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FIRST BLOOD
Fort Sumter to Bull

Run

THE EASTERN THEATER,

APRIL- JULY 1861
In the three months following the Confederate capture of Fort Sumter, develop-

ments in the Eastern Theater were powerfully shaped by the railroads. While Union
and Confederate forces fought minor engagements (crossed swords) at Big Bethel and
in western Virginia,

more than 30,000

sol-

on each side were sent by rail to northem Virginia via Richmond or Washington.
The Confederates, bracing to repulse a
Union invasion, manned a line along Bull
Run, where they could be reinforced by
rail-borne units sent to Manassas Junction
from Richmond and the Shenandoah Valdiers

ley.

On

July 21, 1861, the

of the Civil

War was

first

Grafton

Clarksburg
Philippi

CARRICK'S FOR
Beverly

RICH MOUNTAIN

1/

big battle

joined at Bull Run.

-^Charleston

^.-^

KENTUCKY

TENNESSEE

Gre'

^^

Scale of Miles

25

SO

100

ISO

Other Publications:

PLANET EARTH
COLLECTOR'S LIBRARY OF THE CIVIL WAR
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This volume

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events of the American Civil

War, 1 86 1 - 1 865

The Cover: Confederate cavalrymen (right) under

Colonel J.E.B. Stuart attack the gaudily uniformed
1 1th New York Fire Zouaves during the Battle of

Rim on July 21, 1861. In the foreground. Union

troops wearing white havelocks to shield their necks

Bull

from the sim

fire a

volley at the Rebel horsemen.

TIHIE

CnVHL

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AND THE
EDITORS OFTIA\E-LIFE BOOKS

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photograph analysis,

specializing in

award-winning studies, Gettysburg:

ia

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He has also served as chief consultant to the

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Army Transponation
War
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e 1983 Time-Life Books Inc. All rights reserved.
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Museimi

since 1970.

fellow of the

at the

Company

West Point
of Military

Historians, he coedited with Colonel John Elting

Library of Congress Cataloguing if Publication Data

Davis, William C, 1946First blood.
(Civil

War series; v.

2)

Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. United States HistoryCivil War, 1861-1865
Campaigns. I. Time-Life Books. II. Title. III. Series.
82-19546
973.7'3
E470.D37 1983

ISBN 0-8094-4704-5
ISBN 0-8094-4705-3

(retail ed.)

(Ub. bdg.)

Frederick
1872.

He

War

Long

Years,

and he collaborated with

Todd on American

Military Equipage, 1851-

Endure: The Civil

has written numerous articles for Military Im-

ages Magazine, as well as Artillery of the American Revolution,

1775-1783.

CONTENTS

11
The Shadow War

lo

The Soldier's Craft

44

Action on the Flaoiks 76

The Battle Is Joined no

Verdict on Henry House Hill 136

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
170

BIBLIOGRAPHY
171

PICTURE CREDITS
173

INDEX
175

UL5ir-.v!.r-.'

Patriotic

-i!t

Union
Northern volunteers, galvanized by the Confederate shelling of Fort Sumter (center), rush to defend the

in this aUegorica

jainting.

The

9eHI

artist

completed the Capitol's new dome,

still

under construction

at the start

of the War, to suggest the country's might.

"

The Shadow War

"War! An arm'd race is advancing! The welcome for battle,

no turning away; War! Be it weeks, months, or years, an arm'd
race

is

advancing

welcome

to

'

it.

WALT WHITMAN

Journalist William

the

Howard

American South

for

Russell, touring

The Times of Lon-

and

also "to

not merely

conquer them

to

don, chanced to be in Goldsboro, North

defeat but to conquer, to subjugate them!"

Carolina, on April 15, 1861, just after

Replying in kind from the temporary capital

word

arrived by telegraph that Fort Sumter had

The reEnghshman was taken aback by the

surrendered to Confederate troops.

served

frantic celebration that erupted all

him.

was

It

a carnival of

around

"flushed faces,

wild eyes, screaming mouths hurrahing for

'Jeff Davis'

and

'the

true revolutionary furor in full sway."

The North

reacted to Sumter's

fall

The 20

million Northerners were

stunned, frightened and above

of

New

er

promised an admiring crowd that their

new

nation's flag "will, before the 1st of

May,
in

over the

float

dome

of the old Capitol

Washington."

And
over.

so, at long last, the waiting

For

fully five decades, the

states' rights

and slavery had

was

problems of

stirred

mount-

ing sectional hostility. Americans were a

people

who prided

themselves on their prag-

matism, and they had labored earnestly,

of-

ten cleverly, to reconcile the clashing inter-

and traditions of North and South. But

in the

end they had

failed.

Reason and

compromise had failed, and now, to the great

relief of many people on both sides, the so-

was

the soldiery.

The War

all

outraged

lution

flag.

An angry

had

Yorkers stormed the

offices of

Or had it? The two most powerful Americans, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis,
made public statements indicating that they

by the attack on the American

mob

Montgomery, Ala-

bama, Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walk-

ests

with

hardly less emotion, though obviously with

less joy.

of the Confederacy at

Southern Confederacy,'

overpowered the discordant bands which were busy with 'Dixie's

Land.' " Though North Carohna was one of
the four Southern states that had not yet seceded, Russell concluded that it would not
long remain in the Union: "Here was the
so that the yells

the pro- Southern

New York Herald and, un-

der threat of burning everything in sight,

forced pubhsher James

Gordon Bennett

to

display the Stars and Stripes. In Boston,

bells tolled all

day long. In Milwaukee, a

judge and jury walked out of the courtroom

finally

left to

come.

were not quite convinced.

the
is

fall

On

hearing of

of Sumter, Davis said, "Separation

not, of necessity, final." Said Lincoln:

man
sometimes think more than any man that

"I have desired as sincerely as any

to enlist as a group, with the judge as captain.

From both sides came vindictive demands

and loud blasts of bravado. To ensure prop-

our present difficulties might be settled.

er

punishment

rebels,

10

terror into the hearts of the Confederates,"

for the treasonous Southern

The New York Times wanted

to "carry

will not say that all

hope

is

yet gone."

Davis, that grim-faced, unbending man,

was cautiously hopeful, because what he

wanted from the North could be granted

merely by default. "All we ask," he said, "is
to

be

alone." Davis firmly beheved that

left

the Southern states had the Constitutional

from the Union and were

right to secede

now an independent combination

was automatically committed

to

the insurrection. Unless Davis'

government

conceded the error of

States

would have

to

its

quashing

ways, the United

assume the unattractive

role of aggressor.

of sover-

Lincoln faced other sobering choices. In

eign states. Should the federal government

mid-April the United States Congress would

choose to dispute his logic and impose

adjourn. This situation would permit

its will

by force of arms, Davis would be prepared:

In

March he had

issued a call for 100,000

Southern volunteers, and privately he feared

that they

would

all

be needed. But

if

Lincoln

chose not to contest the Confederacy's right

to

an independent existence, Davis and his

government would,

in

due course, consider

Ultimately, Davis and the South based

their

hope

for peace

on an error in judgment.

