Before the battle was fought, General Scott telegraphed to General Patterson : WASHINGTON, July 18th, 1861. MAJOR-GENERAL PATTERSON, &c.: I have certainly been expecting you to beat the enemy. If not, to hear that you had felt him strongly, or at least had occupied him by threats and demonstrations. You have been at least his equal, and I suppose superior, in number. Has he not stolen a march and sent reenforcements toward Manassas Junction? A week is enough to win a victory. • WINFIELD SCOTT. Patterson had turned off from Bunker Hill, where he was threatening Johnston, to Charlestown, on the 17th of July. Upon receipt of the above telegram, he replied as follows: I CHARLESTOWN, July 18th, 1861. COLONEL E. D. TOWNSEND, A. A. G., &c.: Telegram of today received. The enemy has stolen no march upon me. have kept him actively employed, and by threats and reconnoissances in force caused him to be reenforced. I have accomplished more in this respect than the General-in-Chief asked, or could well be expected, in face of an enemy far superior in numbers, with no line of communication to protect. R. PATTERSON. General Scott says, in relation to this matter: "General Patterson was never ordered by me, as he seems to allege, to attack the enemy without a probability of success; but on several occasions he wrote as if he were assured of victory. For example, June 12th, he says he is resolved to conquer, and will risk nothing; and July 4th, expecting supplies the next day, he adds: As soon as they arrive I shall advance to Winchester to drive the enemy from that place.' Accordingly, he issued orders for the movement on the 8th, next called a council of war, and stood fast at Martinsburg. "But although General Patterson was never specifically ordered to attack the enemy, he was certainly told and expected, even with inferior numbers, to hold the rebel army in his front on the alert, and to prevent it from reenforcing Manassas Junction, by threatening manœuvres and demonstrations; results often obtained in war with half numbers. "After a time General Patterson moved from Bunker Hill, and then fell off upon Charlestown, whence he seems to have made no other demonstration that did not look like a retreat out of Virginia. From that moment Johnston was at liberty to join Beauregard with any part of the army of Winchester." was that Johnston had received large reenforcements and greatly outnumbered him both in men and guns. General Patterson testifies : "The immense superiority of the enemy at Winchester in men and guns, as well as in position, was well known. The information was obtained from Union men who had been there, from prisoners, from deserters, and from various sources, all agreeing on an average of forty thousand men, and over sixty guns." Colonel Price says: "He (General Patterson) got positive information at Bunker Hill that Johnston had forty-two thousand men at Winchester, and, I think, sixty-three pieces of artillery." Colonel Biddle says: "Everybody represented the force of General Johnston at from thirty to forty thousand men." That is the testimony of Patterson and his staff The facts were that Johnston had received no reenforcements except of undisciplined, unorganized militia from the surrounding country, and held an effective force less than that of Patterson. Nathaniel F. Palmer (prisoner at Winchester) says: "We concluded that by the 18th (July) there were but very little over thirteen thousand men there." Dr. Ira Tripp (prisoner at Winchester) says that there were about twelve thousand men of the enemy at Winchester on the 18th of July. Alfred Spates, President of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, says: "The general impression in that vicinity was that Johnston's army was between eight and ten thousand men. I never heard any man put it higher than ten thousand men," A. R. Stoke, General Superintendent of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, says: "I know that it was the impression throughout the community, and in the army, that there were not more than ten thousand men under Johnston; and there is this additional fact ascertained since, from perfectly trustworthy gentlemen, that there never was at any time in Winchester as many as fourteen thousand men, and of those there were perhaps four or five thousand militia, badly armed and equipped." Colonel David B. Birney (Twenty-third Pennsylvania volunteers) says: "I thought, from information that I got from the people there in the country, that he (General Johnston) had from fifteen to twenty thousand men." General Sanford says, in reference to the story that Johnston had been reenforced : "They all had got this story, which was without the slightest shadow of foundation, for there had not a single man arrived at the camp since we had got full information that their whole force consisted of twenty thousand men, of whom eighteen hundred were sick with the measles. The story was, however, that they had ascertained by trustworthy information of this reenforcement. Where they got their information, I do not know. None such reached me, and I picked up deserters and other persons to get all the information I could. And we since have learned, as a matter of