The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-07-15
MANASSAS HOLDS
GOLDEN JUBILEE
Continued from First page.)

Continued from First Page.)
pie who lived there In 1851 are living
there now. The aspect of their fields
Is such the veterans will recognise
them. There are the same cleartng1
and the same bits of woodland and
the same streams. The course of the
roads has not even been changed, and.
in the case of the Warrenton Pike
that war-worn road over which tho
armies advanced and retreated.
marched and counter marched for
four years-it Is probably rocker and
more scanned with ruts than 1t was In
war times. Bull Run Bridge-or tha
Stone Bridge over Bull Run. where
the Wrarrertun Pike crUss Bun Kun
was rebuilt after the war and appears
now as 1t did when the unions crossed
and reerossed 1t while lighting on
those fields that are pregnant with
neutrality-suspicious. or horrible, ac-
lcording to ones point of view.
For weeks before the encounter fhe
eyes of the world were on that small
section Of Virginia through which,
Bull Run flows. The south had
chosen Manassas Junction as a strate-
gic point at which Richmond could
be covered and Washington threat
ened. A railroad leading TO the south
was in the rear and another con-
pected with the Shenandoah Valley in
which the Confederates under johns
ston were pitted against the FederaIs
under Patterson. Communication was
maintained with the Potomac River
along the line of Bull Run and Occo-
guam Creek.
When the Confederate troops were
being modified at this point there
was much popular criticism against
the officers for massing men at Ma
nassas. A fair example of this crit
icism is found in the Washington Star
of June Is, 1851. which : d
THE impossbility OF quartering 3o,N
600 men at Manassas junction Is ev-
jdent from the fact that there are not
only no buildings for hospitals. nor
any facility for erecting them. but
there is not sufficient water for one-
fourth that number of men. The soil
is principally of red slate and the.
nearest stream to the junction liz Bull
Run. over five miles distant. There
are no springs, and when the troops
were first stationed there, though in
small numbers. the few wells weras
guarded and the water served out 1ika
provisions. AS for washing that ID
impossible without a trip OF several
miles.
World Knows Manassas.
( The world vas soon to learn a good
deal more about Manassas Junction
than was contained in that paragraph.
! When Mcdowell moved westward
from the Arlington camps. across this
| river from Washington. by way Ut
Fairfax Courthouse to Centervilte,
and the preliminary engagement at
Blackburn's Ford. where a road from
Manassas to CenterviIie crosses Bull
Run, took place, the North and South
stood on tiptoe. Beauregard planned
to strike the Union left at CenterviIi0
/ by crossing at the fords below Stone
Bridge. and McDowell's plan to en-
gage the Confederate left at Stone
Bridge and take the enemy in reverse.
with the divisions of Hunter and
| Heintzelman, by crossing at Sudley.
were examples of excellent strategy.
/ But there were many bitches In the
execution of the plans. Ifs and
butts are plentiful after every en-
gagment. and especially SO when ara
mics of raw troops are engaged. Or
/ ders miscarried or We're misunder-.
stood. The distance from CentHrvf1I6
| to the stone house at the junction OK
the Warrenton pike and the Sudlcy-s
Manassas road by way of Sudley Was
underestimate or the marching rara
/ of McDowells men was overestimat-S
ed. Tyler,s feint at the Stone Bridge
was too weak and this circumstances.
WITH the fact that dust was observed
1 10 the northwest, caused the COnfG0.s
crate commander at the Stone Bridge
to suspect turning movement. The
main Union army coming down from
Sudley was too slow and the Con-s
federates stationed at the numerou4s
fords along Bull Run were coming
tup fast. Then came the collision and
/ the ebb and flow of the fight on the
Mathews and Henry farms and the
valley between them. through which
runs the Warenton Pike. Johnston
supposed to be held in the Shenan>s
| dUalr Valley by Patterson had az
ready effected a junction with Beau
regard. but Kirby Smiths brigade. the
rear brigade of Johnston's g. army, corn
I ing over from the Shenandoah by way
OF the Manassas Gap railroad. left;
the cars about mile or so west or.
the fighting ground and coming into,
action of the Union right, precipitatedi
the rout. the Unions believing that
Johnston's army was coming ups
whereas they had been engaged with
the combined armies of Bcauregard
rand Johnston for the preceding four
/ hours