Like so many Southerners devoted

to the

to

put emergency measures into effect without

an embarrassing clash with Congress over

the proper executive and legislative authori-

was correct in his

the South was in a state of in-

ty in the matter. If Lincoln

opinion that

had authority to take police

action under the Militia Act of 1792, as
surrection, he

amended

peaceable trade with the United States.

him

in 1795;

but

if

the Constitution's

reference to the states as "sovereign" entities

was taken

literally,

then, as Jefferson Davis

alleged, the Southern states indeed

from the Union. And

had

ideal of states' rights, the President of the

right to secede

Confederacy could not grasp the strength of

Confederacy was therefore

feeling that Northerners held for their na-

with the United States, Lincoln would, by

union or the depth of their fear that

resorting to force, usurp Congress' exclusive

tional

secession

would

strike a death

blow

to the

American republic and the democratic

ex-

periment. Davis therefore could not quite

beheve that Northern

men

in the

hundreds

of thousands would actually fight for national

union, abohtion and the other principles

they proclaimed to the skies. So he was content to

sit

back and wait, taking no aggressive

military action unless the

Southern

North invaded

Lincoln's position was

cult. Believing the

much more

United States

to

diffi-

be an

the

if

nation at war

right to declare war.

Yet for

all

practical purposes,

bloodshed to make a war, even

was

legally a

because so

mere

little

by any name might

ly,

it

if

rebellion. It

took only

the contest

was largely

blood had been shed thus far

that both Presidents held out

still

hope

that

war

be avoided. Curious-

neither the Federal garrison at Sumter

nor the Confederate troops surrounding

had

territory.

killed a single

it

enemy soldier during their

33-hour cannon duel.

And historic precemen had died for

dents argued that until

ample number, peace might

indissoluble unit, he maintained that the

their cause in

seven states of the

Deep South that had thus

far announced secession were in fact still
part of the Union and merely engaged in a

always be snatched from the jaws of war.

misguided rebelhon. Having often pledged

whether or when enough blood would be

spilled to seal the two countries' commit-

himself to preserve the Union, the President

ment

No

one in mid- April of 1861 could guess

to

wage war. Indeed most people on

11

The Shadow War

^^^^^^^imi
12

Engulfed by patriotic spectators,

civic and military officials in Detroit
swear an oath of allegiance to the
United States just after the attack on
Fort Sumter. As part of Detroit's
"loyalty demonstration," 3,000
children were hustled to the City HaU
to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner."

both sides

felt

certain that a single, gallant,

tion to "redress

wrongs" would be

fulfilled.

would resolve the issue neatly and almost at once. They were
romantics all, and all would be disillusioned.
Three nerve-racking months of suspense
would produce no decision; this was a period

At the end of his proclamation, Lincoln

summoned Congress to convene in special
session, although not until the Fourth of
July not until pubhc opinion had time to

of shadow war, a time of confusion and prep-

And

nearly bloodless battle

aration

and ferocious

rhetoric. Finally, in the

sohdify behind him, as he

five

days

later, the

naval blockade on

all

felt

sure

it

would.

President imposed a

Southern ports.

heat of July in northern Virginia, beside a

These bold moves excited great enthusi-

homely name of
Run, two inept armies would blunder

asm throughout the North. In every city and

country town, young men turned out to enlist in huge numbers (pages 32-43), and

sluggish stream with the

Bull

into a shocking battle that guaranteed the

real

war

costly

and

one

a protracted

and

tragically

every state quickly exceeded the quota of

regiments that Lincoln had asked the gover-

at that.

nors to raise. Republicans and other Lincoln

Jefferson Davis did not have to wait long for
a clear sign

On April

of Northern intentions.

15, Lincoln forged the

link in the chain

first

who had

suffered through four

years of vacillation during the Democratic

administration of James Buchanan,

let

go a

of events that led to Bull Run. Being a tough-

loud collective sigh of pride and rehef Lin-

minded

he seized the opportunity

coln was backed by

Buchanan himself, and

without Congressional encumbrance

by Lincoln's recent

rival for the presidency,

to act

politician,

and issued

a strong proclamation.

Because

the seven seceded Southern states had op-

posed and obstructed the laws of the United

States,

and because they had "constituted

combinations too powerful to be suppressed

by the ordinary course of

judicial proceed-

ings," he called forth 75,000 militiamen to

serve for three

months "in order to suppress

and cause the laws to be

said combinations

duly executed."

Lincoln then appealed to

all

loyal citizens

"to favor, facilitate and aid in this effort

to

maintain the honor, the integrity, and

the existence of our National Union,

and the

perpetuity of popular government, and to redress

backers,

wrongs already long enough endured."

Stephen A. Douglas,

who

ruined his health

traveling the country speaking for national

Lincoln even

solidarity.

won

the endorse-

ment of radical abolitionists in Boston, men

and women who had burned copies of the
Constitution and disowned the Union because both the document and the government had so long tolerated slavery. Said
abolitionist leader Wendell Phillips at a war
rally in Boston's Music Hall, "For the first
time in
Stars

my

antislavery

life I

speak under the

and Stripes."

Now

was the Southerners' turn

it

to

be

outraged. Jefferson Davis bridled at the na-

ked threat of Lincoln's

doned

call to

his last flickering

arms and aban-

hope

for peace.

He gave the existing Southern military forces

Southerners of every degree gave vent to

The imph-

their long-festering rage at the abolitionists,

20 days to disband and disperse.

cation

was that

if

forgiven, and that

they did so,

if

all

would be

they did not, his inten-

the federal

nanciers,

government and the Northern

who had

fi-

allegedly exploited the

13

The Shadow War

South

like a

backward colony

for decades.

The Confederate enlistment drive, which

had been bubbling along

all

ger to risk their lives to repel the threatened

The

invasion by the despised Yankees.

homeland

de-

shortly took

on mystical dimensions.

Unable

to perceive that the South's

own

acts had provoked Lincoln's strong measures, many hotbloods were carried away
by dreams of battlefield glory. "So impatient
did I become for starting," recalled one

M EN

flf

mCMIA.

le THE

BM

May of 1861, appeals

urgently for volunteers to defend

"our homes and firesides, the honor

of our wives and daughters, and
the sacred graves of our ancestors!"

