The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1861-08-01
The Great Manassas Battle.

! thousand persons having no mil tary employ
mcnt went from The city of Washington in
| the wake of the troops to witness the cX-
Injected battle. Only n few Of them who
were connected with leading 10 rual as COR
respondents. had any business or call to be
there and went purely from motives Of cn-
rios,ty. Congressman, clcrks OF the govern
mcnt, hotel visitors, and, il is said, Il multi
! ludc OF scccssjonists among them, crowded
| the thogoughlarc as they do in England on
| Derby Day. or as in our country parts the
rural people iiOck 10 general training"
The scene was disgracciltI in the extreme.
The sight Of "a great battlefield is one Of the
most dreadful llat is over presented to the
human eye. aud we caunot envy the scnsibili-
lies Of those who rushed to il as they would
q spectacle in thcatcr. l}ut apart from
the brutality Of the incident, it appears to
havc been main cause Of the serious dis
Ia9tcr Of Sunday afternoon. Our noble sol
dicrs had already made themselves virtual
masters Of the position; they had carried
hrcc Of the heaviest batteries; had silcnCcd
others, aud were prepared TO advance on tic
remainder, or, at the most, to hold their adj
vani0gCs when u scnsclc3g panic was pro-
duccd among the tcamstcrs by u charge Of
cavalry. This was communicated to the
large number Of civilians. who spread their
terror among the atraggling soldiers where
ever they passed. They destroyed thc con-
idonco Of the soldiers in oar succcsscs, aud
iUpcl what would have been triumph
shortly, into a defeat.
The crowd of the sccCssioni3.s who form
ed part Of tic "mob of gentlemen" were
not slow in porcciying their opportunity;
they added 10 the clanors; they cNaggcra-
ted the rumors ol danger; aud ihcy, too,
brought the lirst intelligence to Washington
of complete decentralization and route Of
our forces, transmitted by telegraph. New
Icrthccas, il would now seem that. in spite
of the Consideration Of the tcamstcrs and ci-
Villains, and in spite of the enormous tales
Of the secession rabblc, o,lr mon behaved
with wonderful cooIncss and made their re-
treat in good order.
We horc when the nest grand movement
is made, mnasurcs will he taken to prevent
another occurrence of this kind; our Scua-
tors and Representatives. are better in their
seats than hanging about the camps; and
the idle visitors to the Washington hotels
might easily he kept by the authorities from
passing over the bridges OF The Potomac.
We get the following description of the
retreat from well known gentleman Of this
city, who was ON the ground two hours al
| ter tho back movement began:
"1he reports of disorlcrv retreat of our
main army orc GROSSLY unt,uo 4 hricr
statement or q small mart I Witnessed viii
show this.
Mr.. Tillcy of Rhode Island and myself
accompanied the De Kalb regiment from Al
cyonlri, in thc cars to For,(ax station ON
the Manassas Gap railroad; we reached there
at 10, n. m. Heavy Caunonalng was steal
ilv como on W6;ln thc rcrinont v.,;tcl
far orders we woljiol forward on thc track
Inn within five miles or lIauossos Jructfnu
1 srnnl w,s thcrc scndinr Lourlv rrnnrts
to t,rrrr,l Scott of thc frirr. Rrturniur
os thc rcrimcut still holtod. a party of Conr
of ia. with y soldicr. walked to E1irr,v G.
II thr1c miIcs distant and thcucr on thn
road to Ccniorvilc
About o'cloc,; we BEGAN TO meet bur-
rirs and waroua with visitors rctnrnirr 10
Woshinrton AlIrcpor,cd that thc ,ov wos
ours. and rode on iuhilanf. until at hall-past
/ an nGlccr on hoysrh,cl, ,ilir~ Gcrtol,.
IsoiJ with cmnhnsis "No. no it{ ro;nr n.
rcfrst MS" Tho frinr had thrn colspJ
Near ContpryiUc, between two ,our hills
wc eullonly saw army WAGONS and nriyotr
vehicles coming down before us in hot haste.
a few soldiers ON horsrhacl; miyel in tho
crowd. Looking back wc found regiment
coming fresh from Fairfax in double duick.
Mr.. Russell. of the London Times. wac ON
Iharsnbacl, among ihc first from thc h,i,ln.
Tho New Jcrs2v Colonel instantly formed
his men across thoroal and resoluicly turn
IcA back every soll'cr in the road. and in 20
minutes ncrract order was restored. and thc
whole 0irht of the vehicles was shown to
be absurd. SO much SO that we waited two
hours nj that SPOT, drawing water for thc
moor wounded mon, who lcyan 10 lnp A.
lone from the field; only two or three umhu-
Ilancca TO be seen.
AthaIf-past six. two hours aCtcr thc hat.
tie WA, over, we started and walked back ia
Fairfax &. H.. hclnipr thrcc or rour woand
cd soldicrs into ihc yayons,
Those who were mhur, and who rot hy
the Jersey bows, were stopped hy a comma.
ny of thr Nichirau lth from Eairlnx. and
= compclIcd to turn back
Al Fairfax Court Uousc we ouictlv took
sumner ot the taycrn. and never drcnmino
Ior any disorlcrlv retreat we were supnlic,
with rood brls,unLrcssed and went t6 he,
= and was asleep at II p. m. At3 o'clocl
Monday morning. finding tho wagons wor,
moving on to Alexandria, we started aSair
an" WalN'I Hn'e''y along win uein to NJ
'Na'"'a "'nE What VtUc we could 10 all
4 '!'o men more or !eSS Su%hty WounaGd o.
, NV'" o"'.3nciuN''E some from 'he ho%pi
, ,"'-'"' S''" "'o'o WAS SV'r'c'y an "i"oo
lauT' To nG seen
V h"' on 'Av "ho'' Foa" irom IHh.reN'ilet
Pc AiNNuwHa' am ronhLent that there wa
j. rot 'oo sGId,Gr5 IN ALL between 3 6oeIocE,V 7
n IN, "na uHyi&1' so ihat 1t Is grossly IN
IN IN hast go