The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-05
Joseph Z. JOhnatOn on the Battle of
Bull Rum.

Dull kNuhs
From The Tribune.
General Joseph Z. Johnston of the late Con-
federate Army has written long letter to the
Selma Daily Messenger, to correct various
errors in "Life of Stonewall Jackson" re-
Gently published by member of that officers
staff. He is at particular pains to deny the
biographer's assertion that the pursuit of the
routed Union army at the close of the disas-
trous battle of Bull Run was not urged with
the energy which the Southern people had a
right to expect and that the city of Washing
ton-as William H. Russell and good many
more competent judges Gncluding George B.
McClellan) declared-was wholly at the
mercy of the Rebels He shows, in
deed, several lame reasons why the pursuit
could not have been carried into the capital,
but none why it should not have been pressed;
and his labored defense of his conduct
strengthens the impression which has been
generally entertained at the North, that our
disgTaceful defeat at Manassas surprised
nobody so much as it did the enemy who de-
feated us.
No more could have been hoped from this
battle, says General Johnston, than the pre-
servation of the Confederacy, and the arrest
of the Federal advance towards Richmond. A
movement upon Washington was out of the
question. "We could not have carried the
intrenchments by assault, and had none of the
means to besiege them. Our assault would
have been repulsed, and the enemy, then be-
come the victorious party, would have resumed
their march to Richmond. But if we had cap
tured the intrenchments, a river, a mile wide,
lay between them and Washington, com.
manded by the guns of a Federal fleet"
This makes an odd contrast with McClellans
report of the state of things at that time when
he declares that sin no quarter were the dis
positions for defense such as to offer vigor-
Gus resistance to a respectable body of the
enemy" that the earthworks on the Virginia
side were of the slightest and most trivial
character and that there was nothing to pre-
vent the COnfederates from occupying the
heights and shelling the city from across the
Potomac But even had it been impossible
for the Rebels to follow our routed army into
Washington, that was no reason why they
should not have followed, and harassed us as
far as they could. General Johnston says that
his infantry gave up the chase because they
found it Intellectual, and his cavalry "was
driUeR back by the solid resistance" of our
reserves. The story that a number of fresh
Confederate regiments were recalled from the
pursuit in consequence of a false rumor that
our forces were moving upon Union Mills, he
pronounces a falsehood; but General Beaure-
gard states it very distinctly in his official
leaves no room for doubling its correctness.
The true reason of the dilatory and irTesOlute
pursuit seems to have been that the Rebels
were almost as much bewildered and demora-
lized as ourselves, and feather would have
turned the scale of victory to either side.
Neither army knew the damage it had in
ficted ON the other. Beauregard bears witness
to the disOrganization which prevailed in his
command at the close of the day; and General
Johnston adds that the exultation of victory
cost him more than the Federals lost by defeat.
The troops believed the war ended, and the
independence of the South assured, and they
left the army in crowds to return to their
homes What might have been done could
the panic rout have only been stayed for half
an hour-what years of battle might have
been spared had our soldiers only known that
day how near they were to victOry-it is hardly
worth while now to consider. The effective
force of the Confederates after the battle was
about q, 200, and during the next six weeks
| they received not more than 6000 When
Mcclellan took command of the Army of the
| Potomac, on the 9th Of July, 1861, our forces
| in and around Washington numbered $4,000.
| We don't like to fight against dead generals;
but if Mcclellan has any little reputation left,
should not this fact be enough to finish it 7