Your Hoil has been iDvaded by your Abo*

Ution foes, and me call upon you to rally at
nee, and drive them back. Vl'e nant Volnnteers to march inioiedialely <o Grafton
and report for duty. Come oue ! Come

ALL I and render tbe service due to your

Stete and Country. Fly to arms,)>nd8ucfomr your brave brothers who are now in
the

field.

of VirAction: .*rtion!(l<ll* beam- rallying mono, niiil (he sctilimcnt

MiiDMe erery
Kisrl^ imnirciJ Ofmlor. "(iive mc Lifccrly or giic mc Dcnlh."
iM as drive back (he iinaJiiiE fivol of
roral wnoflheOWCniinion!
bravely
bmtal and despera(c foe. or le;ive a rccori (n posUrKy lha( wc Hied
daughlers,
defending our homes and ar.idci. (lie honor offlur ne and
od the ucred grares of Qr4nirelon
I

Southern recruit, "that

I felt

sand pins were pricking

my

me

like ten thou-

nies

and chose

ited election

compa-

campaigns. Then they drilled in

town square and

went

full

set off for local

of hopes, waving flags

their sweethearts

assembly

They

made by

and shouting the marvel-

ous boastful names of their companies. Here

came the Tallapoosa Thrashers, the Cherokee Lincoln Killers and the Barbour County
Yankee Hunters.
They were romantics, young and spirited,
lured by adventure, goaded by patriotism to
flights

of operatic passion. Charles C. Jones,

a Georgia

boy

in a volunteer

company

in Sa-

vannah, wrote his parents in exaggerated

dudgeon: "Can you imagine a more

suicidal,

outrageous, and exasperating policy than

that inaugurated
tion at

by the

fanatical administra-

Washington? Heaven forbid that they

ever attempt to set foot

upon

this land of

sunshine, of high-souled honor and of liberty. It

J.

their officers, often after spir-

points to be organized into regiments.

puzzles the imagination to conceive the

stupidity, the fanaticism

14

at Staunton.

M. HECK,

Lt. Col. Va. Vol.

R. E. ceWAN, 51^1. Va. Vol.

body." In every courthouse town across

the Confederacy, soldiers enlisted in

the

[Done by Authority.]
M. G. HARiHAJi, M^. Commd'g

in every part of

and the unmitigat-

ed rascality which impel them to the course

which they are now pursuing." Jones went

on to predict that "a great Southern army"

would be "put

in motion, attracting to itself

the good and true men of every section" who

would end Lincoln's "fanatical rule."
Everyone in the South and in the North

waited anxiously

as well

to see

how the un-

seceded slave states would

officially react to

To

the surprise and

Lincoln's call to arms.

discontent of both sides, the governors of the

states in question

assumed Jefferson Davis'

wait-and-see stance. Governor Beriah

Ma-

goffin of Kentucky sent Washington a telegram announcing, "I say emphatically, Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked
purpose of subduing her sister Southern
states." But the pompous politico then pro-

ceeded to straddle the fence

act that

a balancing

he would manage to keep up without

falling for several

Union forces invaded

the state in late

ST.UJISTON, VA.

across

the South stormed the recruiting offices, ea-

shortly after

Quarters, VirginiaTbrces,

satisfactorily since

March, boiled over. Young men

fense of the Southern

A Virginia broadside, published

Head

months. Maryland and

Missouri declined to send Lincoln troops.

'^^%^

Scruffy backwoodsmen of the 9th

Mississippi Infantry gather round a
campfire near Pensacola, Florida.
Their unsoldierly mien prompted a
British journalist to call

them

"great long-bearded fellows in flannel

and slouched hats, uniformless

in all save brightly burnished arms
and resolute purpose."
shirts

but they announced no immediate

ward

move

to-

later,

vention in

secession.

The response

days

of Virginia, which had been

on the 17th of April,

Richmond passed an ordinance

of secession, and though the popular vote

would not come

contemplating secession for more than two

months, was watched most closely: This
was the richest and most populous Southern state, and many a shrewd observer on
either side assumed that North Carolina and
Tennessee would quickly follow the Old

to decide the issue

Dominion's

smile to President Davis'

lead.

Virginia, on receiving Lincoln's call to

a stale con-

May 23,

secession

conclusion.

was henceforth

What

is

until

foregone

more. Governor John

Letcher of Virginia immediately began

act-

ing against the federal government with an

aggressiveness that surely brought a

On

wan

lips.

April 18, a Virginia militia unit under

moved

arms, could hardly wait to get out of the

Captain Turner Ashby

Union; Virginians told one another they

would never stand for such crass, arrogant
threats, and that they would never assist in
coercing their fellow Southerners. Just two

the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

swiftly to take

The small

Union garrison there judged the place indefensible, for it was ringed by hills and high
bluffs from which an attacker could bom15

The Shadow Wair

A painting titled The Consecration

Sentimental Farewells

1861 shows the demure sweetheart

of a rose-sniffing officer dedicating

to the Gallant Recruits

his

sword

to the

Union cause.

This work, by Philadelphian George

Lambdin, was praised in its time
for its "genuine sentiment."

The heart-wrenching start of the Civil War

came at a time when Americans wore their
on their sleeves. It was the springtime of American innocence, when most people believed without question in the ideals
and morals they had been taught at school,
church and family hearth. And they exhearts

pressed their beliefs with unabashed emotion, in flowery prose, tear-streaked poetry
and cloying, sentimental art.
An endless stream of mawkish domestic
scenes, painted for sheet-music covers or
lithographs, attests to the fierce patriotism

animated both sides in April 1861. Sevshow a young woman sewing a

uniform for her volunteer or "consecrating"
(i.e., kissing) his sword or battle flag. As one
that

eral paintings

A stalwart Southern youth bids adieu

to the old plantation in a work by
Nashville painter Gilbert Gaul. The
wartime genre of sentimental

young men who did not volunteer were scorned: In it, a woman's father
refuses her hand to a suitor in civihan clothes.
The volunteer's departure was another favor-

work

indicated,

domestic scenes remained popular

for half a century after the War.

theme. Inevitably, a tear- jerking picture

portrayed a family at dinner and focused on
an empty chair, recently vacated by some paite

triot

'-

-v-

who had gone a-soldiering.

Poetry in praise of the battle-bound volunwas hardly less maudhn. The paeans invariably included, as did a Confederate woman's, the information that the beholder's
"eyes fill to witness such noble resolution."
A New York poet pictured "a farewell group
weeping at every cottage" as Union militiamen marched off "with hearts too full for
utterance, with but a single tear."
Yet the spirit of the time was genuinely
heroic, and some contemporaries captured it
with true grandeur. OUver Wendell Hohnes
Jr., a lieutenant of Massachusetts troops in
1861 (and later Chief Justice of the United
States Supreme Court), wrote of his war-torn
generation: "Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched
with fire. It was given to us to learn at the

'M

teer

life is a profound and passionate

have seen with our own eyes the
snowy heights of honor, and it is for us to

outset that
thing.

We

report to those

16

who come

after us."

'.1

<

^
4',

mi
%
^^1^
i
,

^;

i"

iUiigf
^"^

i''

^ V*'

;^\c:r4

\f
1

p
11
'il

set fire to some

weapons
and
then
retreated
15,000
in haste
across the Potomac River to Hagerstown,

bard the town. So the troops

Maryland.

When the Virginians marched in,

they found

to their delight more than

5,000 usable

rifles

and the parts for many

Virginia to haunt the Union.

