i 
 
 CAMPATC 1 VORTHERN 
 
 IRST YBAB 
 
 K 1 C II M o :n D : 
 VEST ' ')IINSTON. 145 MAI 
 1 
 

 THE SECOND BATTLE 
 
 MAN'ASSAS: 
 
 SKETCHES OF THE RECENT CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN 
 VIRGINIA AND ON THE UPPER POTOMAC. 
 
 PREPARED FROM SPECIAL MATERIALS. 
 
 BY TUE AUTHOR OF "THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 
 
 RICHMOND: 
 
 WEST & JOHNSTON, 145 MAIN STREET. 
 
 1862. 
 
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1862, 
 Bt AVEST & JOHNSTON, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Confederate States for the 
 Eastern District of Virginia. 
 
 CHAS. H. WTXXK, PRUTIB. 
 
SECOxND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, Etc, 
 
 I. 
 
 Little more than three months have elapsed since the col- 
 nmns of a hostile army were debouching on the plains near 
 Richmond, when an evacuation of the city and a further re- 
 treat of the Confederate army were believed by nearly all 
 official persons the m«st prudent and politic steps that the 
 government could take under the circumstances. When we 
 recollect these 'things, and compare them with the present 
 position of affairs and the menacing attitude of the victorious 
 armies of the South on the frontiers of the North, we are lost 
 in amazement at a change of fortune so rapid. 
 
 But it is to be borne in mind, in studying so violent and 
 unexpected a contrast, that the late forlorn situation of the 
 Confederacy was not the result of radical weakness. The 
 South had always the power to excel the North in war ; she 
 was beaten for awhile, because she occupied a false position 
 and was placed in an unnatural attitude. 
 
 As the opposing armies of the war stand this day, the 
 South has causes for congratulation and pride such, perhaps, 
 as no other people ever had in similar circumstances. The 
 North had a population of twenty-three millions against eight 
 millions serving the South, and of these eight millions nearly 
 three millions were African slaves. The white population of 
 New York and Pennsylvania was greater than that of the 
 Confederate States. Manufacturng establishments of all de- 
 Bcriptions rendered the North a self-sustaining people for all 
 
4 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 the requirements of peace or war ; and, with these advantages, 
 they retained tliose of an unrestricted commerce with foreign 
 nations. The South, on the other hand, with only a few in- 
 Bignificant manufactories of arms and materials of war, textile 
 fabrics, leather, &c., had been cut off by an encircling blockade 
 for fifteen months from all those supplies upon which she had 
 depended from the North and from Europe, in the way of 
 arms, munitions of war, clothing, medicines, and many of the 
 essentials of subsistence. 
 
 The South was without the vestige of a navy, except a 
 straggling ship or two, while that of the North in this war was 
 equal to a land force of three or four hundred thousand men. 
 The South was nearly exhausted of the commonest articles of 
 food, while the Northern States had a superabundance of all 
 the essentials and luxuries of life. The Northern troops, en 
 masse, were better armed, equipped and subsisted than those 
 of any other nation, while those of the South were armed 
 with all sorts of weapons — good, bad and indifferent — clothed 
 in rags, fed upon half rations ; and yet, advancing upon the 
 Northern borders, they threatened, at least so far as to alarm 
 their enemy, the invasion of Ohio and Pennsylvauia, and the 
 occupation of the Northern capital. 
 
 II. 
 
 The career of Gen. McClellan, after his useless and inglo- 
 rious march to Manassas, his long delay on the banks of tho 
 Potomac and Chesapeake, his final landing upon the Peninsula 
 and melancholy experience of the Chickahominy sWanips, found 
 this commander at last at the head of an immense army with 
 the Chickahominy in his front. lie threw a portion of his 
 army across the river, and, having thus established his left, 
 proceeded to pivot upon it, and to extend his right by the 
 
SECOND BATTLE OP MANASSAS, ETC. 5 , 
 
 right bank of the Pamunkey, so as to get to the north of • 
 Richmond. Scarcely had he done so, when the Confederates 
 attacked the left, which had crossed the Chickahominy, in- 
 flicted on it a severe defeat, took guns and prisoners, and only 
 retired when a large and supporting force of the enemy was 
 thrown across the river. 
 
 On the 26th of June, the Confederates directed an attack 
 on the right wing of the Yankees, between the Chickahominy 
 and Pamunkey, in heavy force. The result of the series of 
 engagements which ensued was the liberation of the Confede- 
 rate capital, a sudden illumination of the fortunes of the 
 South, and the retreat of the whole Yankee army that had 
 threatened Richmond to a safe point on the James River. 
 
 III. 
 
 The defeat of McClellan before Richmond, like most of the 
 reverses of the Yankees sustained on the soil of the South, 
 was the signal for new and enlarged preparations in the North 
 to carry on the war and contest its waning fortunes. 
 
 We are especially called upon to notice the spirit of the pre- 
 paration made by the North for a " more vigorous prosecution 
 of the war." This spirit was remarkable for its venom and 
 for a display of violent arid brutal passions, which had been 
 enraged by defeat. There had long been a party in the North 
 who mistook brutality in war for vigour, and clamoured for a 
 policy which was to increase the horrours of war by arming 
 the slaves, and making the invaded country of the South the 
 prey of white brigands and "loyal" negroes. This party was 
 now in the ascendancy. It had already obtained important 
 concessions from the "Washington government. The Confisca- 
 tion Bill, lately enacted at Washington, confiscated all tho 
 slaves belonging to those who were loyal to the South, con- 
 
6 SECOND BATTLE OF MAXASSAS, ETC. 
 
 » stituting nine-tenths at least of the slaves in the Confederate 
 States. In the Border States, occupied by the North, slavery 
 ■was doomed by a policy of slow but certain extinction. The 
 work of emancipation had already been carried out in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia and the territories of the United States. A 
 military act had also been passed by the Yankee Congress 
 arming the negro slaves and placing them at the disposal of 
 the commanders in the invaded dist^jicts of the South. 
 
 These concessions to the radical party in the North excited 
 new demands. Tiie rule which was urged upon the govern- 
 ment, and which the government hastened to accept, was to 
 spare no means, however brutal, to contest the fortunes of the 
 ■war, and to adopt every invention of torture for its enemy. 
 The slaves were to be armed and carried in battalions against 
 their masters. The invaded country of the South was to 1|p 
 pillaged, wasted and burnt ; the Northern troops, like hungry 
 locusts, were to destroy every green thing : the people in the 
 invaded districts were to be- laid under contributions, com- 
 pelled to do. the work of slaves, kept in constant terrour of 
 their lives, and fire, famine and slaughter were to be the por- 
 tions of the conquered. 
 
 This malevolent and venomous spirit pervaded the whole of 
 Northern society. It was not only the utterance of such 
 mobs as, in New York city, adopted as their war cry against 
 the South, ^^ kill all the inliahitants ;'' it found expression in 
 the political measures, military orders and laws of the govern- 
 ment ; it invaded polite society, and was taught not only as 
 an element of patriotism, but as a virtue of religion. The 
 characteristic religion of New England, composed of about 
 * equal quantities of blasphemy and balderdash, went hand in 
 hand with the war. Some of these pious demonstrations were 
 curious, and bring to remembrance the fanaticism and rhapso- 
 dies of the old Puritans.* 
 
 ■* No one affected the peculiarity of the Puritans more than Got. Andrews, 
 of Massachusetts. The followiug p^ous raut is quoted from ouo of hi» 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. . 7 
 
 The Yankee army chaplains in Virginia alternately dis- 
 gusted and amused the country with the ferocious rant with 
 which they sought to inspire the crusade against the South. 
 One of these pious missionaries in Winchester, after the regu- 
 lar Sunday service, announced to the assembled Yankee troops 
 an imaginary victory in front of Richmond, and then called 
 for " three cheers and a tiger and Yankee Doodle." In a 
 sermon preached near' the enemy's camp of occupation, the 
 chaplain proclaimed the mission of freeing the negroes. lie. 
 told them they were free, and that, as the property amassed 
 by their masters was the fruit of the labours of the blacks, 
 these had the best title to it and should help themselves. In 
 Charlestown, the scene of the execution of John Brown for 
 violation of law, sedition and murder, a sermon was preached 
 by an army chaplain on some text enjoining " the mission of 
 proclaiming liberty;" and the hymn given out and *ung 
 ^iras — 
 
 "John Brown's body hangs dangling in the air. 
 Sing glory, glory, hallelujah ! " 
 
 These, however, were but indications displayed of a spirit 
 in the North, which, with reference to the practical conduct of 
 the war, were serious enough. 
 
 ■peechet at Worcester ; in blasphemy and bombast it equals afty of the ful- 
 minations of the "Pilgrim Fathers" — 
 
 " I know that the angel of the Lord, one foot on the earth and one on the 
 ■ea, will proclaim in unanswerable language, that four millions of bondmea 
 •hall ere long be slaves no longer. We live in a war, not a riot, as we thought 
 last year, with a half million in the field against an atrocious and rebellious 
 foe. Our government now recognizes it as a war, and the President of th« 
 United States, fulminating his war orders, has blown a blast before which the 
 enemy must fly. Rebellion must fall, and they who have stood upon the 
 seeks of go many bondsmen shall be swept away and four million souls rise 
 to immortality.^ 
 
 "Ah, foul tyrants ! do j-ou hear him where he comes? 
 Ah, black traitors! do you know him sis he comes? 
 In the thunder of the cannon and the roll of the drums, 
 As we go marching on. 
 
 "Men may die and moulder in the dust — 
 Men may die and ariiie again from the dunt. 
 Shoulder to shoulder, in the r.inks of the just, 
 When Ood is ntorcMng on. 
 
8 • SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 By a general order of the Washington Government, the 
 military commanders of that government, within the States of 
 Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missis- 
 sippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, were directed to seize 
 and use any property, real or personal, belonging to the in- 
 habitants of this Confederacy which might bo necessary or con- 
 venient for their several commands, and no provision was made 
 for any compensation to the owners of private property thus 
 seized and appropriated by the military commanders of the 
 enemy. 
 
 But it was reserved for the enemy's army in Northern Vir- 
 ginia to exceed all that had hitherto been known of the savage 
 cruelty of the Yankees, and to convert the hostilities hitherto 
 ■waged against armed forces into a campaign of robbery and 
 murder against unarmed citizens and peaceful tillers of the soil. 
 
 On the 23d of July, 18G2, General Pope, commanding the 
 forces of the enemy in Northern Virginia, published an order 
 requiring that "all commanders of any army corps, divisions, 
 brigades, and detached commands, will proceed immediately to 
 arrest all disloyal male citizens within their lines, or within 
 their reach, in rear of their respective commands. Such as 
 are willing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, 
 and will furnish sufficient security for its observance, shall be 
 permitted to remain' at their homes and pursue in good faith 
 their accustomed avocations. Those who refuse shall be con- 
 ducted South, beyond the extreme pickets of this army, and be 
 notified that, if found again any where within our lines, or at 
 any point in rear, they will be considered spies and subjected 
 to the extreme rigour of military law. If any person, having 
 taken the oath of allegiance as above specified, be found to 
 have violated it, he shall be shot, and his property seized and 
 applied to the public use." 
 
