The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-11-08

Even the cavalry charge was a rumOr.
Several officers said they had car
ried guns and lines, but then they
drifted into the nonsense which one
reads and hears everywhere about
masked batteries One or two talked
more sensibly about the strong posi-
tons of the enemy, the fatigue of
their men, the want of a reserve,
severe losses, and the bad conduct of
certain regiments. Not one spoke as
If he thought of retiring beyond Gen.
above the woods marked the retreat
of the whole army, and the crowd of
fugitives continued to steal away
along the road. There was no choice
for me but to resign any further re-
searches. On approaching Cen
treville I turned up on the
hill half mile beyond l
swept the field once more. The clouds
of dust were denser and nearer. That
was all. There was no fring-nO
musketry. turned my horses head
and rode away through the village.
and after / got out upon the road the
same confusion seemed to prevail
Suddenly the guns on the hill opened
and at the same time came the thuds
of artillery from the woods on the
right rear.
"The stampede then became gen.
eral. What occurred at the hill |
cannot say, but all the road from
Centreville for miles presented such
a sight as can only be witnessed in
the track of the runaways Oh an ut
terly demoralized army. Drivers
logged, dashed, spurred and beat their
horses, or leaped down and abandoned
their teams and ran by the side of
the road; mounted men, servants. and
men in uniform, vehicles of all sorts,
commissariat wagons thronged the
narrow ways. At every shot con-
vulsiOn, as it were. seized upon the
morbid mass of bones, sinew, wood
and iron, and thrilled through it, CIV
ing new energy and action to its des-
perate efforts to get free from itself.
Again the c:y of Cavalry arose.
Gin silence passed over the Long
bridge. Some few hours later it
quivered under the steps of a rabble
of unarmed men the Fed
eralists, utterly routed, had fallen
back upon Arlington to defend the
capital, leaving nearly five batteries
of artillery, 5000 mIskets, immense
quantities of stores and baggage, and
their wounded and prisoners in the
hands of the enemy"
Handwriting on the Wall.
That was the retreat from Bull Run
as an unbiased spectator watching in
the Union lines saw it. The first i'm
portant action of the war between
sections had ended in senseless rout
for the stronger side.
The South was aflame with jubila-
ton. Down in Kentucky, Mrs. War
field, 1.-THE Poetess of DiXieland," was
writing the poem called Manassas"
which began:
"They have met at last, as storm
clouds
Meet in heaven,
Have been driven;
And their thunder has been stilled,
And their leaders crushed or killed,
And their ranks with terror thrilled,
Rent and riven."
Within two weeks rejoicing thou
sands would be chanting that rejoic-
ing verse throughout the COnfederacy.
But the affair had consequences
infinitely more important than the
panicky repulse of ore army and the
exultation of the other. All over the
North the lesson was being driven
home to the consciousness of the peO-
pie that the South was not TO be
crushed at single stroke by green
undisciplined troops led by officers
who owed their commissions to pOlit-
ical influence rather than to military
fitness-that the struggle would be
long and hard and that organization,
a outstanding of resources and ener-
gies, and in the last extremity a
starving out of the enemy through |
blockades at sea and tightening rings |
of men on land, all would be- needed |
Even so. ii nowhere entered into the |
calculations of the leaders that before |
the end came, to which Bull Run had
been the CHASTITY inaugural, there
would he four years of such civil war
as rarely any country has known
What Russell could not see. sea-
soned correspondent and observer
though he was; what no one could
foresee was that Bull Run was some
thing more than bloody baptism by
fire for green troops 1t was North
and South, a dedication of the man
power and the womanhood, the ma
terial resources and the moral strength
of divided country tc grim. stern,
long drawn-Out struggle.
t0 by the Bell Syndicate. Incl