More impor-

more than 1 ,000 heavy

guns, which the Confederates would

tant, the Federals lost

naval

distribute to bolster fortifications through-

out their territory.

The

Federals also bun-

gled the job of destroying the

Navy Yard's

more. The armory's rifle-making machinery

facilities,

was captured

assumed command of one of the best naval

Two

days

intact.

later,

other Virginia troops ad-

and, without a fight, the Virginians

stations in the country.

vanced on the important Gosport Navy Yard

Davis and the Confederacy did suffer

The Union commander at

Norfolk, elderly Commodore Charles S. Mc-

palpable defeat that April, at Fort Pickens

Cauley, was intimidated by disloyal sub-

armistice of sorts at Pickens since January,

on hearing reports that Virginia

troops were closing in, he hastily ordered

the Federals refraining from reinforcing the

near Norfolk.

ordinates;

his

men

to scuttle or

burn

in port that could not

three vessels got away.

rest

able

all

the warships

put out to

The

Only
came to

sea.

others

broken and charred but not irredeem on the shallow bottom of the Eliza-

beth River.

The Rebels would

salvage the

burned-out hulk of the U.S.S. Merrimack,

refit it,

and send

it

out as the ironclad C.S.S.

off Pensacola, Florida.

There had been an

place as long as the Confederates did not attack.

ter

But the Confederate siege of Fort Sum-

had voided

all

such agreements as far as

Lincoln was concerned, and Fort Pickens

was immediately resupphed and reinforced.

Davis' reaction was a measure of the ideological gulf that separated

him from Lincoln

and the South from the North. Davis and

government

felt

betrayed.

They saw

his

their

Federal demolition crews escape

in

rowboats after setting

ships at the

fire

to

Union

Gosport Navy Yard

near Norfolk, Virginia. But they

had botched the job of destruction.
Exulted the Richmond Daily
Enquirer: "We have material enough
to build a Navy of iron-plated ships."

17

The Shadov^ Wair

Upon the

outbreak of hostilities,
Sumter Light Guards, here
standing at attention in Augusta,
Georgia, in April of 1861, were hastily
combined with other prewar militia
companies to create the 4th Georgia
Infantry Regiment.
the smart

capture of Fort Sumter as a legal and just

Meanwhile, on April 29, Jefferson Davis

repossession of South Carolina property on

delivered to the Confederate Congress what

loan to the federal government, and thus

was undoubtedly the jnost optimistic and

openly emotional speech he ever made. By

they considered Lincoln's reinforcement of

Pickens to be an unprovoked act of war.

Had

he guessed that Lincoln would take such un-

derhanded action, Davis

he would have

said,

more than 62,000 Southern solhad been raised and were in training,
and 15,000 more were on their way from the
that time

diers

home states to northern Virginia and

"A people thus united and

ordered an attack on Fort Pickens as well as

various

Sumter. For the rest of his days, he denounced Lincoln's "perfidy."

other key points.

Despite the

little

the tide that April

from any

was running strongly

on

favor of the Confederacy,

of victory

hung

and

in

giddy sense

in the soft Southern air. Ex-

citement mounted as regiments from

Virginia,

resolute," he proclaimed, "cannot shrink

reverse at Fort Pickens,

and more and more from

which they may be

sacrifice

make, nor can there be

to

doubt of their

a reasonable

Davis

final success."

called

reiterat-

ed that Southerners had taken up arms only

defend themselves against Yankee aggres-

all

over

to

all

over

sion

and attempts

to coerce

"The moment

them back

into

the South, flooded into

Richmond, the colpresumed battlefields of

the Union.

lection area for the

sion

northern Virginia.

"From

our grasp," but "so long as this pretension

the ardor of the

is

that this preten-

abandoned, the sword

will

drop from
is

volunteers already beginning to pour into the

maintained, with a firm reliance on that Di-

city," wrote

vine

John B. Jones, a former Philawho had defected to the Con-

delphia editor

federacy, "I believe 25,000

lected

and armed

in a

men could be col-

week."

Two days later

Jones revised his estimate upward to 50,000.

"Every hour there are fresh

arrivals of or-

ganized companies from the country," he

wrote. "Martial music

day and night, and

is

all

heard everywhere,
the trappings and

paraphernalia of war's decorations are in

great

demand."

Power which covers with

the just cause,

for

we

will

its

protection

continue to struggle

our inherent right to freedom, indepen-

dence, and self-government."

The movement toward

ued.

On May

secession contin-

the Tennessee legislature

passed a military alliance with the Confederacy,

though the

cede until June

Union on

May

would not actually seArkansas left the

and when North Carolina

state

8, 1861.

6,

followed on the 20th, the 11-state Confeder-

Davis and Confederate

officials,

encour-

acy was complete.

aged by Virginia's zeal for the fray and anxious to demonstrate their

commitment to

the

The

city of

Washington, whose population

defense of the state, opened negotiations to

had reached '6 1,000

move the Confederate capital from small, remote Montgomery to the larger and more
accessible capital of the Old Dominion. The
transfer would be completed on the 29th
of May, when President Davis himself ar-

two weelcs of the

rived in

18

Richmond,

in 1860, spent the first

War teetering on

the brink

of panic. Lucius E. Chittenden, a

Vermont

banker and prominent Lincoln supporter

who arrived in the capital on April

17 to serve

found every
main thoroughfare blocked and guarded; he
as Register of the Treasury,

The Shadow Wair

wrote that Washington wore "the aspects of

a besieged

town" and was

"filled

>

with flying

rumors of various descriptions." One wild

report told of ships steaming

up the Potomac

loaded with Rebel cutthroats. Other tales

had

it

armed men, or even 10,000,

way to attack the city or hijack

that 5,000

were on

their

the federal government.

Chittenden, whose sense of the Union's

strength had been bolstered by the fervent

had seen in Northern

was jolted to find
government was weak, frightened

patriotic displays he
cities

on

that his

his journey south,

and ill-prepared

to

defend the capital.

No

more than 1,000 troops of the nation's scattered 13,000-man Regular Army were on
hand; they had the backing of 1,500 militiamen, but this number included many Southern sympathizers

who were

considered un-

trustworthy. For Chittenden, the greatest

shock came on April 18, when he was

signed to help issue weapons and

as-

ammuni-

the

Potomac and engulfed on

tion to the Treasury clerks in case of an en-

by Maryland;

emy

secession,

attack.

Because the Treasury Building

was considered Washington's strongest, it

had been decided that Lincoln and his Cabinet

would take refuge there during any Con-

federate assault, and Chittenden realized

with horror that he might be called upon to

own

if

all

other sides

that state joined Virginia in

Washington might well

lose its

land routes and communication links to loyal

states in the north

and west. The Union

could hardly function well without

Moreover, Northerners had

to think that

its

little

Maryland would

head.

reason

stay in the

hands.

Union. Marylanders did more than one third

In fact, the capital stood in no immediate

of their business with their fellow slave

defend his President with his

mihtary

peril.