certainty, that Johnston's force never did exceed twenty thousand men," Upon this melancholy statement of facts I will The reason assigned by Patterson and his staff neither comment nor dwell. HEAD-QUARTERS, FIRST CORPS ARMY OF THЕ РОТОМАС, MANASSAS, August 26th, 1861. GENERAL: The War Department having been informed by me, by telegraph on the 17th of July, of the movement of General McDowell, General Johnston was immediately ordered to form a junction of his army corps with mine, should the movement, in advisable. General his judgment, be deemed Holmes was also directed to push forward with two regiments, a battery and one company of cavalry. In view of these propositions, approaching reenforcements modifying my plan of operations so far as to determine on attacking the enemy at Centreville as soon as I should hear of the near approach of the two reenforcing columns, I sent one of my aids, Colonel Chrisholm, of South Carolina, to meet and communicate my plans to General Johnston, and my wish that one portion of his force should march by the way of Aldie, and take the enemy on his right flank and in the rear at Centreville. Difficulties, however, of an insuperable character in connection with means of transportation, and the marching condition of his troops, made this impracticable, and it was determined our forces should be united within the lines of Bull Run, and thence advance to the attack of the enemy. General Johnston arrived here about noon on the 20th July, and being my senior in rank, he necessarily assumed command of all the force of the Con federate States, then concentrating at this point. Made acquainted with my plan of operations and dispositions to meet the enemy, he gave them his entire approval, and generously directed their execution under my command. In consequence of the untoward detention, however, of some five thousand (5,000) of General Johnston's army corps, resulting from the inadequate and imperfect means of transportation for so many troops, at the disposition of the Manassas Gap Railroad, it became necessary, on the morning of the JULY 21st, 1861. conviction that, after his signal discomfiture on the 18th of July, before Blackburn's Ford-the centre of my lines-he would not renew the attack in that quarter, induced me at once to look for an attempt on my left flank, resting on the Stone Bridge, which was but weakly guarded by men, as well as but slightly provided with artificial defensive appliances and artillery. In view of these palpable military conditions, by half-past four A. M., on the 21st July, I had prepared and dispatched orders, directing the whole of the Confederate forces within the lines of Bull Run, including the brigades, and regiments of General Johnston, which had arrived at that time, to be held in readiness to march at a moment's notice. At that hour the following was the disposition of our forces: Ewell's brigade, constituted as on the 18th of July, remained in position at Union Mills Ford, his left extending along Bull Run, in the direction of McLean's Ford, and supported by Holmes' brigade, Second Tennessee and First Arkansas regiments a short distance to the rear-that is, at and near Camp Wigfall. D. R. Jones' brigade, from Ewell's left, in front of McLean's Ford, and along the stream to Longstreet's position. It was unchanged in organiza tion, and was supported by Early's brigade, also unchanged, placed behind a thicket of young pines, a short distance in the rear of McLean's Ford. Longstreet's brigade held its former ground at Blackburn's Ford, from Jones' left to Bonham's right, at Mitchell's Ford, and was supported by Jackson's brigade, consisting of Colonels James L. Preston's Fourth, Harper's Fifth, Allen's Second, the Twenty-seventh, Lieutenant-Colonel Echoll's. and the Thirty-tbird, Cumming's Virginia regiments, two thousand six hundred and eleven strong, which were posted behind the skirting of pines to the rear of Blackburn's and Mitchell's Fords, and in the rear of this support was also Barksdale's Thirteenth 21st, before daylight, to modify the plan accepted regiment Mississippi volunteers, which had lately to suit the contingency of an immediate attack on our lines by the main force of the enemy, then plainly at hand. arrived from Lynchburg. Along the edge of a pine thicket, in rear of, and equidistant from McLean's and Blackburn's Fords, The enemy's forces, reported by their best-in-ready to support either position, I had also placed formed journals to be fifty-five thousand strong, I all of Bee's and Bartow's brigades that had arrived had learned from reliable sources, on the night of namely, two companies of the Eleventh Mississip the 20th, were being concentrated in and around Centreville, and along the Warrenton turnpike road, to Bull Run, near which our respective pickets were in immediate proximity. This fact, with the pi, Lieutenant-Colonel Liddell; the Second Mississippi, Colonel Faulkner; and the Alabama, with the Seventh and Eighth Georgia regiments, (Colonel Gartrell and Lieutenant-Colonel Gardner,) in all BEAUREGARD'S OFFICIAL REPORT. 