 , By another order of Brigadier-General Steinwehr, in Pope's 
 command, it was proposed to hold under arrest the most promi- 
 nent citizens in the districts occupied by the enemy, as host- 
 ages, to sufier death in case of any of the Yankee soldiers 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. ; 9 
 
 being shot by " busliwliackers," by which terra waS meant the 
 citizens of the South who had taken up arms to defend their 
 homes and families. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The "Washington government liad found a convenient instru- 
 ment for the work of villainy and brutality with which it pro- 
 posed to resume the active campaign in Virginia. 
 
 "With a view to renewed operations against Richmond, large 
 forces of Yankee troops were massed at Warrenton, Little 
 Washington and Fredei'icksburg. Of these forces, entitled the 
 "Army of Virginia," the command was given to Major-Gene- 
 ral John Pope, who boasted that he had come from the West 
 where "he had only seen the backs of the enemy." 
 
 This notorious Yankee commander was a man nearly forty 
 years of age, a native of Kentucky, but a citizen of Illinois. 
 He was born oi respectable parents'. He was graduated at 
 West Point in 1842, and served in the Mexican War, where he 
 was breveted Captain. 
 
 In 1849 he conducted the ^Minnesota exploring expedition, 
 and afterwards acted as topographical engineer in New Mexico, 
 until 1853, when he was assigned to the command of one of 
 the expeditions to survey the route of the Pacific railroad. He 
 distinguished himself on the overland route to the Pacific by 
 "sinking" artesian wells and government money to the amount 
 of a million dollars. One well was finally abandoned incom- 
 plete, and afterwards a perennial spring was found by other 
 parties in the immediate vicinity. In a letter to Jefferson 
 Davis, then Secretary of War, urging this todte to the Pacific, 
 and the boring these wells. Pope made himself the especial 
 champion of the South. 
 
 In the breaking out of the war, Pope was made a Brigadier- 
 general of Volunteers. He held a command in Missouri for 
 some time before he became particularly noted. When Gen. 
 
10 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 Halleck took charge of the disorganized department, Pope iraS 
 placed in command of the District of Central Missouri. He 
 was afterwards sent to South-eastern Missouri. The cruel dis- 
 position of tlie man, of Avhich his rude manners, and a vulgar 
 bearded face, with coarse skin, gave indications, found an abund- 
 ant field for gratification in this unhappy State. His proceed- 
 ings in Missouri will challenge a comparison with the most in- 
 fernal record ever bequeathed by the licensed murderer to the 
 abhorrence of mankind. And yet, it was his first step in 
 blood — the first opportunity he had ever had to feast his cj'cs 
 upon slaughter and regale his ears with the cries of human 
 agony. 
 
 Having been promoted to the rank of Major-Gencral, Pope 
 was next appointed to act at the head of a corps to co-operate 
 with Halleck in the reduction of Corinth. After the evacua- 
 tion of Corinth by Gen. Beauregard, Pope was sent by Halleck 
 to annoy the rear of the Confederate army, but Beauregard 
 turned upon, and repulsed his pursuit. The report of Pope to 
 Halleck, that he bad captured 10,000 of Beauregard's army, 
 and 15,000 stand of arms, when he had not taken a man or a 
 musket, stands alone in the history of lying. It left him with- 
 out a rival in that respectable art. 
 
 Such was the man who took command of the enemy's forces 
 in Northern Virginia. His bluster was as excessive as his 
 accomplishments in falsehood. He was described in a Southern 
 newspaper as a "a Yankee compound of Bobadil and Mun- 
 chausen." His proclamation, that he had seen nothing of hia 
 enemies "but their backs," revived an ugly story in his pyvato 
 life, and gave occasion to the witty interrogatory, if the gen- 
 tleman who cowhided him for offering an indignity to a lady 
 was standing with his back to him when he inflicted the chas- 
 tisement. The fact was that Pope had won his baton of mar- 
 shal by bragging to the Yankee fill. He was another instance, 
 besides that of Butler, how easily a military reputation might 
 be made in the North by bluster, lying, and acts of coarse 
 cruelty to the defenceless. On what monstrous principles he 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 11 
 
 commenced his career in Virginia, and what orders he issued 
 are still fresh in the public memory. 
 
 " I desire you to dismiss from your minds certain phrases, 
 (said Pope to his army,) which 1 am sorry to find much in vogue 
 among you. I hear constantly of taking strong positions and 
 holding them ; of lines of retreat and bases of supplies. Let 
 us discard such ideas. The strongest position a soldier sho\ild 
 desire to occupy is the one from which he can most easily ad- 
 vance upon the enemy. Let us study the probable line of 
 retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of 
 itself. Let us look before and not behind. Disaster and 
 shame lurk in the rear." 
 
 On establishing his headquarters at Little Washington, the 
 county seat of Rappahannock, Pope became a source of 
 mingled curiosity and dread to the feeble villagers. They wero 
 in a condition of alarm and anguish from the publication of his 
 order, to banish' from their homes all males who should refuse 
 to take the Yankee oath of ajlegiance. Dr. Bisphaw of the 
 village was deputed to wait upon the Yankee tyrant, and ask 
 that the barbarous order be relaxed. 
 
 He painted, at the same time, the agony of the women and 
 children, and stated that the effect would be to place six new 
 regiments in the rebel service. " We can't take the oath of 
 allegiance," said the Doctor, "and we won't — man, woman or 
 child — but we will give a parole to attend to our own business, 
 afford no communication with the South, and quietly stay upon 
 our premises. 
 
 "I shall enforce the order to the letter," said General Pope. 
 " I did not make it without deliberation, and if you don't take 
 the oath you shall go out of my lines." 
 
 In the short period in which Pope's army was uninterrupted 
 in its career of robbery and villainy in Northern Virginia, 
 every district of country invaded by him or entered by his 
 marauders was ravaged as by a horde of barbarians. This 
 portion of Virginia will long bear the record and tradition of 
 the irruption of the Northern spoilsmen. The new usage 
 
12 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 whicb had been instituted in regard tt) protection of Confede- 
 rate property, and the purpose of the Washington government 
 to subsisf its troops upon the invaded country, converted the 
 "Army of Virginia " into licensed brigands and let loose upon 
 the country a torrent of unbridled and unscrupulous robbers. 
 The Yankee troops appropriated remorselessly whatever came 
 ■witliin their reach.- They rushed in crowds upon the smoke- 
 houses of the farmers. On the march through a section of 
 country, every spring-house was broken open ; butter, milk, 
 eggs and cream were cngulphed ; calves and sheep, and, in 
 fact, anything and everything serviceable for meat, or drink-, 
 or apparel, were not safe a moment after the approach of the 
 Yankee plunderers. Wherever they camped at night, it would 
 be found the next morning that scarcely an article, for which the 
 fertility of a soldier could suggest the slightest use, remained 
 to the owner. Pans, kettles, dishcloths, pork, poultry, provi- 
 sions and everything desirable had disappeared. The place was 
 Btript, and without any process of commissary or quartermaster. 
 Whenever the Yankee soldiers advanced into a new section 
 the floodgates were immediately opened and fac simile Con- 
 federate notes (this spurious currency being manufactured in 
 Philadelphia and sold by public advertisement for a few cents 
 to Yankee soldiers) were poured out upon the land.* They 
 
 * The Northern trade in this counterfeit money was open and undisguised ; 
 enticing advertisements of its profit were freely made in tiie Northern jour- 
 nals, and circulars were distributed through the Federal army proposing to 
 supply the troops with "rel)el" currency almost at the price of the paper on 
 which the counterfeit was executed. We copy below one of these circulars 
 found on the person of a Yankee prisoner ; the curiosity being a court paper 
 in the possession of Mr. Commissioner Watson, of Ilichmond : 
 
 "$20 Confederate Bond! ! I have this day issued a Fac-simile $20 Con- 
 federate Bond — making, in all, fifteen different Fac-simile Rebel Bonds, Notes, 
 Bhinplasters and Tostuge Stamps issued by me the past three months. 
 
 Trade supplied at 50 cents per 100, or $ 4 per 1000. All orders by mail or 
 express promptly executed. 
 
 B®f" All orders to be sent bj- mail must be aocompanied with 18 cents in 
 postage stamps, in addition to the above price to prepay the postage on each 
 100 ordered. Address, S. C. Upuam, 
 
 403 Chesnut street, Pliiladelphia. 
 
 N. B. I shall have » $100 Rebel Note out this week." 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 13 
 
 vcre passed indiscriminately upon the unsuspecting inhabit- 
 ants, poor as well as rich, old and young, male and female. 
 In frequent instanc6s, this outrage was perpetrated in return 
 for kind nursing by poor, aged women. 
 
 These spurious notes passed readily, and seemed to be takei 
 gladly for whatever was held for sale. Bank notes and shin- 
 plasters were given for chcmge. Horses and other valuable 
 property were often purchased with this bogus currency. A 
 party of "Yankee soldiers entered a country store, fortified 
 with exhaustless quantities of Philadelphia Confederate notes, 
 and commenced trade. Forty pounds of sugar was first or- 
 dered, and the storekeeper, pleased with the sudden increase 
 of business, called in his wife to assist in putting up the 
 order in small parcels. Seventy-five cents a pound was the 
 cost. That was a small matter. Matches wore purchased. 
 Twenty-five cents per box was the charge. Tobacco also found 
 a ready market. Each man provided himself with a straw 
 hat ; but the crowning act of all was the abstraction from the 
 till of money already paid to the dealer for his goods, and the 
 purchase of more goods with the same spurious medium. 
 
 Such acts of villainy and the daily robberies committed by 
 Pope's soldiers were very amusing to the Northern people, and 
 gave them a stock of capital jokes. "I not long ago saw," 
 wrote a correspondent of a Yankee newspaper, " a dozen sol- 
 diers rushing headlong through a field, each anxious to get the 
 first choice of three horses shading themselves quietly under a 
 tree. The animals made their best time into the farthest cor- 
 ner of the field with the men close upon them, and the fore- 
 most men caught their prizes and bridled them as if they had 
 a perfect immunity in such sort of things. A scene followed. 
 A young lady came out and besought the soldiers not to take 
 her favourite pony. The soldiers were remorseless and unyield- 
 ing, and the pony is now in the army." 
 
 It is not within the design of these pages to pursue the sto- 
 ries of outrage, villainy and barbarism of the enemy's armies 
 in Virginia; but with -vthat we have said intended only to 
 
14 SECOND BATTLE OP MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 show the spirit of that army and the character of its leader, 
 ire shall hasten to describe the series of events which, at last, 
 confronted it with an army of avengers on the historic Plains 
 of Manassas, and culminated there in a victory, which libp- 
 fated Virginia from its invaders, broke the " line of the 
 Potomac" from Leesburg to Harper's Ferry, and opened an 
 avenue for the first time into the territory of the North. 
 
 V. 
 