Any

serious attack

ington would require a substantial

on Washamount of

states.

And

there was alarming evidence of

the state's disenchantment with the Union.

manpower and equipment plus time to organize, train and mount the expedition. The
governments in Richmond and Montgomery

ham Lincoln, running on his save-the-Union

simply were not ready.

92,000-odd votes cast in the

state; the city of

Baltimore, where

from the north

Nonetheless, Washington was in real dan-

ger

albeit danger of another kind, and

In the presidential election of 1860, Abra-

pledge, received fewer than 3,000 of the

rail lines

and west connected with the single

from the opposite direction. The 10-square-

Washington, gave Lincoln

mile District of Columbia was pinned against

than 1,000 of

20

its

line to

more
some
exTo

just a little

31,000 votes.

April 18 was

more reassuring than alarming.

men were unarmed and poorly

Most of the
trained. Worse, they
their trip

told cautionary tales of

through Baltimore:

of secessionists had pelted

-rSL^KfL*.

jeering

mob

them with rocks

and paving stones. In any event, the Pennsylvanians contributed handsomely to the bizarre makeshifts that

war

foisted

on Wash-

ington. Since there were no barracks

city, the

in the

troops were quartered in the Capitol

and were fed meals from an emergency

kitchen set up in the basement.

The next regiment scheduled to reach

Washington was the 6th Massachusetts Infantry.

This volunteer unit was one of four

had been drilling in the Bay State for

several months on the assumption that the
secession of the Southern states had made
war inevitable. The regiments' commander
that

was

a brilliant,

unscrupulous and exceed-

ingly powerful Lowell attorney

were deceptive: Most Mary-

Colonel Gaston Coppens' Louisiana

tent, the figures

Zouaves line up to receive a drink

from their pretty provisioner, or

landers probably preferred the

vivandiere

(left).

The

unit, a polyglot

collection of mainly French-speaking

volunteers, adopted the exotic

costume of the famous French Zouave

regiments that served in Algeria.

Union

to the

jamin F. Butler,

who had

named Ben-

tirelessly

helped

organize these militia units but had never

much

Confederacy. But pro-Union Marylanders,

led so

among them the vacillating Governor Thom-

then standard practice for a governor to re-

as

H. Hicks, were apparently intimidated by

the

more

militant secessionists,

who were

strongest around Baltimore, in central

Mary-

land and on the Eastern Shore.

Actually,

it

made no

difference whether

Washington was endangered from the south

or from the north; the best counter to both
threats
as

was

many

to bring soldiers to the capital,

as possible

and

as

soon as possible.

ward or

as a

solicit

squad into

was

battle. It

important backers with ap-

pointments to high posts in the

state militia,

regardless of their military qualifications.

On

both sides, but especially the North,

many

political generals

would prove

Word
setts

who

took to the

field

to be a curse.

of his appointment by Massachu-

Governor John Andrew reached Butler

while he was in the midst of a

trial.

"I

am

On the day Lincoln sounded the call to arms,

called to prepare troops to be sent to

he voiced

appeal for troops to

ington," the brand-new brigadier general

the nearby state of Pennsylvania and was

quickly obhged with a token shipment of a

announced importantly in the courtroom,

and the case being argued was postponed,

few hundred men.

never to be finished. Directing operations

It

a special

was questionable, though, whether the

Pennsylvanians' arrival from Harrisburg on

Wash-

from Boston, Butler shipped two of his

ments

to strategic Fort

regi-

Monroe near Hamp21

The Shadow Wao-

Cheered by thousands of well-wishers, soldiers of

the elite 7th New York Militia parade down
Broadway en route to Washington on the 19th of
April, 1861. "It was worth a life, that march,"
wrote a young private, who would pay exactly that
price less than two months later.

ton Roads, Virginia. Then, leaving the 8th

Massachusetts

home

complete

its

orga-

nization and equipping, he sent the 6th

Mas-

at

to

sachusetts to the capital under the

of Colonel

Edward

command

F. Jones, a 32-year-old

former businessman from Utica,

New York.

Jones and his regiment boarded

a train for

New York

on April 17 and arrived the next

tumultuous reception. The men
marched down Broadway, cheered by thou-

day to

sands, then were treated to a lavish meal at

the Astor House.

That night they continued

upon
Washington on the

their journey via Philadelphia, intent

completing the

trip to

morrow. Some time before Jones loaded his

regiment on 10 coaches in the Philadelphia
rail

yards in the early hours of April 19, he

received

word of the

hostile reception Balti-

more had given the Pennsylvanians, He distributed ammunition and ordered his men to
load their weapons.

The

reached Baltimore's President

train

around noon. This was the

Street station

ter-

minus of the Philadelphia, Wilmington &

Baltimore line, and for travelers bound farther south, horses would pull their railroad
cars over a track through the city to the Camden Street station, where the Baltimore &
Ohio line to Washington commenced.
At the President Street station, Colonel
Jones made

a critical

mistake. Instead of

800-man regiment and marchcompact column through the city,

detraining his
ing

it

in a

he instructed the troops to ride their slow-

moving coaches
sult of this

to

Camden

Street.

As

a re-

order the soldiers were sitting

targets, with

no opportunity

for quick de-

ployment or maneuver. Moreover, the

regi-

ment could be spUt up.

The

first

seven cars arrived

Street quickly

at

Camden

and without mishap. But the

23

The Shadow Wao-

three cars were slowed

last

grew

that

to

down by

crowd

perhaps 8,000 as the citizens

learned what was happening. At Pratt Street,

mob

the

Staters

halted the horses, and the Bay

were forced to

pile out

their lives. Before long the

and march

men were

for

hurry-

ing through a hail of missiles. Soon bystanders

began to wrestle with them, wrenching

their

muskets from

their hands.

Then

pistol

shots rang out.

Moments
fell,

killed

later, a soldier in the front

by

fire.

rank

At

that,

men

to re-

a civilian's bullet.

the officer in charge ordered his

turn

Their fusillade cut a path through

mob, and the companies completed the

march at a quickstep, helped rather tardily
the

by the pro-secessionist Baltimore

police.

At the Camden Street station. Colonel

Jones was enraged by the rattle of gunfire,
and as his beleaguered rear elements rejoined him, he tried to form the regiment for
an attack on the mob. Cooler heads dissuaded him, however, and the troops crowded aboard the railroad cars bound for Washington. A locomotive was attached, and they
set off for the capital, leaving

behind three

more than 20
troops injured and 130 unaccounted for.
soldiers

and 12

civilians dead,

When the train finally pulled into the capital

at 5 o'clock in the

was there

to

afternoon, Lincoln himself

meet

he said, "Thank

it.

Shaking Jones's hand,

God you have come."

