Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1913-01-31

Lee was exercising all his energy, sa'
gacity, skill and experience in the tour
de force Of sending an equipped army
10 Johnston and Beauregard in the field
at the threatened points. From one OF
these points, the great valley of
Virginia lying between the Blue kld%e
and Shenandoah mountains, he mao
called Colonel Thomas Jonathan Jack
son, an eccentric Presbyterian profess
or ut the Virginia Military institute in
Lexington, and who in the first briet
month since the breaking out OF the
war had developed aggressive qualities
calculated to attract the attention OF
the authorities at Richmond.
Lieutenant Ellingham. promoted tc
raptain. naturally gravitated to the ne"
brigade Of jackson. who was now eie
waited to the rank of brigadier genera
Of volunteers. The regiments Of Ms
brigade were composed Of the very
flower and pride not only of the vale?
but of the whole commonwealth Of Viz
ginia, and even before Jackson's troops
took the field they had already begun
to receive the impress of the iron hand
of their leader.
Their first destination was Manassas
Junction, the point of union Of the rail-
road coming into Virginia from Wash
ington with branch road leading into
the Shenandoah valley. General Lee
had pointed out that this strategic
point would in all probability be the
first battlefield in the move to check the
Federal advance toward Richmond, and
he now concentrated all available
forces there.
On a small stream called Bull Run,
some thirty miles southwest Of Wash
ington, Beauregard awaited the arrival
of Mcdowell. The banks OF this
stream are abrupt and densely wood
ed. but it is fordable in numerous
places, and at that time was crossed
on the Centerville and Warrenton turn
pike road, below Sudley church. by q
stone bridge.
1t was on a bright, sultry Sunday
morning Of mid-July that the two
armies Of brothers-disrupted members
of a family republic that had held to-
gether for three generations-hrst
emerged In serried battle lines six
miles long from the mysterious Vir-
ginia forests on either side Of Bull
Run and rushed forward to fight breast
to breast for victory.
The Federal plan of operations, cred
tied to the still masterful Lieutenant
General Winfield Scott, started with
the planting of an entire division OF
fully $4,000 men in the rear at Center
Vile. to protect the communications.
Colonel Haverill's regiment, to his In
tense chagrin, was here helplessly de-
tanned. Another division. in which
General Buckthorn's brigade was in
Guided. marched ahead to make the
opening demonstration at the stone
bridge. while two others crossed at the
Sudley and other fords, to concentrate
on the southern bank Of the stream
and flank Beauregard's left.
This seemed an admirably clear and
simple plan at o'clock IN the morning
Before noon it was an obliterated mem
DRY, and the wide arid plateau over
which the battle spread like fire In
the brushwood swarmed with confused
masses of northern and southern troops
Keeling to and fro, alternately taking
and losing and retaling the same posi-
lions half q dozen times over, all lines
indistinguishable in dense and lurid
clouds of smoke, through which artil-
lery guns and caissons dashed madly.
while the thunder of cannon and the