 The Northern newspapers declared that Pope was right 
 when he said that he was accustomed to see the backs of his 
 enemy, and were busy in assuring their readers that his only 
 occupation was to chase " the rebel hordes." It Avas said that 
 he had penetrated as far as Madison Court-house without seeing 
 any enemy. The Southern troops, it was prophesied, would keep 
 on their retreat beyond the Virginia Central railroad. Pope's 
 army was now as far in the interiour, by overland marches, as 
 »ny of the Yankee troops had ever been. The position of his 
 advance was described as about ten miles east of Port Repub- 
 lic, with an eye on the Shenandoah Valley ; and it was boasted 
 that the second Napoleon of the Yankees had already complete 
 possession of the country north of the Rapidan River, and only 
 awaited his leisure to march upon Richmond. 
 
 These exultations were destined to a sharp and early disap- 
 pointment. The Confederate authorities in Richmond knew' 
 that it was necessary to strike somewhere before the three 
 hundred thousand recruits called for by the Washington gov- 
 ernment should be brought to the field to overwhelm them. 
 It was necessary to retain in the strong works around Rich- 
 mond a sufficient force to repulse any attack of McClellan'^s 
 army ; but at the same time the necessity was clear to hold 
 Pope's forces in check and to mak^ an active movement against 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 15 
 
 him. The execution of this latter purpose ■was entrusted to 
 Jackson, the brave, eccentric and beloved commander,* who 
 had achieved so many victories against so many extraordinary 
 odds and obstacles; all the movements of the campaign being 
 directed by the self-possessed, controlling and earnest mind of 
 General Lee. 
 
 The insolent enemy received his first lesson at the hands of 
 the heroic Jackson on the wooded sides and cleared slopes of 
 the mountainous country in Culpeper. In consequence of the 
 advance of the Confederates beyond the Rapidan, Major- 
 General Pope had sent forward two army corps, commanded 
 by Gen. Banks, to hold them in check. 
 
 On the evening of the 8th of August, a portion of Gen. 
 Jackson's division, consisting of the 1st, 2d and 3d brigades, 
 under the command of Gen. Charles S. Winder, crossed the 
 Rapidan River, a few miles above the railroad, and, having 
 advanced a mile into Culpeper county, encamped for the night. 
 The next morning, the enemy being reported as advancing, 
 our forces, Ewell's division being in advance, moved forward 
 on the main road from Orange Court-house to Culpeper Court- 
 house, about three miles, and took position — our left flank 
 resting on the Southwest Mountain and our artillery occupy- 
 ing several commanding positions. At 12 M., our fofces com- 
 
 * There hftve been a great many pen and ink portraits of the famoui 
 "Stonewall" Jackson; the singular features and eccentric manners of this 
 popular hero affording a fruitful subject of description and anecdote. A gen- 
 tleman, wiio was known to be a rare and quick judge of character, was asked 
 by the writer for a description of Jackson, whom he had met but for a few 
 moments on the battle-field. "He is a fighting man," was the reply; "rougk 
 mouth, and noEtrils huL as a horse's." This description has doubtless much 
 force in it, although blunt and homely in its expression. The impression 
 given by Jackson ii that of a man perhaps forty years old, six feet higl-, 
 medium size, and somewhat angular in person. He has yellowish-grey eye , 
 a Roman nose, sharp; a thin, forward chin, angular brow, a close mouth, 
 and light brown hair. The expression of his face is to some extent unhappy, 
 but not sullen or unsocial. He is impulsive, silent and emphatic. His dreii 
 18 oflSeial, but very plain, his cap-front resting nearly on his nose. His tall 
 horse diminishes the effect of his size, so that when monnted he appears lesi 
 ia person that he really is. 
 
16 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 mcnccd cannonading, which was freely responded to by the 
 enemy, who did not seem ready for the engagement, which 
 they had affected to challenge. Indeed, some strategy seemed 
 necessary to bring them to fight. About 3 P. M., Gen. Early's 
 brigade (Ewell's division) made a circuit through the woods, 
 attacking the enemy on their right flank, the 13th Virginia 
 ret^imcnt beinii in the advance as skirmishers. At 4 o'clock 
 the firing began, and soon the fight became general. As Gen. 
 Jaclvson's division, then commanded by Gen. AYinder, were 
 rapidly proceeding to the scene of action, the enemy, guided 
 by the dust made by the artillery, shelled the road with great 
 precision. It was by this shelling that the brave Winder wag 
 killed. His left arm shattered and his side also wounded, he 
 Burvived but an hour. At a still later period, a" portion of 
 Gen. A. P. Hill's division were engaged. The battle waa 
 mainly fought in a large field near Mrs. Crittenden's house, a 
 portion being open, and the side occupied by the Yankees 
 being covered with luxuriant corn. Through this corn, when 
 cur forces were considerably scattered, two Yankee cavalry 
 .regiments made a desperate charge, evidently expecting utterly 
 to disorganize our lines. The result was precisely the reverse. 
 Our men rallied, ceased to fire on the infantry, and, concen- 
 irating their attention on the cavalry, poured into their ranks 
 a fire which emptied many a saddle, and caused the foe to 
 vheel and retire, which, however, they effected without break- 
 in"" their columns. For some time the tide of victory ebbed 
 and flowed, but about dark the foe finally broke and retreated 
 in confusion to the woods, leaving their dead and many of 
 their wounded, with a large quantity of arms and ammuni- 
 tion upon the field. Daylight faded and tl# moon in her full 
 glory appeared, just as the terrours of the raging battle gave 
 vay to the sickening scenes of a field where a victory has been 
 "won. 
 
 The battle of Cedar Run, as it was entitled, may be charac- 
 terized as one of the most rapid and severe engagements of 
 the war. In ev6ry particular it was a sanguinary and des- 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 17 
 
 perate struggle, an'd resulted in a complete"and decisive victory 
 for our arms. Our forces engaged amounted to about eight 
 thousand, whilst those of the enemy could not have been less 
 than fifteen thousand. Our loss was near six hundred killed, 
 wounded and missing ; that of the enemy little, if any, less 
 than two thousand. We captured nearly five hundred pri- 
 soners, over fifteen hundred stand of arms, two splendid Napo- 
 leon guns, twelve wagon loads of ammunition, several wagon 
 loads of new and excellent clothing, and drove the enemy two 
 miles beyond the field of battle, which we held for two days 
 and'nigiits. 
 
 The battle was remarkable for an extraordinary and terrific 
 "artillery duel." In fact, the fire was conducted with artil- 
 lery alone for more than three hours. The opposing batteries 
 unlimbered so close to each other that, during the greater part 
 of the firing, they used grape and canister. Those working 
 our battery could distinctly" hear the hum of voices of the in- 
 fantry support of the Federal battery. The Louisiana Guard 
 artillery and the Purcell battery were ordered to take position 
 and open on the enemy from the crest of a hill. Here they 
 found themselves opposed by five batteries of the enemy within 
 short range. The battle raged fiercely, the enemy firing with 
 great precision. The accuracy of our fire was proved by the 
 fact, that the enemy, though their guns were more than twice 
 as numerous, were compelled to shift the position of their bat- 
 teries five separate times. Once during the fight, the enemy's 
 sharpshooters, under cover of a piece of woods, crept up within 
 a short distance of our batteries and opened on them, but were 
 instantly scattered by a discharge of canister from one of the 
 howitzers. 
 
 I 
 
18 SECOND BATTLE OP MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Tlie battle of Cedar Mountain was the natural preface to 
 that larger and severer contest of arms which was to baptize, 
 for a second time, the field of Manassas with the blood of 
 Southern patriots, and illuminate it with the splendid scenes 
 of a decisive victory. It convinced the North of the necessity 
 of a larger scale of exertion and a concentration of its forces 
 in Virginia to effect its twice-foiled advance upon the capital 
 of the Confederacy. It was decided by the Washington gov- 
 ernment to recall McClellan's army from the Peninsula, to 
 unite his columns with those of Pope, to include also the forces 
 at Fredericksburg, and, banding these in a third Grand Army 
 more splendid than its predecessors, to make one concentrated 
 endeavour to retrieve its unfortunate summer campaign in 
 Virginia, and plant its banners in the city of Richmond. 
 
 Not many days elapsed before the evacuation of Berkeley 
 and Westover, on the James River, was signalled to the 
 authorities of Richmond by the large fleet of transports col- 
 lected on the James and the Rappahannock. It became neces- 
 lary to meet the rapid movements of the enemy by new 
 dispositions of our forces; not a day was to be lost; and by 
 the 17th of August, Gen. Lee had assembled in front of Pope a 
 force sufficient to contest his further advance, and to balk his 
 threatened passage of the Rapidan. 
 
 After the battle of Cedar Mountain, the forces under Stone- 
 wall Jackson withdrew from the vicinity of the Rapidan, and 
 ■were for some days unheard of, except that a strong force was 
 in the vicinity of Madison Court House, some twelve miles to 
 the westward, in the direction of Luray and the Shenandoah 
 valley ; but it was supposed by the enemy that this was only 
 a wing of the army under Ewell, intended to act as reserves to 
 Jackson's army, and to cover his retreat back to Gordonsville. 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. !# 
 
 Not SO, however. These forces of Ewell, as afterwards dis- 
 covered by the Yankees to their great surprise, were the 
 main body of Jackson's army, en route for the Shenandoah 
 valley. 
 
 It was probably the design of Gen. Lee, with the bulk of the 
 Confederate army to take the front, left and right, and engage 
 Gen. Pope at or near the Rapidan, while Jackson and Ewell 
 were to cross the Shenandoah river and mountains, cut off his 
 supplies by way of the railroad, and menace his rear. The 
 adventure, on the part of Jackson, was difficult and desperate; 
 it took the risk of any new movements of Pope, by which he 
 (Jackson) himself might be cut off. It was obvious, indeed, 
 that if Pope could reach Gordonsville, he would cut off Jack- 
 son's supplies, but in this .direction he was to be confronted by 
 Gen. Lee with the forces withdrawn from Richmond. AVith 
 the movement of Jackson the object was to keep Pope between 
 the Rapidan and the Rappahannock rivers until Jackson had 
 attained his position at Manassas, or perhaps at Rappah-mnock 
 bridge; but Pope's retreat to the Rappahannock's north bank 
 frustrated that design, and rendered it necessary for General 
 Lee to follow up his advantage, and, by a system of feints, to 
 take Pope's attention from his rear and divert it to his front. 
 
 On Monday, the 28th of August, at daybreak. General 
 Jackson's corps, consisting of General Ewell's division, 
 General Hill's division, and General Jackson's old division, 
 under command of General Taliaferro, and a force of cavalry 
 under General Stuart, marched from Jeffersonton, in Culpeper 
 county, and crossed the Rappahannock eight miles above that 
 place, and marched via Orleans to Salem, in Fauquier. The 
 next day they passed through Thoroughfare Gap, of Bull Run 
 mountains, to Bristow and Manassas Stations, on the Orange 
 and Alexandria railroad, effecting a complete surprise of the 
 enemy, capturing a large number of prisoners, several trains of 
 cars, and immense commissary and quartermaster stores, and 
 several pieces of artillery. Tlie distance marched in these two 
 days was over fifty miles. On Wednesday, Manassas Station 
 
20 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 ▼as occupied by Jackson's old division, whilst Ewell occupied 
 Bristol, and Hill and Stuart dispersed the force sent from 
 Alexandria to attack >vhat the enemy supposed to be only a 
 cavalry force. 
 
