The National tribune., 1904-09-01

staff officers, and they as raw as the rest.
They did not know how to get the troops
| forward. any more than the men knew how
to 60 forward. The disasters at Vienna
and Big Bethel had made everybody. from
Mcdowell down. very cautious about
masked batteries and the army was
moved forward with aggravating weariness.
SO it was Thursday morning. July Is.
when his advance-Tyer's Division-en-
tered Centervile. about four miles from
! Bull Run. and from its commanding emf
nence looked over to where Beauregard.
with 10000 men. lay upon the steep banks
of Bull Run. in a line eight miles long.
reaching from the railroad to where the
Warrcnton Turnpike crosses the stream
on the Stone Bridge. which it was expect
ed would flame with death dealing masked
batteries.
There Mcdowell drew his forces to-
gether. wasted many precious hours IN CON
Sultations and councils. and sent Tyler
| forward with part of his division. to re-
connoiter Blackburn'S Ford directing him
not To bring a battle. That was a
pretty hard order to strictly obey. in the
temper Of those young volunteers who had
come out to fight. Tyler went down 10
| Rlackburn'S Ford. and found I.ongStreet's
| Brigade posted in Il strong position to op-
| pose him. Instead of satisfying himself
of this by 4 little cannonading. and feeling
| forward carefully with a skirmlSh line.
| Tyler let the cannonade develop into an
/ T.. al
three of his regiments into Il fight. in which
| he lost 60 men. but pounded Longstreet's
men so severely that Early'S Brigade had
| to 90 to their assistance. BY this time
| Tyler. seeing the hopeeSSnesS of carrying
/ the position remembered that he had been
ordered TO only make a reconnaissance. and
succeeded in calling his men off. though
/ they were reluctant and eXasperated. and
| the mSmanaged affair seriously affected
| the conduct of the division through the
coming battle.
The affair however. had the effect of
convincing Beauregard that the main at
/ tack was to be on his right. and to make
/ him mass his forces there.
WASTED OPPORTUNITY.
If Mcdowell had energetically executed
his plan of battle the next day-July 10
| he would have routed his antagonist. for
| he would have hurled his $4,000 men
against the left flank of Beauregard's long,
| thin line, and rolled him up. But his op-
portunitv passed some time on the morn
| ing of Saturday. July 20. for then Joe
Johnston arrived from the Shenandoah
Valley with part of his army. and the rest
! following. Johnston. as the senior eX-
amined and approved Beauregards plan,
which WAS to move out from their right
and attack our left and crush Mcdowell
with their combined armies, before Pat
terSon. whom they supposed on the way,
/ could come to his assistance.
Our engineers seem to have been as
green a the rest. for. incredible as it may
seem to men who made the March to the
! Sea, or went through the Wilderness they
spent the whole of Friday and Saturday
in hunting for fords in the shallow upper
Rull Run which later in the war was
crossed almost anywhere by men who really
/ wanted Ito get there.
Saturday night Mcdowell called his
comma nderS tOget her. and gave them the
vision was to make n demonstration on the
Stone Bridge. and watch Blackburn S
Ford. while Miles'S Division should remain
in reserve at Centrrville. and Hunters and
| HeintZelman'S Divisions should make Sc
| cret and circuitOus march around to the
right, to come in upon the rebel left and
rear. As soon as they drove it back. and
cleared the Stone Bridge. Tylers division
was to come across, join them. and crush
| Beauregard.
had been n startling change in conditions.
Beauregard's force had now been swelied
to $4,000 by the arrival of Johnston s
army.
| MCDoWELL'S S WEAKENED FORCES.
On the other hand, Mcdowell had di-
minshed his column of attack until it was
only a little over 1900 men. Hunter 5
Division had only 2.G4S men in two weak
brigades. commanded By Andrew L. Por-
ter and A. +. burnside. HeintzeIman's S
Division was 9,77 strong. in three bri
gades. commanded w. Il. Franklin, y. B.
Wilcox, and q. u. Howard.
Tyler seemed to be so depressed by the
results of his reconnaissance to Black
burns Ford. that his demonstration was
quite feeble. and his division, 1896 strong.
i'm four brigadps commanded by T.. ID.
Keyes, X. &. Schenck, w. L. Sherman, and
!. IL. Richardson. had comparatively little
effect upon the battle. except Sherman 5
Brigade, which did very hard fighting.
The others were mainly effective in the
number of rebels they kept watching them
at Blackburns Ford and elsewhere.
Col. Dixon S. Miles. whose division,
G,2O1 strong, in two brigades, under Blen-
ker and Davies. had been left at Center
VILE. was an old Regular and graduate
of West Point. He showed his sense of
the responsibilities of the day by proceed
ing TO get very drunk, and was of about
as much use as if he had been in Kan
chatka If he had been a real soldier he
would have stopped the rout and rallied
the army on his perfectly fresh division,
which did not fire shot during the day.
THE BATTLE OPENS.
1t was a severe experience for green
soldiers, under green officers, and an
equally inexperienced staff, to start 1t mid
night on march through unknown woods
and over wretchcd roads. Instead Of ar
planned, they did not come out into the
open fields north of loung's Branch until
10 o'clock.
There they encountered Col. Evans, with
IL companies Of infantry and two pieces
Of artillery. and instead of brushing this
small force out of the way at once, they
began noisy skrmishing and cannonade
which in the course of an hour or two
brought Bees Brigade Of Johnston's army
over to see what was the matter. The
| mon soldiers were now getting warmed
up to the fight too, and after a sharp lit
tie fight pushed the rebels back over
Ioung's Branch and up on to the Henry
House plateau. This uncovered the Stone
, Bridge; Sherman rushed his brigade across
the bridge, and joined in the battle.
On the other side, Stoncwall jackson
, of .Johnstons army. came rushing over
from Manassas with five regiments ant
, TWO batteries to help Bee out, and for q
, while made stubborn fight upon the brow
of the Henry House plateau. He was
, struck by cloud of Union regiments. and
instead of Standing like a stone wall,
was driven. with the rest of the Confed
crate forces, in great disorder, back over
, the Henry House fields into the shelter o
! the thick pines.
These woods became the salvation of thu
rebels and the eSIructiOu of the I'uior