The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1915-07-23
The OBSERVATORY
THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN

three years. The North did not real
lze its military strength. On every
side one heard:
.We'er coming Father ADRIAN
Three hundred thousand strong"
But there were funny sides to it all:
alter the three month men got home,
the country got its breath, found that
the Contederates had not won Wash
lngton, the stories of that wild race
from the Bull Run battlefield were
told by the men who were a part of
1t, and some queer features began to
appear, the people began to laugh and
mat helped courage to rise higher.
Many OF the flying men threw away
their weapons, blankets, everything of
weight or that impeded flight. But
others just as earnest to get away
from the battlefield and get within the
protection of the defenses of Wash
ington, actually selected articles that
were strewn along the road, encum-
bered themselves with additional
weight, and brought them home as
mementos And | should not be SUR
prised if the children of some of
them were now preserving and ex-
hlDltlng those weapons as trophies
won in fight!
William Howard Russell of Eng
land had won great renown for his
graphic letters from India to the Lon
don Times during the Sepoy revolt in
the late SOS. When secession was
threatened in our country the Times
sent him over here with rowing
commission. AT that time the North
American republic was still looked up-
on as an experiment, and most EuroD-
cans believed its end was approaching;
that Continental Europe should SO
think was not strange; but that Eng
land should entertain that view so
largely seems almost unaccountable
forgetting. that the great free North
were OF their own stock and had in
herlted the same love of liberty and
organized government. But all the
higher nobility, most of the University
men and the great manufacturers all
sympathized with the South. Russell
was one of that party. In 1862 he
published in book form his letters sent
the London Times from this country
In 1861, a copy of which I have. He
was in Washington when McDowe1ps
army started for Richmond and ac-
companied it; he saw the fight and the
subsequent panic, and his own car
rage was caught in that retreating
stream which inglariously bore him on
to Washington. 1t is curious to see
III his letters the preceding months
while he had been through the South
and when he inspected the Union
troops how he ever drew comparisons
favorable to the Confederate side. OIL
course he wrote a brilliant description
OF the Bull Run panic and in due
course of events the Times published
IT; and by the time, the North had
cooled from its anxiety after the de-
feat, and the government and country
was again "on an even keel" the
Times with Russeps letters got TO
America; and then what storm of !
indignation burst forth against him
| suppose he told only the plain truth
but told it so bluntly and unsympath- |
etically that the Northern people were
indignant with him. And public feel
ing was so hot that it was understood |
that the government limited to him |
that his departure would be welcome |
as has recently been the case with |
the German Durnberg: but probably
it was not true. But Russell saw he
was an unwelcome guest, and left the
country, and got his revenue by pub
fishing his book as Dickens had pre-
yiously done. John Bgelow saws
Russell keenly felt the evident feeling
Of the North against him, and after
yards regretted the occasion for it,
but that change of feeling came TOO
ate. as with the multitudes of his
social class in England. With many i
Of them with the change of feeling to-
Yards the Federals. was mingled
lumiliating vexation that they had
missed the mark; had made huge /
error of judgment; that they had been \
,callv superficial in their investigation.
England today would hate to have
America feel and act TO-
wards her as she did towards us in
OK