 The amount of propertj' Avhich fell into our hands at Manas- 
 sas was immense — several trains heavily laden with stores, ten 
 first class locomotives, fifty thousand pounds of bacon, one 
 thousand barrels of beef, two thousand barrels of pork, several 
 thousand barrels of flour, and a large quantity of oats and corn. 
 A bakery, which was daily turning out fifteen thousand loaves of 
 bread, was also destroyed. Next to Alexandria, Manassas was 
 probably the largest depot established for the Northern army 
 in Virginia. 
 
 The movement of Jackson which we have briefly sketched is 
 the chief element of the situation in which the decisive engage- 
 ments of Manassas were fought. In this connection it must be 
 studied ; it was the brilliant strategic preface to the most decisive 
 victory yet achieved on the theatre of the war. The corps of 
 Jackson, having headed ofi" the Federal army under Pope, has 
 BOW possession of Manassas Plains. It had accomplished its 
 design, which was to force Pope back — deprive him completely 
 ef direct communication with Washington or Alexandria, and 
 eventually induce his surrender or anniliilation. 
 
 The principal and anxious topic in the North was, by what 
 eccentric courses the famous Confederate commander had 
 managed to get around the right wing of Pope's army, wlien it 
 "was supposed — and in fact the hasty exultation had already 
 been caught up in the Yankee newspapers — that it was the 
 "rebel" general who Avas cut off", and that he would probably 
 make a desperate retreat into the mountains to escape tiie ter- 
 rours of Pope. Indeed, it was some time before the full and 
 critical meaning of the situation dawned upon the prejudiced 
 mind of the Northern public. The idea was indulged that the 
 capture of Manassas was only a successful raid by a body of 
 rebel guerrillas ; and so it was dismissed by the newspapers with 
 ft levity, characteristic of their insolence and ignorance. 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 21 
 
 Weak and credulous as General Pope was, it is probable that 
 the moment he heard that Jackson Avas in his rear, he was 
 satisfied that it vras no raid. The situation had been changed 
 almost in a moment. Pope had evacuated Warrenton Junctioa 
 and was moving along the railroad upon Manassas, anxious td 
 secure his "line of retreat," and expecting, doubtless, with no 
 little confidence, by rapid marches of a portion of his forces bj 
 the turnpike upon Gainesville, to intercept any reinforcements 
 by the way of Thoroughfare Gap to Jackson, and to fall upon 
 and crusli him by the weight of numbers. A portion of the 
 Confederate army now fronted to the South, and the Fede- 
 ral army towards Washington. The latter had been swollen bj 
 reinforcements, and the advance corps from Burnsidc was 
 inarching on rapidly from Fredericksburg to complete the 
 amassment on the Federal side. 
 
 Although the situation of Gen. Pope was one unexpected bj 
 himself, and surrounded by many embarrassments, he yet had 
 many circumstances of advantage in which to risk a great and 
 decisive battle. The New York journals persisted in declaring 
 that it was not the infallible Pope, but the "rebel " army that 
 was " in a tight place." At any rate. Pope was not in the 
 situation in which McClellan found himself when his right wing 
 was turned by the Confederates in front of Richmond — that is, 
 without supports or reinforcements. On the contrary, on his 
 right, and on the way up from Fredericksburg, was the new 
 army of the Potomac under Burnside ; while advancing for- 
 ward from Alexandria was the newly organized army of Vir- 
 ginia under IMcClcllan. Such was the array of force that 
 threatened the army we had withdrawn from Richmond, and in 
 which the Northern populace indulged the prospect of a certain 
 and splendid victory. 
 
 An encounter of arms of vital consequence was now to ensue 
 on the already historic and famous Plains of Manassas — the 
 beautiful stretch of hill and dale reaching as far as Centreville, 
 varied by amphitheatres, an admirable battle ground ; with the 
 scenery of which the Southern troops associated the exciting 
 
n SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 thoughts of a former victory and a former shedding of the 
 blood of their beloved and best on the memorable and conse- 
 wated spots that marked the field of buttle. 
 
 The Engagement of Wednesday, the 27tii of August. 
 
 On "Wednesday, the 27th, an attack was made by the enemy 
 upon Bristow Station, and also at Manassas Junction. 
 
 On the morning of that dfiy, at about eleven o'clock. Gen. 
 Taylor's brigade, of Major-General Slocum's division of the 
 army of the Potomac, consisting of the first, second, third and 
 fourth New Jersey regiments, Avere ordered to proceed to 
 Manassas by rail from their camp near Fort Ellsworth, Alex- 
 andria. , 
 
 The brigade arrived at Bull Run brid";e about seven o'clock 
 in the morning. The troops landed and crossed the bridge 
 ■with as little delay as possible, and marched towards Manassas. 
 After ascending the hill emerging from the valley of Bull Run, 
 they encountered a line of skirmishers, of the Confederates, 
 •which fell back before them. The brigade marched on in the 
 direction of Manassas, not seeing any of the enemy until 
 •within range of the circular series of fortifications around the 
 Junction, when heavy artillery Avas opened upon them from all 
 directions. General Taylor retired beyond the range of our 
 guns to the rear of a sheltering crest of ground, from which he 
 ■was driven by our infantry. Crossing at Blackburn's ford, he 
 was pursued by our horse artillery, which fired into him, creating 
 the utmost havoc. The brigade retreated in a disorganized 
 mass of flying men towards Fairfax ; it was pursued by our 
 eager troops beyond Centreville, and the track of the flying and 
 cowardly enemy was marked with his dead. 
 
 The flight of the enemy was attended by the most wild and 
 terrible scenes, as he was pursued by our horse artillery, pour- 
 ins canister into his ranks. The brigade was almost annihi- 
 lated. General Taylor himself, his son on his staff, and his 
 nephew, were wounded ; also one half of his officers. 
 
 At 3 o'clock, P. M., of the same day, the enemy attacked 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 23 
 
 General Eirell, at Bristow, and that General, after a handsome 
 little fight, in which he punished the enemy severely, retired 
 across Muddy Run, as had previously been agreed upon, to 
 Manassas Junction. This attack was made by the division of 
 the enemy commanded by Gen. Hooker, which was dispatched 
 to that point and detached'from the advancing forces of Pope, 
 who, of course, claimed the resuU of the affair as a signal 
 Federal success. 
 
 Movements of Tuursday, the 28Tn of August. 
 
 After sunset on Thursday General Jackson accomplished 
 one of the most beautiful and masterly strategic movements of 
 the war. He found himself many miles in advance of the rest 
 of our army. The enemy might throw his immense columns 
 between him and Longstreet — Alexandria and Washington was 
 to his rear when he turned to attack the enemy. He deter- 
 mined to throw himself upon the enemy's flank, to preserve the 
 same nearness to Alexandria, to place himself within support 
 of the remainder of our army, and to occupy a position from 
 which he could not be driven, even if support did not arrive ia 
 time. All this he accomplished that night, after destroying 
 the stores, buildings, cars, &c., and burning the railroad bridges 
 over Muddy Run and Bull Run. He marched at night with 
 his entire force from Manassas Station to Manassas battle-field, 
 crossing the Warrenton Turnpike, and placing his troops in 
 such position that he could confront the enemy should they at- 
 tempt to advance by the Warrenton pike or by the Sudley road 
 and ford, and have the advantage of communicating by the 
 Aldie road with Longstreet, should he not have passed the 
 Thoroughfare Gap, and at all events gain for himself a safe 
 position for tittack or defence. At 7 o'clock, A. M., on Fri- 
 day, General Stuart encountered the enemy's cavalry near 
 Gainesville, on the Warrenton pike, and drove them back; and 
 during the morning the 2d brigade of General Taliaferro's 
 division, under Colonel Bradley Johnson, again repulsed them. 
 It was now ascertained that the enemy's column was advancing 
 
24 • SECOND BATTLE OP MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 (or retreating) from "Warrcnton, along the line of the railroad 
 and by way of the Warrenton Turnpike, and that they intended 
 to pass a part of their force over the Stone Bridge and Sudley 
 ford. Gen. Jackson immediately ordered Gen. Taliaferro to 
 advance with his division to attack their left flank, -which was 
 advancing towards Sudley Mill. Gen. Ewcll's division marched 
 considerably in the rear of the 1st division. After marching 
 some three miles, it was discovered that the enemy had aban- 
 doned the idea of crossing at Sudley, and had left the War- 
 renton pike to the left, beyond Groveton, and were apparently 
 cutting across to the railroad through the fields and woods. In 
 a few minutes, however, he advanced across the turnpike to 
 attack us, and Jackson's army was thrown forward to meet him. 
 From this sketch of the movements of the corps commanded 
 by Gen. Jackson, it will be seen that though a portion of our 
 forces, under Gens. EwcU and Jackson, were on Tuesday and 
 and a part of Wednesday, the 2Gth and 27th August, on the 
 Orange and Alexandria railroad, between Pope and Alexandria, 
 on the approach of Pope from Warrenton they withdrew to the 
 west and halted in the vicinity of the Warrenton Turnpike, 
 expecting to be rejoined by Longstreet, where they awaited the 
 approach of the enemy and delivered him battle. 
 
 The Battle of Friday, the 29th of August. 
 
 The conflict of Friday occurred near the village of Groveton, 
 our right resting just above and near the village, and the left 
 upon the old battle-field of Manassas. The division of General 
 Anderson had not yet arrived, and the corps of Longstreet had 
 not been^ully placed in position. The enemy, probably aware 
 of our movements, selected this opportunity to make an attack 
 upon Jackson, hoping thereby to turn our left,* destroy our 
 combinations, and disconcert the plans which had already 
 become apparent to the Federal commanders. 
 
 Gen. Longstreet's passage of the Thoroughfare Gap in the 
 face of a force of two thousand of the enemy, is one of the 
 most remarkable incidents of the late operations in Northern 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 88 
 
 Virginia. The Gap is a wild, rude opening through the Bull 
 Run Mountains, varying in width from one hundred to two 
 hundred yards. A rapid stream of water murmurs over the 
 rocks of the rugged defile, along which runs a stony winding 
 road. On either side arise the mountains, those on the left 
 presenting their flat, precipitous faces to the beholder, with 
 here and there a shrub jutting out and relieving the monoto- 
 nous grey of the rocky mass ; and those on the right covered 
 thickly with timber, impassable to any but the most active men. 
 The strong position afforded by this pass, which might have 
 been held against almost any force by a thousand determined 
 troops and a battery of artillery, had been possessed by the 
 enemy, who had planted his batteries at various points and 
 lined the sides of the mountains with his skirmishers. As it 
 was, the passage was effected by Longstrcet's division with the 
 loss of only three men wounded. The Yankees behind the 
 rocks were charged and driven in confusion from their hiding 
 places. 
 