Lincoln's problems with Baltimore and

Maryland were not over far from it. Governor Hicks, buckling under to secessionist
leaders, agreed that the best way to keep the

peace was to keep the troublesome Yankee

troops out of the state. Gangs of secessionists

quickly acted on this conclusion, demohshing four railroad bridges leading to Balti-

more. The destroyed bridges, together with

24

Pennsyivanians
to the Rescue

When Abraham
arms on April

Lincoln issued his

call to

and political ally, Governor Andrew G. Curtin of

Pennsylvania, rushed five militia companies
to the defense of Washington. These volunteer units, among them the well-drilled Ringgold Light Artillery, arrived on April 18.
They were the first troops from any state to
reach the capital, and Washingtonians welcomed them with relief and jubilation.
But from that moment on, misfortune dogged the 100-odd Ringgold soldiers. In the
hasty trip south they had left their four cannon behind, and much to their indignation
15, 1861, his friend

>

This hand-painted silk flag

was proudly borne by the
men of the Ringgold Light

were handed muskets just

though they were ordinary infantrymen.
Worse, the authorities put them to work
the artillerymen

as

Artillery during their brief

building fortifications and barricading the

Washington riverfront with barrels of flour
and cement and sheets of boiler iron. Later
the men were sent to the Washington Navy
Yard and Arsenal to defend against an expected Confederate invasion, which never

tour of duty in Washington.

took place. Finally, in mid-July, their 90-day

enlistment expired and, without having fired
a single shot at the
triots

enemy, the disgusted pa-

of the Ringgold Light Artillery packed

up and headed home.

Training as infantry, the Ringgold artillerymen

drill in

column of fours

at the

Washington Navy Yard on the Anacostia River.

25

The Shadow Waa-

the losses suffered by the 6th Massachusetts

men of the

in transit, temporarily halted Lincoln's ef-

leted with the Pennsylvanians in the Capitol,

squeeze troops through the Balti-

the President uncharacteristically allowed

forts to

more

bottleneck. Reinforcements for

Wash-

ington would have to come by another route.

The most promising

alternative

was

to

send regiments by ship from northern ports

to Annapolis,

on the Chesapeake Bay 20

miles south of Baltimore.

From

his frustration to

believe there

is

show

who were bil-

in public: "I don't

any North!" he exclaimed.

"The 7th Regiment is a myth! Rhode Island

is not known in our geography any longer!
You are the only Northern realities!"
Lincoln's mainstay during the uncertain

there the

march overland 40 miles

6th Massachusetts,

to

days of late April was Winfield Scott, the

Washington. Embarkation orders went out

General in Chief of the Army. Scott had been

troops could

to the 7th

New York, a fine parade regiment,

this,

Maryland

secessionists

new route, and when

representatives were called to the White
House, they demanded that Union soldiers
threatened to block the

cease defiling the state's sacred

soil.

Lincoln

refused. "I must have troops for the defense

of the capital," he told the delegation, which

Mayor George W. Brown

hero since the infancy of the

re-

pubhc, had commanded the American army

and several units from Rhode Island.

Hearing of

a national

won the Mexican War of 1846-1848, had

served in the Army for 53 years and had been
its top general since 1841. The handicaps of
that

age, poor health

Scott

and enormous bulk

was almost 75, matched Lincoln's height of

six feet four and tipped the scales at almost
300 pounds

made

it

impossible for

him

to

of Balti-

lead an

army

more and the Police Marshal of Baltimore,

George P. Kane. Lincoln went on, "Our
men are not moles and can't dig under
the earth; they are not birds and can't fly
through the air. There is no way but to
march them across, and that they must do."

ficulty

merely hauling his great weight up

included

He

concluded with a lame warning: "Keep

your rowdies in Baltimore and there

will

be

no bloodshed." In other words, the President of the United States had no choice but

abandon Maryland's first city to secession-

to
ist

rabble in the hope of quarantining the

state's rebellion.

The

from

days passed in Washington with no sign of

the promised regiments.

The

President was

his desk.

But

he had enough

he stayed at that desk

ploying his meager, motley forces in defense

of Washington, planning strategy, sending

frequent reports to the White House and

doing the voluminous paperwork necessary
to bring a

genuine army into being.

And

although Scott conceded that the Confederate force of

about 30,000

men

at

Charleston

whole army

east of the
was larger than his
frontier, he remained serenely confident that

would be

well.

Because the new regiments were so slow to

arrive.

General Scott improvised a few color-

ful units

of irregulars. One,

made up of over-

frequently seen by his secretaries anxiously

aged veterans, was aptly called the Silver

pacing about his office, and he was heard

Grays. Another outfit was the Clay Battal-

muttering,

"Why

don't they

come?" During

26

don't they come?

Why

a visit to

the

ion,

formed and led by

rough-and-tumble

Kentucky newspaper editor and

-o^'

dif-

16 hours a day during the crisis, calmly de-

all

sea-land route was long and slow, and

in the field;

politician

.^:s>.^'

Navy Yard. The Clay Battalion remained on

duty until May 2, when Lincoln paid tribute
to Clay and sent him off to Russia.
While Lincoln and Scott waited

they were dealt repeated cruel blows by the

&
.

fl

defection of pro-Southern officers

4.
^L

<^-

fi*^

for the

troop strength in Washington to build up,

a trend

had kept the Army in turmoil since

South Carolina began the secession move-

that

a^

ment

in

Point's

December

1860.

Many

of

most brilhant graduates had

their first loyalty

was

to their

and had "gone South"

West

felt that

home

states,

to cast their lot

with

the Confederacy. Louisiana's General Pierre

Gustave Toutant Beauregard, commander of

had been one of the

defect, and he was followed by the

the siege of Fort Sumter,

first to

Army's highest-ranking

active staff officer,

Virginia-born Brigadier General Joseph E.

Johnston. In

all,

313 officers

nearly one

third of the experienced Regulars the

possessed

resigned

to take

Army

arms against

The situation was nearly as bad

Navy. Out of 1,554 officers of all

the Union.
in the

or almost one fourth

ranks, 373

left

the

U.S. Navy, and most of them joined the

Confederate Navy.
Vfen of the 6th Massachusetts

nto a

fire

mob of rock-throwing

secessionists during the Baltimore

iot of April 19, 1861.

One

Jiree soldiers killed in the

Private

Luther Ladd

of the

melee was
aged 17.

{left),

named

ous support of Lincoln had earned him the

post of Minister to Russia. Clay was in

Wash-

ington waiting to depart for St. Petersburg

when Sumter

fell,

and he went

to the

Department

to offer his services as

nary fighting

man to

Cameron. "Sir,"
first

instance

an ordi-

Secretary of War

said

Cameron,

War

Simon

"this

is

the

"Then

let's

make

a httle history."

Gathering some friends and associates, the

Kentuckian formed

guard

at the

his unit,

which stood

Executive Mansion and the

defection that Lincoln and Scott re-

gretted most deeply

ert E.

was that of Colonel Rob-

Lee. As an officer of engineers, Lee

had served

brilliantly

under Scott

and Scott had followed

in

Mexico,

his career with almost

paternal concern ever since.