497 two thousand seven hundred and thirty-two bayonets. Bonham's brigade, as before, held Mitchell's Ford, its right near Longstreet's left, its left extending in the direction of Cocke's right. It was organized as at the end of the 18th of July, with Jackson's brigade, as before said, as a support. Cocke's brigade, increased by seven companies of the Eighth, Hunton's; three companies of the Forty-ninth, Smith's Virginia regiments; two companies of cavalry, and a battery under Rogers of four six-pounders, occupied the line in front and rear of Bull Run, extending from the direction of Bonham's left, and guarding Island, Ball's, and Lewis' Fords, to the right of Evans' demi-brigade, near the Stone Bridge, also under General Cocke's command. The latter held the Stone Bridge, and its left cov ered a farm ford about one mile above the bridge. Stuart's cavalry, some three hundred men of the army of the Shenandoah, guarded the level ground extending in rear from Bonham's left to Cocke's right. Two companies of Radford's cavalry were held in reserve a short distance in rear of Mitchell's Ford, his left extending in the direction of Stuart's right. Colonel Pendleton's reserve battery of eight pieces was temporarly placed in rear of Bonham's extreme left. Major Walton's reserve battery of five guns was in position on McLean's farm, in a piece of woods in rear of Bee's right. Hampton's legion of six companies of infantry, six hundred strong, having arrived that morning by the cars from Richmond, was subsequently, as soon as it arrived, ordered forward to a position in immediate vicinity of the Lewis House, as a support for any troops engaged in that quarter. The effective force of all arms of the army of the Potomac on that eventful morning, including the garrison of Camp Pickens, did not exceed twentyone thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, and twenty-nine guns. The army of the Shenandoah, ready for action on the field, may be set at six thousand men and twenty guns. [That is, when the battle begun. Smith's brigade and Fisher's North Carolina came up later, and made a total of army of Shenandoah engaged of all arms, eight thousand three hundred and thirty-four. Hill's Virginia regiment, five hundred and fifty, also arrived, but was posted as reserve to right flank.] The brigade of General Holmes mustered about one thousand two hundred and sixty-five bayonets, six guns, and a company of cavalry about ninety strong. Informed at half-past five A. M., by Colonel Evans, that the enemy had deployed some twelve hundred men, [these were what Colonel Evans saw of General Schenck's brigade of General Tyler's division and two other heavy brigades, in all over nine thousand men and thirteen pieces of artillery-Carlisle's and Ayres' batteries. That is, nine hundred men and two six-pounders, confronted by nine thousand men and thirteen pieces of artillery, mostly rifled,] with several pieces of artillery in his immediate front, I at once ordered him, as also General Cocke, if attacked, to maintain their position to the last extremity. In my opinion the most effective method of relieving that flank was by a rapid, determined attack, with my right wing and centre on the enemy's flank and rear at Centreville, with due precautions against the advance of his reserves from the direction of Washington. By such a movement I confidently expected to achieve a complete victory for my country by twelve o'clock м. These new dispositions were submitted to General Johnston, who fully approved them, and the orders for their immediate execution were at once issued. Brigadier-General Ewell was directed to begin the movement, to be followed and supported successively by Generals D. R. Jones, Longstreet, and Bonham respectively, supported by their several appointed reserves. The cavalry, under Stuart and Radford, were to be held in hand, subject to future orders and ready for employment as might be required by the exigencies of the battle. About half-past eight o'clock a. M., General Johnston and myself transferred our head-quarters to a central position about half a mile in the rear of Mitchell's Ford, whence we might watch the course of events. Previously, as early as half-past five, the Federalists in front of Evans' position, Stone Bridge, had opened with a large thirty-pounder, Parrot rifle gun, and thirty minutes later with a moderate apparently tentative, fire from a battery of rifle pieces, directed first in front at Evans' and then in the direction of Cocke's position, but without drawing a return fire and discovery of our positions, chiefly because in that quarter we had nothing but eight six-pounder pieces, which could not reach the distant enemy. As the Federalists had advanced with an extended line of skirmishers in front of Evans, that officer promptly threw forward the two flank companies of the Fourth South Carolina regiment, and one company of Wheat's Louisiana battalion, deployed as skirmishers, to cover his small front. An occasional scattering fire resulted, and thus the two armies in that quarter remained for more than an hour, while the main body of the enemy was march ing its dubious way through the "big forest" to take our forces in flank and rear. By half-past eight A. M., Colonel Evans having become satisfied of the counterfeit character of the movement on his front, and