 Under Jackson and Longstreet, the details of the plan of 
 Gen. Lee had been so far carried out in every respect. For 
 ten days or more the troops of both of these Generals in the 
 advance were constantly under fire. The former had been 
 engaged in no less than four serious fights. Many of the men 
 were barefooted, in rags ; provided with only a single blanket 
 as a protection agninst the heavy dews and severe cold at night ; 
 frequently they would get nothing from daylight to daylight; 
 rations at best consisted of hard bread and water, with a rare 
 and economical intermingling of bacon ; and the troops were 
 in what at any other time they would have characterized as a 
 suffering condition. Notwithstanding these adverse circum- 
 stances, not i murmur of complaint had been heard; marches 
 of twenty, and in one instance of thirty, miles a day had been 
 patiently endured, and the spirit of the army, so far from being 
 broken, was elevated to a degree of enthusiasm which foreboded 
 nothing but the victory it won. 
 
 On the morning of the 29th, the "Washington Artillery of 
 
9$ SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 New Orleans and several other batteries were planted Tipon a 
 high hill that commanded the extensive ground over which the 
 enemy were advancing, and just in front of this, perhaps a 
 little to the left, the fight began. The Federals threw forward 
 a heavy column, supported by field batteries, and under cover 
 of their fire made a bold stroke to divide our line. The blow 
 fell upon a portion of Ewell's troops, who were concealed 
 behind the embankment of a railroad, but no sooner had the 
 enemy appeared within close range, than they received a terri- 
 bly galling fire, which drove them panic-stricken from that 
 portion of the field. As they ran our artillery opened upon 
 the flying mass with shell and round shot. Every ball could 
 be seen taking eifect. The enemy fell by scores, until finally 
 the once beautiful line melted confusedly into the Avoods. 
 Again they renewed the attack, and gradually the fight became 
 general along nearly the entire column of Jackson. 
 
 As the afternoon progressed, however, Gen. Lee discovered 
 that strong Yankee reinforcements were coming up, and he 
 accordingly ordered the division of General Hood, belonging 
 to Longstreet's corps, to make a demonstration on the enemy's 
 left. This was done, perhaps an hour before dark, and the 
 moment they became engaged the difference became perceptible 
 at a glance. Jackson, thus strengthened, fought with renewed 
 vigor, and the enemy not knowing the nature of the reinforce- 
 ments, and diverted by our onset, which compelled him to 
 change his lines, was proportionately weakened. The result 
 was, that at dark Hood's division had driven the forces in front 
 of them three quarters of a mile from our starting point, and 
 had it not been for the lateness of the hour, might have turned 
 the defeat into an utter rout. 
 
 The conflict had been terrific. Our troops were advanced 
 several times during the fight, but the enemy fought with des- 
 peration, and did not retire until nine o'clock at night, when 
 they sullenly left the field to the Confederates. During the 
 aight orders came from head-quarters for our troops to fall 
 back to their original positions, preparatory to our renewal of 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 27 
 
 the action in the morning. It might have been this simple 
 retrogade movement which led to the mendacious despatch 
 sent by Pope to Washington, stating that he had wliipped our 
 army and driven us from the field, but confessing that the 
 Federal loss was eight thousand in killed and "wounded. 
 
 The Battle or Saturday, the SOtii of August. 
 
 The grand day of the prolonged contest was yet to dawn. 
 For two days each wing of our army under Generals Longstreet 
 and Jackson had repulsed with vigour attacks made on them 
 separately. Gen. Pope had concentrated the greater portion 
 of the army under his command for a desperate renewal of the 
 attack on our lines. Friday night found those of our men who 
 were not engaged in burying the dead and bringing away the 
 wounded, sleeping upon their arms. All the troops of Long- 
 street's corps, with the exception of Gen. R. H. Anderson's, 
 which was only three or four miles in the rear, had taken their 
 places in the line of battle, and every one looked forward to 
 the events of the coming day, the anticipations of which had 
 sustained our soldiers under the terrible fatigue, discomforts 
 and deprivations of the ten days' tedious march, by which rein- 
 forcements had at last reached the heroic and unyielding 
 Jackson. 
 
 AYith the first streak of daylight visible through the light 
 mist that ascended from the woods, our men were under arms. 
 The pickets of the two armies were within a few hundred yards 
 of each other. Every circumstance indicated that the battle 
 would commence at an early hour in the morning. The waking 
 of a portion of our batteries into life soon after daylight, and 
 the frequent cannonading thereafter, the almost incessant skir- 
 mishing in front, with its exciting volleys of musketry, all 
 conspired to produce this impression. 
 
 Our line of battle was an obtuse crescent in shape, and at 
 least five miles long. Jackson's line, which formed our left, 
 stretched from Sudley, on Bull Run, along the partly excavated 
 track of the Manassas Independent line of railroad, for a por- 
 
28 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 tion of the way, ami thence towards a point on the Warrenton 
 Turnpike, about a mile and a half in rear or Avest of Groveton. 
 
 Longstreet's command, which formed our right wing, 
 extended from the point on the turnpike on which Jackson's 
 right flank rested, and prolonged the line of battle far to the 
 right, stretching beyond the line of the Manassas Gap Rail- 
 road. 
 
 It is tlius seen that a point on the AVarrenton Turnpike, a 
 mile and a half west of Groveton, was the centre of our posi- 
 tion, and the apex of our crescent, whose convexity was 
 towards the west. It was here, in an interval between Jack- 
 son's right and Longstreet's left that our artillery was placed. 
 Eight batteries were planted on a commanding elevation. 
 
 The enemy's line of battle conformed itself to ours, and took, 
 therefore, a crescent form, of which the centre or more advance 
 portion was at Groveton, whence the wings declined obliquely 
 to the right and left. Their batteries were in rear of their 
 infantry, and occupied the hills which they had held in the 
 fight of July, 18G1, but pointed differently. 
 
 The disposition of the enemy's forces was, General Ileintzel- 
 man on the extreme right and Gen. McDowell on the extreme 
 left, while the army corps of Generals Fitz John Porter and 
 Seigel, and Reno's division of General Burnside's army, were 
 placed in the centre. 
 
 The elevation occupied by our artillery, under command of 
 Colonel Stephen D. Lee, of South Carolina, was the most com- 
 manding ground that could have been selected for the purpose. 
 It was about the centre of the entire army. To the front, the 
 land breaks beautifully into hill and dale, forming a sort of 
 amphitheatre. Around the field, and occasionally shooting 
 into it in narrow bands, are iieavy woodsy 
 
 Early in the morning the immense masses of the enemy's 
 infantry were seen in line of battle, and far in the distance 
 immense clouds of dust filled the heavens. During this time 
 our batteries were pitching their shot and shell into the Fede- 
 ral ranks, and returning the fire of their artillery on the brow 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. B# 
 
 of an opposite hill. Sometimes it was fierce, but generally it 
 ■\vas a deliberate, casual interchange of fire. 
 
 About 1 A. M. a regiment advanced rapidly on the enemy's 
 left, determined to drive out our pickets from an orchard, 
 where all the morning they had been keeping up a brisk fire. 
 This effort succeeded, and our brave sharp-shooters retired 
 through the orchard in good order. As soon as they got well 
 out of the way, our batteries opened upon the enemy, and in 
 ten minutes they were retreating, sheltering themselves in the 
 ravines and behind a barn. At 2 o'clock, the forces that had 
 been moving almost the whole day towards our left, began to 
 move in the opposite direction, and it appeared that they were 
 retiring towards Manassas, two or three miles distant. Several 
 attempts were now made to advance upon our left like those to 
 drive in our pickets on our right, but a few shells served to 
 scatter the skirmishers and drive them into the woods that 
 skirted this beautiful valley on either hand. When it appeared 
 more than probable that the enemy, foiled in his attempt to 
 make us bring on the fight by these little advances on our 
 right and left, was about to retire, and merely kept up the can- 
 nonading in order to conceal his retreat, suddenly, at 4 P. M., 
 there belched forth from every brazen throat in our batteries a 
 volley that seemed to shake the very earth. 
 
 It was at this instant that the battle wai joined. As the 
 sporting wliirls of smoke drifted away the cau»e of the tumult 
 was at once discerned. A dense column of infantry, several 
 thousand strong, which had been massed behind and near a 
 strip of woods, had moved out to attack Jackson, whose men 
 were concealed behind an excavation on the railroad. As soon 
 as they were discovered our batteries opened with tremendous 
 power, but the Federals moved boldly forward, until they came 
 within the range of our small arms, where for fully fifteen minutes 
 they remained desperately engaged with our infantry. As the 
 fight progressed, a second line emerged from the cover and 
 went to the support of those in front, and finally a third line 
 march«d out into the open field below us and there halted, 
 
89 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 hesitated, and soon commenced firing over the heads of their 
 comrades beyond. 
 
 Jackson's infantry raked these three columns terribly. Re- 
 peatedly did they break and run, and rally again under the 
 energetic appeals of their officers, for it was a crack corps of 
 the Federal army — that of Generals Sykes and ^^lorrcU ; but 
 it was not in human nature to stand unflinchingly before that 
 hurricane of fire. As the fight progressed, Lee moved his bat- 
 teries to the left, until reaching a position only four hundred 
 yards distant from the enemy's lines, he opened again. The 
 spectacle was now magnificent. As shell after shell burst in 
 the wavering ranks, and round shot ploughed broad gaps among 
 them, one could distinctly see through the rifts of smoke the 
 Federal soldiers falling and flying on every side. "With the 
 explosion of every bomb, it seemed as if scores dropped dead, 
 or writhed in agony upon the field. Some were crawling |on 
 their hands and knees ; some were piled up together ; and some 
 were lying scattered around in every attitude that imagination 
 can conceive. 
 
 Presently the Yankee columns began to break and men to 
 fall out to the rear. The retreating numbers gradually in- 
 crease, and the great mass, without line or form, now 
 move back like a great multitude without guide or leader. 
 From a slow, steady walk, the great mass, or many parts of it, 
 move at a run. Jackson's men, yelling like devils, now charge 
 upon the scattered crowd ; but it is easily seen that they them- 
 Belves had severely suff'ered, and were but a handful compared 
 ■with the overwhelming forces of the enemy. The flags of two 
 or three regiments do not appear to be more than fifty yards 
 apart. The brilliant affair has not occupied more than half aa 
 hour, but in that brief time more than a thousand Yankees 
 have been launched into eternity, or left mangled on the 
 ground. 
 
 Ihe whole scene of battle now changes. It will be seen in 
 referring to the disposition of our forces that Jackson's line, 
 which formed our left, stretched from Bull Run towards a point 
 
SECOND BATTLE ,0P MANASSAS, ETC. 81 
 
 on the Warrenton turnpike. In his severe action with the enemy 
 his left, advancing more rapidly than his right, had swept 
 around by the Pittsylvania House, and was pressing the P'ederals 
 back towards the turnpike. It was now the golden opportunity 
 for Longstreet to attack the exposed left flank of the enemy in 
 front of him. 
 
 Hood's Brigade formed Longstreet's left, and, of course, 
 charged next the turnpike. In its track it met Sickles' Excel- 
 sior Brigade, and almost annihilated it. The ground was piled 
 ■with the slain. Pickett's Brigade was on the right of Hood's, 
 next came Jenkins' Brigade, and next was Kemper's, which 
 charged near the Conrad House. Evans' and Anderson's were 
 the reserve, and subsequently came into action. 
 
