was about 2,000. McDowell and Beauregard, the opposing commanders, were old-time friends, having been in the same class at West Point.
It was in this battle that Captain Ricketts was severely wounded and left on the field, and was carried a prisoner to Richmond by the Confederates.
To commemorate the success of the Southern arms at Bull Run the Confederate congress voted a day of Thanksgiving.
[THE BATTLE OF SHILOH]
Many battles had been fought in America, but they were all skirmishes compared with Shiloh. Napoleon fought but few battles on the Continent of Europe that were more destructive of human life.
In the beginning of April, 1862, General Albert Sidney Johnston was in command of 40,000 Confederate soldiers at Corinth, Miss., about twenty miles from Pittsburgh Landing, on the Tennessee River; the next in command was General Beauregard, who had fought at Bull Run, and had come to reënforce Johnston; General Bragg, of Buena Vista fame, was there, to whom, at Buena Vista, General Taylor had given the famous command, "A little more grape, Captain Bragg." General Leonidas Polk was with Johnston also. He was called the "Fighting Bishop," for he had been a bishop in the church after leaving West Point.