persuaded of an attempt to turn his left flank, decided to change his position to meet the enemy, and for this purpose immediately put in motion to his left and rear six companies of Sloan's Fourth South Carolina regiment, Wheat's Louisiana battalions, five companies, and two sixpounders of Latham's battery, leaving four companies of Sloan's regiment under cover as the sole immediate defense of the Stone Bridge, but giving information to General Cocke of his change of position and the reasons that impelled it. Following a road leading by the Old Pittsylvania (Carter) mansion, Colonel Evans formed in line of battle some four hundred yards in rear-as he advanced-of that house, his guns to the front and in position, properly supported, to its immediate right. Finding, however, that the enemy did not appear on that road, which was a branch of one running by Sudley's Springs Ford to Brentsville and Dumfries, he turned abruptly to the left, and marching across the fields for three-quarters of a mile, about half-past nine ▲ M., took a position in line of battle his left, Sloan's companies, resting on the main Brentsville road in a shallow ravine, the Louisiana battalion to the right, in advance some two hundred yards, a rectangular course of wood separating them-one piece of his artillery planted on an eminence some seven hundred yards to the rear of Wheat's battalion, and the other on a ridge near and in rear of Sloan's position, commanding a reach of the road just in front of the line of battle. In this order he awaited the coming of the masses of the enemy now drawing near. the Federal regular army, of two strong brigades, was in the advance, followed immediately by an other division under Colonel Heintzelman, of three brigades and seven companies of regular cavalry and twenty-four pieces of artillery-eighteen of which were rifle guns. This column, as it crossed Bull Run, numbered over sixteen thousand men of all arms, by their own accounts. Burnside's brigade, which here, as at Fairfax Court House, led the advance, at about forty-five minutes past nine A. M., debouched from a wood in sight of Evans' position, some five hundred yards distant from Wheat's pattanou. He immediately threw forward his skirmishers in force, and they became engaged with Wheat's command and the six-pounder gun under Lieutenant Leftwich. The Federalists at once advanced, as they report officially, the Second Rhode Island regiment voluneers, with its vaunted battery of six thirteenpounder rifle guns. Sloan's companies were then brought into action, having been pushed forward through the woods. The enemy, soon galled and staggered by the fire, and pressed by the deter mined valor with which Wheat handled his battery, until he was desperately wounded, hastened up three other regiments of the brigade and two Dahlgren howitzers, making in all quite three thousand five hundred bayonets and eight pieces of artillery, opposed to less than eight hundred men and two six-pounder guns. Despite these odds, this intrepid command of but eleven weak companies maintained its front to the enemy for quite an hour, and until General Bee came to their aid with his command. The heroic Bee, with a soldier's eye and recognition of the situation, had previously disposed his command with In the mean time, about seven o'clock A. M., Jack-skill-Imboden's battery having been admirably son's brigade, with Imboden's, and five pieces of placed between the two brigades, under shelter beWalton's battery, had been sent to take up a posi-hind the undulations of a hill about one hundred tion along Bull Run to guard the interval between Cocke's right and Bonham's left, with orders to support either in case of need-the character and topographical features of the ground having been shown to General Jackson by D. R. Harris, of the Engineers, of his army corps. So much of Bee's and Bartow's brigades, now united, as had arrived-some two thousand eight hundred muskets-had also been sent forward to the support of the position of the Stone Bridge. The enemy beginning his detour from the turnpike, at a point nearly half way between Stone Bridge and Centreville, had pursued a tortuous, narrow trace of a rarely used road, through a dense wood, the greater part of his way, until near the Sudley road. A division under Colonel Hunter, of and fifty yards north of the now famous Henry House, and very near where he subsequently fell mortally wounded, to the great misfortune of his country, but after deeds of deliberate and evermemorable courage. Meanwhile, the enemy had pushed forward a battalion of eight companies of regular infantry, and one of their best batteries of six pieces, (four rifled,) supported by four companies of marines, to increase the desperate odds against which Evans and his men had maintained their stand with an al most matchless tenacity. General Bee, now 'finding Evans sorely pressed under the crushing weight of the masses of the en emy, at the call of Colonel Evans threw forward his whole force to his aid across a small stream BEAUREGARD'S OFFICIAL REPORT. 