 Not many minutes elapsed after the order to attack passed 
 along our entire line before the volleys of platoons, and finally 
 the rolling reports of long lines of musketry, indicated that the 
 battle was in full progress. The whole army was now in motion. 
 The woods were full of troops, and the order for the supports to 
 forward at a quickstep was received with enthusiastic cheers, by 
 the elated men. The din was almost deafening, the heavy notes 
 of the artillery, at first deliberate, but gradually increasing in 
 their rapidity, mingled with the sharp treble of the small arras, 
 gave one an idea of some diabolical concert in which all the 
 furies of hell were at work. Through the woods, over gently 
 rolling hills, now and then through an open field we travel on 
 towards the front. From an elevation we obtain a view of a 
 considerable portion of the field. Hood and Kemper are now 
 hard at it, and as they press forward, never yielding an inch, 
 sometimes at a double quick, you hear those unmistakeable 
 yells, which tell of a Southern charge or a Southern success. 
 
 Reaching the vicinity of the Chinn House, the eye at once 
 embraces the entire vista of battle — at least that portion of it 
 which is going on in front of Longstreet. Some of our men 
 are in the woods in the rear, and some in the open field 
 •which stretches the undulating surface far away towards Bull 
 Run. The old battle ground is plainly discernible less than 
 
82 SECOND BATTLE OF. MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 two miles distant, and to tlie rii^ht and left, as well as in front, 
 the country is comparatively unobstructed by heavy woods. 
 Just before you, only three or four hundred yards away, are 
 the infantry of the enemy, and at various points in the rear 
 are their reserves and batteries. Between the armies, the 
 ground is already covered with the dead and wounded, for a 
 distance lengthwise of nearly a mile. 
 
 Our own artillery are likewise upon commanding positions, 
 and you hear the heavy rush of shot, the terrible dumps into 
 the ground, and the crash of trees through which they tear 
 with resistless force on every side. 
 
 Nothing can withstand the impetuosity of our troops. Every 
 line of the enemy has been broken and dispersed, but rallies 
 again upon some other position behind. Hood has already 
 advanced his division nearly half a mile at a double-quick, the 
 Texans, Georgians and Hampton Legion loading and firing as 
 they run, yelling all the while like madmen. They have cap- 
 tured one or two batteries and various stands of colors, and are 
 Still pushing the enemy before them. Evans, at the head of 
 his brigade, is following on the right, as their support, and 
 pouring in his effective volleys. Jenkins has come in on the 
 right of the Chinn House, and, like an avalanche, sweeps down 
 upon the legions before him with resistless force. Still further 
 to the right is Longstreet's old brigade, composed of Virgin- 
 ians — veterans of every battle-field — all of whom are fighting 
 like furies. The First Virginia, which opened the fight at Bull 
 Run on the 17th of July, 1861, with over six hundred men, 
 now reduced to less than eighty members, is winning new lau- 
 rels; but out of the little handful, more than a third have al- 
 ready bit the dust. Toombs and Anderson, with the Georgians, 
 together with Kemper and Jenkins, are swooping around on 
 the right, flanking the Federals, and driving them towards their 
 centre and rear. Escholman, with his company of the Wash- 
 ington Artillery ; Major Garnfett, with his battalion of Virginia 
 batteries, and others of our big guns, are likewise working 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 33 
 
 around upon the enemy's left, and pouring an enfilading firo 
 into both their infantry and artillery. 
 
 While the grand chorus of battle is thundering along our 
 front, Jackson has closed in upon the enemy on their right, and 
 Longstreet has similarly circumscribed them on their left. In 
 other words, the V shaped lines with which we commenced the 
 engagement have opened at the angle, while the two opposite 
 ends of the figure are coming together. Lee has advanced his 
 battalion of artillery from the centre, and from hill-top to hill- 
 top, wherever he can eflfect a lodgement, lets loose the racing 
 masses of iron that chase each other through the Federal ranks. 
 Pryor, Feathcrstone and Wilcox being on the extreme left of 
 Longstreet's line, are co-operating with the army of Jackson. 
 
 It was at this point of the battle, when our infantry pouring 
 down from the right and left, made one of the most terrible 
 and sublime bayonet charges in the records of war. There was 
 seen emerging from the dust a long, solid mass of men, coming 
 down upon the worn and disheartened Federals, at a bayonet 
 charge, on the double-quick. This line of bayonets, in the dis- 
 tance, presented a spectacle at once awful, sublime, terrible and 
 overwhelming. " They came on," said a Northern account re- 
 ferring to the Confederates, " like demons emerging from the 
 earth." With grim and terrible energy, our men came up 
 within good range of the enemy's columns; they take his fire 
 without a halt; a momentary confusion ensues as the leaden 
 showers are poured into our ranks ; but the next moment the 
 bugles sound the order to our phalanxes, and instantly the huge 
 mass of Confederates is hurled against the enemy's left wing. 
 The divisions of Reno and Schenck — the choicest veterans of 
 the Federal army are swept away. Setting up a yell of tri- 
 umph, our men push over the piles of their own dead, and the 
 corpses ef many a Federal, using the bayonet at close quarters 
 with the enemy. 
 
 The rout of the enemy was ci)mplete. It had been a task 
 of almost superhuman labour to drive the enemy from his 
 strong points, defended as they were by the best artillery and 
 3 
 
84 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 infantry in the Federal army, but in less than four hours from 
 the commonceraent of the battle our indomitable energy had 
 accomplished every thing. The arrival of R. H. Anderson 
 with his reserves soon after the engagement was fairly opened, 
 proved a timely acquisition, and the handsome ninnner in which 
 he brought his troops into position showed the cool and skillful 
 General. Our Generals, Lee, Longstreet, Jackson, Hood, 
 Kemper, Evans, Jones, Jenkins, and others, all shared the 
 dangers to which they exposed their men. IIow well their 
 Colonels and the subordinate officers performed their duty is 
 best testified by the list of killed and wounded. 
 
 In determining the fortunes of the battle our cavalry had in 
 more than one instance played a conspicuous part. 
 
 As the columns of the enemy began to give way, General 
 Beverly Robinson was ordered by Gen. Longstt'cet to charge 
 the flying masses with his brigade of cavalry. The brigade 
 numbering a thousand men, composed of Munford's, Myers', 
 Harraan's and Flournoy's regiments, was immediately put in 
 motion, but before reaching the infantry General Robinson dis- 
 covered a brigade of the enemy fifteen hundred strong drawn 
 up on the crest of a hill directly in his front. Leaving one of 
 his regiments in reserve, he charged with the other three full 
 at the enemy's ranks. As our men drew near, the whole of the 
 Yankee line fired them a volley from their carbines, most of 
 the bullets, however, whistling harmlessly over their heads. In 
 another instant the enemy received the terrific shock of our 
 squadrons. There was a pause, a hand-to-hand fight for a 
 moment, and the enemy broke and fled in total rout. All 
 organization was destroyed, and every man trusted for his 
 safety only in the heels of his horse. 
 
 Night closed upon the battle. When it was impossible to 
 use fire-arms the heavens were lit up by the still continued 
 flashes of the artillery, and the meteor flight of shells scatter- 
 ing their iron spray. By this time the enemy had been forced 
 across Bull Run, and their dead covered every acre from the 
 starting point of the fight to the Stone Bridge. In its first 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 35 
 
 Stages the retreat of the enemy was a wild, frenzied x-out; the 
 great mass of the enemy moving at a full run, scattered over 
 the fields and trampling upon the dead and living in the mad 
 agony of their flight. The whole army was converted into a 
 mob; regiments and companies were no longer distinguishable ; 
 and the panic stricken fugitives were slaughtered at every step 
 of their retreat — our cavalry cutting them down, or our infan- 
 try driving their bayonets into their backs. 
 
 In crossing Bull Run many of the enemy were drowned, 
 being literally dragged and crushed under the water, which was 
 not more than waist deep, by the crowds of frenzied men press- 
 ing and trampling upon each other in the stream. On reach- 
 ing Centreville the flight of the enemy was arrested by the 
 appearance of about thirty thousand fresh Yankee troops — 
 General Franklin's corps. The mass of fugitives was here 
 rallied, to the extent of forming it again into columns, and 
 with this appearance of organization, it was resolved by Gene- 
 ral Pope to continue his retreat to the entrenchments of 
 Waslungton. 
 
 Thus ended the second great battle of Manassas. We had 
 driven the enemy up hill and down, a distance of two and a 
 half miles, strewing this great space with his dead, captured 
 thirty pieces of artillery, and some six or eight thousand stand 
 of arms. Seven thousand prisoners were paroled on the field 
 of battle. For want of transportation valuable stores had to 
 be destroyed as captured, while the enemy, at their various 
 depots, are reported to have burned- many millions of property 
 in their retreat. 
 
 The appearance of the field of battle attested in the most 
 terrible and hideons manner the carnage in the ranks of the 
 enemy. Over the gullies, ravines and valleys, which divided 
 the opposite hills the dead and wounded lay by thousands, as 
 far as the eye could reach. The woods were full of them. la 
 front of the Chinn House, which had been converted into a 
 hospital, the havoc was terrible. The ground was strewn not 
 only with men, but arms, ammunition, provisions, haversacks, 
 
36 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 canteens, and whatever else the affrighted Federals could 
 throw away, to facilitate their flight. In front of the positions 
 occupied by Jackson's men, the killed were more plentiful. In 
 many instances as many as eighty or ninety dead marked the 
 place where had fougjit a single Yankee regiment. Around 
 the Henry and Robinson houses the dead were more scattered, 
 as if they were picked oflf, or killed while running. The body 
 of a dead Yankee was found lying at full length upon the 
 grave of the aged Mrs. Henry, who was killed by the enemy's 
 balls in the old battle that had raged upon this spot. Three 
 otliers were upon the very spot where Bartow fell, and within 
 a few feet of the death place of Gen. Bee was still another 
 group. A little further on a wounded Federal had lain for the 
 last two days and nights, when by extending his hand on either 
 side he could touch the dead bodies of his companions. His 
 head was pillowed on one of these. Confederate soldiers were 
 also to be found in the midst of these putrifying masses of 
 death ; but these were comparatively rare. The scenes of the 
 battle-field were rendered ghastly by an extraordinary circum- 
 stance. There was not a dead Y^'ankee in all that broad field 
 ■who had not been stripped of his shoes or stockings — and in 
 numerous cases been left as naked as the hour he was born. 
 Our bare-footed and ragged men had not hesitated to supply 
 their necessities even from the garments and equipments of the 
 dead. 
 