Lee was the

first

choice of Scott and the President to lead the

Union armies

On

ever heard of where a foreign

minister volunteered in the ranks." Said

Clay,

The

Cassius Marcellus Clay, whose vigor-

into battle.

April 18, Lincoln sent an emissary to

sound out Lee and judge

the

if

command. Lee hstened

he would accept
politely

and ex-

pressed the belief that "I look upon secession

as

anarchy."

If

he owned every slave in the

South, he would "sacrifice them

all to

the

27

The Shadow Wair

Struggling with a huge timber,

troops of the Washington-bound 8th
Massachusetts and 7th New York
rebuild a sabotaged railroad bridge at
Annapolis Junction, Maryland,
reopening the route to the capital.

Union." But, he sadly concluded, "how can

I

draw

state?"

my

sword upon Virginia,

He would

return to his

my

home

native
at

Ar-

would

join the

Confederacy, and Governor

Letcher even smuggled a delegation of Virginians into

Washington

to discuss

lington House, just across the Potomac,

Scott his expected defection.

"share the miseries of my people and save in

their

defense will draw

my

sword on none."

After this interview, Lee went to see his

friend and mentor, Scott.

It

was

a tearful

moment for them both. "Lee," said the aged

general, "you have made the greatest mistake of your hfe, but

A number

feared

it

would be so."

of Southern officers remained

and paid

the United States

spokesman

with

The general cut

off in midsentence. "I have

my country, under the flag of the

Union, for more than 50 years," he said,
"and so long as God permits me to live, I will
served

defend that

own

flag

with

my

sword, even

if

my

native state assails it."

up a storm of
"With the red-hot

Scott's decision stirred

Southern vituperation.

a high

pencil of infamy," raged an editorial in the

price for their choice.

Abingdon, Virginia, Democrat, "he has writ-

Thomas

Major George H.
who was to become one

ten upon his wrinkled brow the terrible,

damning word, 'Traitor.' " In Charlottes-

loyal to

of Virginia,

of the Union's best generals, was reviled and

disowned by

his

to resign his

own family when he refused

commission. General Scott,

himself a Virginian, suffered cruelly for his

allegiance to the Union.

When

the

Old Do-

minion declared for secession on the 17th of

April,

28

many

Southerners assumed that Scott

ville,

students at the University of Virginia

burned him

in effigy.

general's portrait

His nephew tore the

from the wall of the family

home and ordered his slaves to chop it up and

throw

it

into a millpond.

Of much

greater concern to General Scott

was the situation

which

in Baltimore,

failed

nia Central Railroad, assembled a

group of

from Baltimore south-

men including a young

Andrew
Carnegie and the railScot named
roaders repaired the tracks. The first train-

ward, forcing Washington to rely for a while

load of troops chugged off toward Washing-

on a

ton on April 25.

to

improve despite the President's chary de-

cision to bypass the city.

the telegraph wires

secessionist cut

single line westward. Baltimore Police

Marshal Kane sent out messengers

to town.

consul in Baltimore reported,

The
"The

ment and rage of everyone, of all

But the
setts,

points was

all

bad, and General Scott was preparing to

sue an alarm saying,

classes

and

semblage near

from Massachu-

On April 20, General

upon

it

"From

this city of

bodies of troops

Butler was in Philadelphia with his 8th Mas-

He

in doleful fashion in

The news from

excite-

secessionists failed to discourage

Benjamin Butler.

the capital.

British

shades of opinion, was intense."

that reckless opportunist

That day started out

in all di-

rections to raise secessionist sharpshooters

and hustle them back

trained railroad

it is

the

known

numerous

is-

as-

hostile

evident that an attack

may be expected

any moment."

at

But instead of an attack, the city received,

at

about noon, the

men

of Butler's 8th Mas-

sachusetts and the crack 7th

New

York.

heard of the violence in Bal-

Cheered with fraternal pride by the 6th Mas-

timore and, unable to communicate with

Washington, deduced that Baltimore was

sachusetts and with almost hysterical relief

sachusetts.

impassable. Clearly he had to find a way

around that

city. It

did not take

and the Massachusetts

Perryville

him long. He

men went by

train to

on the banks of the Susquehanna,

commandeered a big ferryboat and

down to AnnapoUs. So far so good.
Butler's plan

&

olis

to

was

to travel

To

saw

to

it

on the Annap-

15,000

that a

little

up the

offi-

hitch

stop Butler, they sent their

rails

behind them. But Butler

his

command

could

fix

if

anyone

A private took a

look and said, "That engine was

our shop;

her."

The

guess

in

the engine, received

a singularly gratifying reply.

can

fit

made

in

her up and run

meanof War Cameron and Thom-

private did so. In the

time. Secretary

all

them and,

said an aide,

"He

over."

as A. Scott, Vice President of the Pennsylva-

men

day could travel the

from Annapolis

to

longer mattered so

in

rail line

Washington, and

it

much what happened

Baltimore. But a great deal

pen

no
in

more did hap-

Maryland, and once again the ven-

turesome General Butler played

leading

role in the events.

On

discovered a broken-down locomotive in an

abandoned shed and, on asking

to

The logjam had been broken; henceforth

locomotives out of town and had work gangs

tear

wave

smiled

Elk Ridge Railroad from Annapolis

developed.

to

sailed

Washington. However, secessionist

cers of the line

by the citizens of Washington, the New

Yorkers and the Massachusetts men paraded
up Pennsylvania Avenue and past the White
House grounds. President Lincoln came out

April 26, Governor Hicks called the

Maryland

legislature into session at Freder-

ick, 50 miles

west of Baltimore and 18 miles

northeast of Harpers Ferry. There was

still

danger that secessionist agitators might panic

the legislature into taking

the Union. Frederick itself

in

Maryland out of
was a key point

Maryland, lying athwart the Baltimore

Ohio

rail line to

&

Harpers Ferry and the

29

The Shadow Waa*

Federal artillerymen, guarding a railroad bridge

near Relay House, watch for troublemakers from
secessionist Baltimore, eight miles to the north.
Their commander, General Benjamin F. Butler, had
no fear of an attack, declaring that he had never
seen "any force of Maryland secessionists that could
not have been overcome with a large yellow dog."

30

route to and from the Shenandoah Valley.

To

neutralize Frederick, General Scott

Frederick, and along the

way

the

men arrest-

ed the noted secessionist agitator Ross Wi-

Then

decided that a railway junction eight miles

nans.

from Baltimore on the

Relay House and steamed into Baltimore,

line to

Frederick

should be seized and held by Federal troops.

Butler's

He

station

ordered General Butler to take the junc-

with

tion
tel

the

House,

on

in

McHenry and

work

restoring the sabotaged

railroad bridges.

Butler's sortie to Relay

be easy.

