Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-06-11
IA MEMPHIS TENNESSEE. TUESDAY EVENING. JUNE H. 1867.

we're nearly as badly demoralized as
their adversaries They had lost, by
their own report, 1897 menin killed aud
wounded-oVer ten per cent OF tho
number actually engaged, while the
Union loss, including prisoners, was be-
tween 5000 and 1000 When that news
arrived, the conviction came home TO
every Northern heart that long and
bloody war, and no ninety.day holiday
marches, was before us. The defeat Of
Bull Run was just crushing enough to
show clearly the hollowness Of mere en-.
thnsiasm, and the stern necessity OF
discipline; and, although it virtually
ended the campaign Of 1861, and no blow
was struck by the army Of the Potomac
for year, il was worth all II cost TO the
nation. Military men are now agreed
that the attack Of Mcdowell was we'll
planned, and that to throw his army on
the flank Of BeaureEard, then occupying
for three months the defensive line Of
Bull Run and Manassas, was sound
strategy. The loss of precious time in
crossing strange and thickly wooded
country, and getting into action, was the
cause OF all the disaster that followed, as
it gave the needed three hours for fresh
troops, who had eluded Patterson, TO
arrive to the succor Of Beauregard. The
subsequent panic was disgraceful enough,
considering the slight foundation for
fear, but by no means more so than many
another in the annals of European war
fare The day after Solferino Mr.. Ray
mond describes a panic in the French
army, caused by charge Of only one
company Of mounted cavalry, in which
the officers themselves, as some did at
Bull Run, shared the panic and led the
flight At Waterloo, that fatal Bull Run
for the French, Napoleon, at 3 pm,
dispatched to Paris tidings of victory 7;
few hours later, he was fleeing for his
life, and had no longer an army. Panic
had swept it all away, and, out of $4,000
men who marched out to battle, that
Sunday morning, not ten thousand were
ever rallied more. And these we're vet
eran troops-no. ninety day volunteers
yet the old guard itself caught the
panic, at last, and fed with the rest
AS / was standing at the foot of the
hill on which the Henry House once
stood-a high reach of rolling land,
where the hottest contest of the day was
fought-a solitary horseman came riding
by, from the lower fords of Ball Run.
He drew rein as he approached and with
courteous salute, he asked if | came to
see the battlefield. Asserting, inquired
whether the second battle of Bull Run
had not been, in part, fought on this very
ground He turned in the saddle, and
pointed me to another ridge within a
quarter of mile, where, said he, Jack
SON got Pope between two fires enflading
his columns in the shape of V and
moved 'em down as thick as graFshop-
pers. / was in both battles he said
"Tm q Confederate, of course. My
name is Mosby pronounced Moseby)." /"
"Are you Col. John Mosby p / inquired
That's my name,' he replied / told
him l found good many of his men
around, and he assented with evident
satisfaction, He was private in both
battles-in the second one attached to
Stuart's cavalry-and bis development
into the dashing and formidable guerrilla
captain came at later day. In person,
Mosby is a tall, wiry, active man of
thirty FIVE, with clear, good humored
eye, and an off hand readiness of
speech. He is now a practicing law
yer in Warrenton, the county seat
of Fauquier. He had beeA to Balls Ford,
he said, to cross Bull Run, but the
stream was too high. He had tried all
the fords below Stone Bridge, except
Blackburn with the same result
There is now not solitary bridge of
any kind over Bull Run, as they have
been repeatedly destroyed by both
armiesl He was now going round by
Sudley's Ford, and, telling me that /
could not cross even there with car
riage till the next day, and that he was
"going to Fairfax to attend court, and
was already late, he bade me courteous
"good morning" and rode on.
now mounted the hill which was the
center of so much intense interest during
the progress of the battle-that on which
Ayres battery was once planted, cap
tured, re-captured, and again taken
finally by the enemy-where the house
of Mrs. Henry had stood, and she was
killed by a cannon ball as she lay i'll in
bed-where General Bee fought his
Georgians against Hunter till one regi
ment had but sixty men left, where Bar
tow fell, pierced by musket ball through
the head, and where, at last, Jackson's
men "stood like a stone wall long
enough to enable Gen. Bee to rally his
men by their example, and to give a
deathIess name to that brave aud devoted
rebel commander. The crest of this hill,
within twenty feet of the foundation
stones ofthe Henry House, is surmounted
by neat monument Of rough.hewn red
sandstone, about twelve feet high,
crowned at its apex with solid conical
nhnt and with fnnr hnrn nannnn halls at