 The enemy admitted a loss down to Friday night of 17,000 
 men, Pope officially stating his loss on that day to have been 
 8,000. In one of the Baltimore papers it was said that the 
 entire Yankee loss, including that of Saturday, was 32,000 
 men — killed, wounded and prisoners. Thts statement allows 
 15,000 for the loss on Saturday. That the loss of that par- 
 ticular day was vastly greater than the enemy admit, we take 
 to be certain. They are not the persons to over-estimate their 
 own losses, and, in the meantime, Gen. Lee tells us that over 
 7,000 of them were taken and paroled on the field. If they 
 fought the battle with anything like the desperation they pre- 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 8T 
 
 tend, considering tliat it lasted five hours, they certainly had 
 more than 8,000 killed and wounded. Four days after the 
 battle there were still three thousand wounded Yankees un- 
 cared for within the lines of Gen. Lee. It is very certain, if 
 they were not cared for, it was because the number of wounded 
 was so great that their turn had not come. Our own wounded, 
 not exceeding, it is said, 3,000, could very well be attended to 
 in a da}^, and then the turn of the Yankees would come. Y'et 
 so numerous were they, that at the end of four days three 
 thousand of them had not received surgical assistance. This 
 indicates an enormous list of wounded, and confirms the report 
 of one officer, who puts down their killed at 5,000, and their 
 wounded at three times that figure, making 20,000 killed and 
 wounded, and of others who say that their killed and wounded 
 were to us in the proportion of five, six, and even seven to one. 
 As many prisoners were taken, who were not includefl in the 
 7,000 paroled men mentioned by Gen. Lee, we do not think we 
 make an over-estimate when we set down the whole Yankee loss 
 at 30,000 in round numbers. Their loss on Friday, estimated 
 by Pope himself at 8,000, added to their loss on Saturday, 
 makes 38,000. Previous operations, including the battle of 
 Cedar Run, the several expeditions of Stuart, and the various 
 skirmishes in which we were almost uniformly victorious, we 
 should think would fairly bring the total loss of the enemy to 
 50,000 men, since our forces first crossed the Rapidan. This 
 is a result almost unequalled in the history of modern cam- 
 paigns. 
 
 The results of Gen. Lee's strategy were indicative of the 
 resources of military genius. Day after day the enemy were 
 beaten, until his disasters culminated on the jlJlains of Ma- 
 nassas. Day after day our officers and men manifested their 
 superiority to the enemy. The summer campaign in Virginia 
 had been conducted by a single army. The same toil-worn 
 troops who had relieved from seige the city of Richmond, had 
 advanced to meet another invading army, reinforced not only 
 by the defeated army of McClellan, but by the fresh corps of 
 
38 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 Generals Burnside and Hunter. The trials and marches of 
 these troops are extraordinary in history. Transportation was 
 inadequate ; the streams which they had to cross Avere swollen 
 to unusual height ; it was only by forced marches and repeated 
 combats they could turn the position of the enemy, and, at 
 last succeeding in this, and forming a junction of their 
 columns, 'in the face of greatly superior forces, they fought the 
 decisive battle of the 30th of August, the crowning triumph of 
 their toil and valour. 
 
 The route of the extraordinary marches of our troops pre- 
 sented, for long and weary miles, the touching pictures of the 
 trials of war. Broken down soldiers (not all " stragglers ") 
 lined the road. At night time they might be found asleep in 
 every conceivable attitude of discomfort — on fence rails and in 
 fence corners — some half bent, others almost erect, in ditches 
 and on steep hill-sides, some without blanket or overcoat. Day- 
 break found them drenched with dew, but strong in purpose; 
 "with half rations of bread and meat, ragged and barefooted, 
 they go cheerfully forward. No nobler spectacle was ever pre- 
 sented in history. These beardless youths and gray-hhired 
 men, who thus spent their nights like the beasts of the field, 
 were the best men of the land — of all classes, trades and pro- 
 fessions. The spectacle was such as to inspire the prayer that 
 ascended from the sanctuaries of the South — that God might 
 reward the devotion of these men to principle and justice by 
 crowning their labours and sacrifices with that blessing which 
 always bringeth peace. 
 
 •The victory which had crowned the campaign of our armies 
 in Virginia, illuminates the names of all associated with it. 
 But in the at;hievement of that victory, and in the history of 
 that campaign, there is one name which, in a few months, had 
 mounted to the zenith of fame ; which in dramatic associations, 
 in rapid incidents, and in swift and sudden renown, challenged 
 comparison with the most extraordinary phenomena in the 
 annals of military genius. This remark is not invidious in its 
 spirit, nor is it forced into the context of this sketch. A per- 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 89 
 
 sonal allusion may be spared in the narrative, when that 
 allusion is to the most remarkable man in the history of this 
 war. 
 
 We refer to General Stonewall Jackson and that wonderful 
 chapter of military achievements which commenced in the 
 Valley of Virginia and concluded at Manassas. It was difficult 
 to say what this man had not accomplished that had ever 
 before been accomplished in history with equal means and in 
 an equal period of time. 
 
 In the spring Gen. Jackson had been placed in command of 
 the small army of observation which held the upper valley of 
 the Shenandoah and the country about Staunton. It was 
 intended that he should remain quasi inactive, to watch the 
 enemy and to wait for him ; but he soon commenced manoeuver- 
 ing on his own responsibility, and ventured upon a scale of 
 operations that threw the higher military authorities at Rich- 
 mond into a fever of anxiety and alarm. 
 
 In less than thirty days he dashed at Fremont's advance, 
 west of Staunton, and driving it back, wheeled his army, swept 
 down the Valley and drove Banks across the Potomac, lleturn- 
 ing to the upper Valley, he manoeuvered around for three 
 weeks — in the meantime dealing Fremont a heavy blow at Cross 
 Keys and defeating Shields in the Luray valley — and, then sud- 
 denly swept down the Virginia Central Railroad, via Gordons- 
 ville, on McClellan's right, before Richmond. The part he 
 played in winding up the campaign on the Peninsula is well 
 known. Almost before the smoke had lifted from the bloody 
 field of the Chickahominy, we hear of him again on his old 
 stamping ground above Gordonsville. Cedar Mountain wag 
 fought and won from Pope before he knew his campaign was 
 opened. Jackson fell back, but only to flank him on the right. 
 Pope retired from the Rapidan to the Rappahannock, but 
 Jackson swung still further round to the North and outflanked 
 him again. Yet again he gave up the Rappahannock and fell 
 back south of Warren ton, and, for the third time, Jackson out- 
 
40 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 flanked him through Thoroughfare Gap, and at last got in his 
 rear. Pope now had to fight ; and the victory which perched 
 upon our banners was the most brilliant of the war. 
 
 It is curious to observe with what insolent confidence the 
 North had anticipated a crowning triumph of its avms on the 
 field of Manassas, even when the air around Washington was 
 burdened with the signals of its defeat. The North did not 
 tolerate the idea of defeat. On the very day of the battle, 
 "Washington was gay with exultation and triumph over an im- 
 agined victory. At thirty minutes past twelve o'clock, the 
 'Washington Star published a dispatch declaring, that it had 
 learned from parties just from Fairfax county, that the firing 
 had stopped; and adding, "we trust the fact means a surrender 
 of the rebels, and do not see how it can mean aught else." At 
 a later hour of the afternoon, a dispatch was received at the 
 War Department, from Major-Gcneral Pope, announcing a 
 brilliant victory in a decisive battle with the Confederate forces 
 on the old Bull Run battle-field. It was stated that he had 
 defeated the Confederate army, and was driving it in discomfi- 
 ture before him. This dispatch had a magical effect. The War 
 Department, contrary to its usual custom, not only permitted, 
 but oflficially authorized the publication of the dispatch. Citi- 
 zens of every grade, of both Sexes and of all ages, were seen 
 in groups around the corners and in the places of public resort 
 speculating upon the particu4ars and the consequences of the 
 decisive victory reported. The triumph of the Federal arms 
 ■was apparently shown to be more complete by reason of the 
 announcement that General Stonewall Jackson, with sixteen 
 thousand of his troops, had been cut off and captured. 
 
 It was at this point of exultation that another dispatch was 
 received from General Pope, stating that the uncertain tide of 
 battle had unfortunately turned against the Federal army, and 
 that he had been compelled to abandon the battle-field during 
 the evening. The revulsion was great; the untimely hallelu- 
 jahs were interrupted, and the population of Washington, from 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 41 
 
 its hasty and indecent exultations of the morning, was soon to 
 be converted into a panic-stricken community, trembling for 
 its own safety. 
 
 Indeed, the victory achieved by the Confederates was far 
 more serious than the most Hvtly alarm in Washington could 
 at first imagine. The next morning after the battle, the last 
 feeble resistance of the Federals at Centreville was broken. 
 The finishing stroke was given by the Confederates under Gen. 
 A. r. Hill, who, on the 1st of September, (Monday,) encoun- 
 tered a large body of the enemy at Germantown, a small vil- 
 lage in Fairfax county, near the main road leading from Cen- 
 treville to Fairfax Court House. The enemy, it appears, had 
 succeeded in rallying a sufficient number of their routed troops 
 at the point named, to make another show of opposition to the 
 advance of the victorious Confederates on their capital. On 
 Sunday, the pursuit of Pope's army was commenced and pressed 
 with vigour on the Fairfax Court House road, and on Monday 
 morning at daylight the enemy were discovered drawn^up in 
 line of battle across the road, their right extending to the vil- 
 lage of Germantown. General Hill immediately ordered the 
 attack, and after a brief but hotly contested fight, the enemy 
 withdrew. During the night, the enemy fell back to Fairfax 
 Court House and abandoned his position at Centreville. The 
 next day, about noon, he evacuated Fairfax Court House, tak- 
 ing the roads to Alexandria and Washington. 
 
 Thus were realized the full and glorious results of the second 
 victory of Manassas ; thus were completed the great objects of 
 .the brilliant summer campaign of 1862 in Virginia ; and thus, 
 for a second time, on the famous borders of the Potomac, the 
 gates were thrown wide open to the invasion of the North, and 
 to new fields of enterprise for the victorious armies of the 
 South., 
 
 'J; ^^» rj 
 
42 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 VII. 
 
 "We do not propose to extend this narrative by any detailed 
 accounts of the operations of our army across the borders of 
 the Potomac. "We shall follow it into Maryland and name the 
 events that induced its return to Virginia, merely for the pur- 
 pose of summing the results of the campaign, and reaching a 
 stand-point of intelligent reflection on the situation as it exists 
 at the time of this writing. 
 
 There is one point to which the mind naturally refers for a 
 just historical interpretation of the Maryland campaign. The 
 busy attempts of newspapers to pervert the truth of history 
 have been renewed in an cflfort to misrepresent the designs of 
 General Lee in crossing the Potomac, as limited to a mere in- 
 cursioji, the object of which Avas to take Harper's Ferry, and 
 that accomplished, to return into Virginia and await the move- 
 ments of McClellan. It is not possible that our commanding 
 general can be a party to this pitiful deceit, to cover up any 
 failure of his, or that he has viewed with anything but disgust 
 the offer of falsehood and misrepresentation made to him by 
 flatterers. 
 
 Let it be freely confessed, that the object of General Lee 
 in crossing the Potomac was to hold and occupy Maryland; that 
 his proclamation issued at Frederick, offering protection to the 
 Marylanders, is incontrovertible evidence of this fact; that he, 
 was forced to return to Virginia, not by stress of any single 
 battle, but by the force of many circumstances, some of which 
 history will blush to record ; that, in these respects, the Mary- 
 land campaign was a failure. But it was a failure relieved by 
 brilliant episodes, mixed with at least one extraordinary tri- 
 umph of our arms, and to a great extent compensated by many 
 Bolid results. 
 