499 Young's Branch and Valley-and engaged the Fed-emy's ranks constantly broken and shattered under eralists with impetuosity; Imboden's battery at the the scorching fire of our men; but fresh regiments time playing from his well-chosen position with of the Federalists came upon the field-Sherman's brilliant effect with spherical-case, the enemy hav- and Keyes' brigades of Tyler's division-as is stated ing first opened on him from a rifle battery, prob- in their reports, numbering over six thousand bayoably Griffin's, with elongated cylindrical shells, which nets, which had found a passage across the run flew a few feet over the heads of our men, and ex- about eight hundred yards above the Stone Bridge, ploded in the crest of the hill immediately in the threatened our right. rear. As Bee advanced under a severe fire he placed the Seventh and Eighth Georgia regiments, under the chivalrous Bartow, at about eleven A. M., in a wood of second-growth pines, to the right and front of and nearly perpendicular to Evans' line of battle; the Fourth Alabama to the left of them, along a fence connecting the position of the Georgia regiments with the rectangular copse in which Sloan's South Carolina companies were engaged, and into which he also threw the Second Mississippi. A fierce and destructive conflict now ensued; the fire was withering on both sides, while the enemy swept our short, thin lines with their numerous artillery, which, according to their official reports, at this time consisted of at least ten rifle guns and four howitzers. For an hour did these stout hearted men of the blended commands of Bee, Evans and Bartow breast an unintermitting battle storm, animated, surely, by something more than the ordinary courage of even the bravest men under fire; it must have been indeed the inspiration of the cause, and consciousness of the great stake at issue which thus nerved and animated one and all to stand unawed and unshrinking in such extremity. Two Federal brigades of Heintzelman's division were now brought into action, led by Rickett's superb light battery of six ten-pounder rifle guns, which, posted on an eminence to the right of the Sudley road, opened fire on Imboden's batteryabout this time increased by two riffe pieces of the Washington artillery, under Lieutenant Richardson, and already the mark of two batteries which divided their fire with Imboden, and two guns, under Lieutenants Davidson and Leftwich, of Latham's battery, posted as before mentioned. At this time, confronting the enemy, we had still but Evans' eleven companies and two guns --Bee's and Bartow's four regiments, the two companies of the Eleventh Mississippi, under Lieutenant-Colonel Liddell, and the six pieces under Imboden and Richardson. The enemy had two divisions of four strong brigades, including seventeen companies of regular infantry, cavalry and artillery, four companies of marines, and twenty pieces of artillery. [See official reports of Colonels Heintzelman, Porter, &c.] Against this odds, scarcely credible, our advance position was still for a while maintained, and the en Heavy losses had now been sustained on our side, both in numbers and in the personal worth of the slain. The Georgia regiment had suffered heavily, being exposed, as it took and maintained its position, to a fire from the enemy, already posted within a hundred yards of their front and right, sheltered by fences and other cover. It was at this time that Lieutenant-Colonel Gardner was severely wounded, as also several other valuable officers; the Adjutant of the regiment, Lieutenant Branch, was killed, and the horse of the regretted Bartow was shot under him. The Fourth Alabama also suffered severely from the deadly fire of the thousands of muskets which they so dauntlessly fronted under the immediate leadership of Bee himself. Its brave Colonel, E. J. Jones, was dangerously wounded, and many gallant officers fell, slain or hors de combat. Now, however, with the surging mass of over fourteen thousand Federal infantry pressing on their front, and under the incessant fire of at least twenty pieces of artillery, with the fresh brigades of Sherman and Keyes approaching-the latter already in musket range-our lines gave back, but under orders from General Bee. The enemy, maintaining the fire, pressed their swelling masses onward as our shattered battalions retired; the slaughter for the moment was deplorable, and has filled many a Southern home with lifelong sorrow. Under this inexorable stress the retreat continued until arrested by the energy and resolution of General Bee, supported by Bartow and Evans, just in the rear of the Robinson House, and Hampton's Legion, which had been already advanced, and was in position near it. Imboden's battery, which had been handled with marked skill, but whose men were almost exhausted, and the two pieces of Walton's battery, under Lieutenant Richardson, being threatened by the enemy's infantry on the left and front, were also obliged to fall back. Imboden, leaving a disabled piece on the ground, retired until he met Jackson's brigade, while Richardson joined the main body of his battery near the Lewis House. As our infantry retired from the extreme front, the two six-pounders of Latham's battery, before men tioned, fell back with excellent judgment to suitable positions in the rear, when an effective fire was |