 In the brief campaign in Maryland, our army had given the 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 43 
 
 most brilliant illustrations of valour; it had given the enemy at 
 Harper's Ferry a reverse without parallel in the history of the 
 ■vvar; it had inflicted upon him a loss in men and material 
 greater than our own ; and, in retreating into Virginia, it left 
 hira neither spoils nor prisoners, as evidence of the successes 
 he claimed. The indignant comment of the New York Tribune 
 on Lee's retirement into Virginia is the enemy's own record of 
 the barren results that were left them. "He leaves us," said 
 this paper, "the debris of his late camps, two disabled pieces 
 of artillery, a few hundred of his stragglers, perhaps two thou- 
 sand of his wounded, and as many more of his unburied dead. 
 Not a sound field-piece, caisson, ambulance or wagon, not a 
 tent, a box of stores or a pound of ammunition. He takes 
 with him the supplies gathered in Maryland, and the rich spoils 
 of Harper's Ferry." The same paper declared, that the fail- 
 ure of ]Maryland to rise or to contribute recruits, (all the acces- 
 sions to our force, obtained in this State, did not exceed eight 
 hundred men,) was the defeat of Lee, and about the only defeat 
 he did sustain; that the Confederate losses proceeded mainly 
 from the failure of their own exaggerated expectations; that 
 Lee's retreat over the Potomac was a master-piece ; and, that 
 the manner in which he combined Hill and Jackson for the en- 
 velopment of Harper's Ferry, while he checked the Federal 
 columns at Hagerstown Heights and Crampton Gap, was pro- 
 bably the best achievement of the war. 
 
 It is easy by a general outline to track the brief but memo- 
 rable campaign in Mar^'land. 
 
 After the advance of our array to Frederick, the Northern 
 journals were filled with anxious reports of a movement of our 
 troops in the direction of Pennsylvania. It noAv appears that 
 ■while the people of the North were agitated with these reports 
 there was really no foundation for them, and that for the present 
 the important movement undertaken by Gen. Lee was in the 
 direction of Virginia. It appears that for this purpose our 
 forces in Maryland were divided into three corps, commanded 
 by Generals Jackson, Longstreet and Hill. The forces under 
 
44 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 Jackson, having re-crossed the Potomac at Williamsport, and 
 taken possession of Martinsburg, had then passed rapidly behind 
 Harper's Ferry, that a capture might be eflfected of the garrison 
 and stores known to be there. In the meantime the corps of 
 Longstreet and Hill were put in position to cover the operations 
 of Jackson, and to hold back McClellan's forces, which were 
 advancing to the relief of Harper's Ferry. 
 
 The first we hear of McClellan is at Boonsboro', Washington 
 county, which is nearly cqui-distant from Frederick, Harper's 
 Ferry, and Hagerstown, being between twelve and fifteen miles 
 from each. Near this place, at a point where the turnpike 
 road crosses the Blue ridge, and where Generals D. H. Hill 
 and Stuart had been posted to guard the passes of the moun- 
 tain, occurred the battle of Sunday, the 14th September. In 
 this engagement Gen. Hill's right had been forced back ; he 
 was reinforced by Longstreet, who restored our right, success- 
 fully resisted the enemy's most determined efforts to force a 
 passage, and rendered his intended relief of Harper's Ferry 
 impossible of accomplishment. 
 
 While this action was in progress, and the enemy attempting 
 to force his way through the main pass on the Frederick and 
 Hagerstown road, the capture of Harper's Ferry was accom- 
 plished by the army corps of General Jackson. The extent of 
 this conquest is determined by the following dispatch of Gen. 
 Jackson : 
 
 HEADQUARtERS VaLLKY DISTRICT, "l 
 
 September I'otb, 18G2. J 
 Colonel : Yesterday God crowned our arms with another brilliant success 
 on the surrender, at Harper's Ferry, of Brigadier-General White and 11,000 
 troops, an equal number of small arms, 73 pieces of artillery and about 200 
 wagons. 
 
 In addition to other stores, there is a large amount of camp and garrison 
 equipage. Our loss was very small. The meritorious conduct of oflicers and 
 men will be mentioned in a more extended report. 
 I am, Colonel, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 T. J. JACKSON, 
 Major-General. 
 Col. E. H. Chilton, A. A. General. 
 
SECOND BATTLE OP MANASSAS, ETC. 45 
 
 The force which surrendered at Harper's Ferry consisted of 
 twelve regiments of infantry, three companies of cavalry and 
 six companies of artillery. 
 
 On the 17th of September it appears that General Lee had 
 retired to unite his whole army to confront the still advancing 
 forces of McClellan, which, having obtained possession of 
 Crampton's Gap on the direct road from Frederick City to 
 Sharpsburg, were pressing our forces and seemed determined 
 on a decisive battle. Sharpsburgh is about ten miles north of 
 Harper's Ferry, and about eight miles west of Boonsboro'. 
 
 The close of the great battle of Sharpsburg, fought against 
 three-fold odds, left us at night in possession of one of the 
 bloodcst fields in history. The next morning McClellan had 
 disappeared from our front ; and knowing the superiority of 
 the enemy's numbers, and not willing to risk the combinations 
 he was attempting, Gen. Lee crossed the Potomac without 
 molestation and took position at or near Shepherdstown. 
 
 Such have been the general movements of the Maryland 
 campaign.* We have referred to it in this general manner 
 
 • It would be difficult to find a more just summary of the campaign in 
 Northern Virginia and on the Upper Potomac, or one the statements of 
 Tvhich may be more safely appropriated by history than the following address 
 of Gen. Lee to his army : 
 
 " Headquarters Army Northern Virginia, "» 
 October 2d, 1862. J 
 
 General Orders, Ko. 116. 
 
 In reviewing the achievements of the array during the present campaign, 
 the Commanding General cannot withhold the expression of his admiration of 
 the indomitable courage it has displayed in battle, and its cheerful endurance 
 of privation and hardship on the march. 
 
 Since your great victories around Richmond you have defeated the enemy 
 at Cedar Mountain, expelled him from the Rappahannock, and, after a con- 
 flict of three days, utterly repulsed him on the Plains of Manassas, and forced 
 him to take shelter within the fortifications around his capital. 
 
 Without halting for repose you crossed the Potomac, stormed the heights 
 of Harper's Ferry, made prisoners of more than eleven thousand men, and. 
 captured upwards of seventy pieces of artillery, all their small arms and other 
 munitions of war. 
 
 While one corps of the army was thus engage 1, the other insured its sue- 
 
46 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 merely to determine its liislorical features, without an enume- 
 ration 0^ details. We have seen that it was mixed \Yith much 
 of triumph to us ; that it added lustre to our arms ; that it in- 
 flicted no loss upon us for which we did not exact full retribu- 
 tion ; that it left thc.enemy nothing but barren results ; ami that 
 it gave us a valuable lesson of the state of public opinion in 
 Maryland. 
 
 The army which rests again in Virginia has made a history 
 that will flash down the tide of time a lustre of glory. It has 
 done an amount of marching and fighting that appears almost 
 incredible even to those minds familiar with the records of 
 great military exertions. Leaving the banks of James River, 
 it proceeded directly to the line of the Rappahannock, and 
 moving out from that river, it fought its way to the Potomac, 
 crossed that stream and moved on to Fiedericktown and Ila- 
 gerstown, hc»d a heavy engagement at ljoonsl)oro' Gap, and 
 another at Crampton Gap below, fought the greatest pitched 
 
 cess by arrcstinp at Boonsboro' tlie combined armies of the enomy, advancing 
 under their faviurite General to the relief of their l)ele:imiered comrades. 
 
 On the field of Sliarpsburg, with less than one-third his numbers, you re- 
 Bisted, from daylight until dark, the whole army of tlie enemy, and repulsed 
 every attack along his entire front, of more than four miles ia extent. 
 
 The whole of the following day you atood prepared to resume the conflict 
 on the same grouud, and retired next morning, without molestation, across 
 the Potomac. 
 
 Two attempts, subsequently made by the enemy, to follow yoi acri>ss the 
 river, have resulted in his complete discomfiture, and being driven back with 
 
 loss. 
 
 Achievements such as these demanded much valour and patriotism. His- 
 tory records few examples of greater fortitude und endurance than this areny 
 has exhibited; and lam commissionod by the President to thank you, in the 
 name of the Confederate States for the undying fame you have won for their 
 arms. 
 
 ^luch as you have done, much more remains to be accomplished. The 
 enemy again threatens us with invasion, and to your tried valour and patriot- 
 ism the country looks with confidence for delivcranco and safety. Your past 
 exploits give assurance that this confidence is not misplaced. 
 
 II. E. LEo, 
 General Commanding." 
 
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 47 
 
 battle of the war at Sharpsburg ; and then re-crossed the Po- 
 tomac back into Virginia. During all this time, covering the 
 full space of a month, the troops rested but four days. Ol^the 
 men who performed these wonders one-fifth of them were bare- 
 footed, one-half of them in rags, and the whole of them half- 
 famished. 
 
 The remarkable campaign which we have briefly sketched, 
 extending from the banks of the James River to those of the 
 Potomac, has impressed the world with wonder and admiration, 
 has excited an outburst T)f applause among living nations, 
 which anticipates the verdict of posterity, and has set the 
 whole of Europe ringing with praises of the heroism and 
 fighting qualities of the Southern armies. The South is 
 already obtaining some portion of the moral rewards of this 
 war, in the estimation in which she is held by the great martial 
 nations of the world. She has purchased the rank with a 
 bloody price. She has extorted homage from the most intelli- 
 gent and influential organs of public opinion in the Old World, 
 from men well versed in the history of ancient and modern 
 times, and from those great critics of cotemporary history, 
 which are least accustomed to the language of extravagant 
 compliment. The following tribute from the London " Times," 
 is echoed by the other journals of Europe. It is no ordinary 
 heroism that could draw such a tribute from such a source ; 
 and in the midst of new auguries, the pressure of current 
 events, and the uncertainty of the future, we may, yet, pause 
 with confidence to transcribe it as a memorial and testimony to 
 posterity : 
 
 '• The people of the Confederate States hdvo made themselves famous. If 
 the renown of brilliant courage, stern devotion to a cause, and military 
 achievements almost without a parallel, can compensate men for the toil and 
 privations of t!ie hour, then the countr3'men of Lee and Jackson may be con- 
 soled amid their sufferings. From all parts of Europe, from their enemies aa 
 well as their friends, from those who condemn their acts as well as those who 
 sympathize with them, comes the tribute of admiration. When the iiistory 
 of this war is written the admiration will doubtless become deeper and 
 stronger, for the veil which has covered the South will be drawn away and 
 disclose a picture of patriotism, of unanimous self-sacrifice, of wise and firm 
 
48 SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, ETC. 
 
 administration, which wc can now only sco indistincUj. The details of that 
 extraoniinary nationftl elTort which has led to the repubo and almost to the 
 destruction of an inva<ling force of more than half a million men, will then 
 become known to the world, and, whatever may be the fate of the new na- 
 tionality, or its subsequent claims to the respect of mankind, it will assuredly 
 begin its career with a reputation for genius and valour which the most fa- 
 mous nations may envy." 
 
THE FIRST V