On May

5,

House turned out

he and the 6th Massa-

chusetts traveled north from

rail,

Washington by

occupied the junction and emplaced

tillery batteries.

ar-

In the following days, other

Massachusetts units arrived

to reinforce Butler,

ed. Relay

Street

Hill, overlook-

arrived under cover of a violent thunder-

garrisoning Fort Morris, and construction

to

Camden

ing the city's ship basin. Since the Yankees

Baltimore, reinforcing Fort

to

piled out at the

path past

after a local ho-

same time, Union troops closed

crews went

men

and occupied Federal

its

Massachusetts men. At about

called Relay
his

the train retraced

Relay House

at

but they were not need-

House was

storm, their presence was barely noticed by

the Baltimoreans until the next morning,

had cleared. When the citizens came outdoors, they were astonished to
find nearly 1,000 Union troops and a battery
after the skies

down at them from

The secessionist jig was

of artillery glowering
the harbor heights.

nearly

up

in Baltimore.

Scott reproved Butler for acting without

orders and removed

him from

nearly every Northerner

ler.

Though

his post.

was grateful

to

But
But-

the political general had run the

so dull, in fact, that

risk of sparking a nasty incident in Balti-

Butler quickly lost interest in his assigned

more, he had faced down the secessionists

mission.

The

general's natural instinct for

sensation drove

though the

city

him toward Baltimore.

Al-

had quieted down consider-

ably since the rioting in mid-April, the secessionists there

were

still

restless

so

much

so

that Lincoln authorized preventive arrests

and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus along the

rail line.

Butler, disdaining to seek General Scott's

permission, launched a bold but complicated

coup from Relay House on

May

13. First, for

deception, a troop train traveled west into

with a fine show of vigor and daring

a time

when both were

this at

in short supply in the

Federal military.

Washington was now secure as the forward base for Union troops pouring in from
all over the nation; thanks to the strong and
prompt Federal action, there was no need to
fight battles for Maryland. As a result, the
armies of the Union and the Confederacy
would fight out most of the great battles of
the

War in the

100-odd miles of rough terrain

between Washington and Richmond.

31

A Helter-skelter
Rush to Arms

It

was, said a Wisconsin politician, "one of

those sublime
tation
rifice

moments

of patriotic exal-

when everyone seems willing to saceverything for a common cause."

Young men responded with almost manic

enthusiasm to Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers on April 15, 1861. From every
quarter

A crowd
32

of 100,000

New

came rousing

reports:

Yorkers jams Union Square on the 20th of April, 1861, for a war

Michigan

rally featuring

one vast recruiting station," and "The

is all one great Eagle- scream." As a
volunteer remarked, joining the Army was
"is

West

like smallpox: "It's catching."

Patriotic civiUans spared

no effort

to sup-

port the recruits and the recruitment drive.

State legislatures put aside political squab-

bles

and passed generous military appro-

Major Robert Anderson, the heroic commander of

Foil

priations.

Businessmen

set

up

relief

funds

to aid the families of soldiers. But the

mighty turnout of volunteers created logistics problems that took time to solve. Everything the men needed was in short supply. Food distribution was so inadequate
that many men got only two meals a day,

and they were lucky; in Philadelphia,

sol-

diers

had

to

beg food from

civilians.

The

the ardor of

some

recruits.

But the great

volunteers were billeted in crude shacks,

majority of volunteers remained, as one de-

public buildings and crowded apartments.

clared, "in fine spirits, feeling like larks,"

Transportation to the battle zones was over-

and soon 16 Northern

taxed, and

many

moving south

recruits

found themselves

in slow freight cars or the

reeking holds of rented steamers.

The discomfort and confusion dampened

states

had exceeded

How many men

Washington? A Massa-

their quotas of volunteers.

were headed for

chusetts volunteer answered for his state,

"We'rea//a-comin'!"

*mm

'
t0*mm^ir-

'

'

'4
i
I I t
^
^ ^
^
^mr*
f^j
I

rtih r I I

lunter. Six

days

earlier,

Anderson had brought with him from Fort Sumter the

flag

ff

i K I

seen flying from the equestrian statue of George Washington (foreground).

33

34

Lacking uniforms and weapons,

zealous

Vermont volunteers

at

Camp

Johnsbury muster for

a drill in their civilian clothes. Delayed
by shortages and mix-ups, the first
wave of Vermonters did not reach
Washington for weeks, but when they
arrived it was reportedly with "the
strength of the hills in their marching
and green sprigs in their buttonholes."
Baxter

in St.

35

Dressed

in

during a marcl
snap to attention in front of Cincinnati's St. Nicholas Hotel
fancy uniforms with shakos, Ohioans of the Guthrie Grays militia company

36

vm

Vw
1
n
U1
MiM' ^L

mLt

^^^^HH^^^^^V^^^^^^P

irl!

'fi

'^

iTIf

>'

"V

Vi

>ugh the

city.

For

all

their martial airs, the militia

were

little

more than marching-and-chowder

societies.

37

I-

^^v

^^ 'v-^A^ y

iX.

;-^^,

^'^"i^

-^rft^
/

:-.-

.
f> ^v*^^;

^'*^*^

^^

i^

.?*

0^'

*/^'^^'
J^*^*

;^^/
-.

_*ai^.3tJ'
MicUgan volunteers

38

at

Fort

Wayne

in Detroit practice forming a square, a Napoleonic infantry tactic that

was used

to withstand

cavaky charges from any

direction

U&&
i

i:i

il

f':^!^--*^^
*<jJ^l'''"'

-"-^

..:.;-rr.i

''-^i!P<!*r-^*'^;^
'**-

:^^j^-

?*^
-1. r
*. >J

V*'**^

i-^

>^
'^

.^-,

vC:

*,

i5^^

g^^^-

J Though

recruits learned the driU as part of their basic training, they rarely

used

it

in

batUe; increased firepower had rendered cavalry charges against infantry obsolete

39

'^

One thousand troops of the

Island Infantry

crowd
station

march past

1st

Rhode

a cheering

Providence railroad
en route to Washington, D.C.

to the

On their arrival,
ofQcer, Colonel

their commanding
Ambrose Burnside,

was told to requisition supplies for

men. Aware of how little the
quartermaster had on hand, Burnside
replied, "Rhode Island and her
his

governor will attend to their wants."

40

II

It

:i

It
^

if i-i

r<^
:-nr

'f^^*^

A
^

41

P9f

s*^

^"-^
Jf^

42

'.'.

:'mS7^9m^

"W^l^

'.^W-VT
Men of the
and

in front of a
at

New York Militia

ramshackle headquarters
in Washington,

Camp Anderson

D.C. The lieutenant seated at right,

Francis Barlow, had come directly
from his wedding ceremony to join
his outfit on the trip south.

.^

12th

their black servants gather

w.

'

y#
^-:>

%"^

43

The Soldiers Craft

''Whether the Union stands orfalls^ I believe the profession

of arms will henceforth he more desirable and more respected
than

it

has been hitherto.''

'

SENATOR CHARLES SUMNER OF MASSACHUSETTS, APRIL

1861

"I beg to lay before you," the letter read,

"a plan of operations intended to relieve

Washington and tending

the pressure on

to

writer of this self-confident sentence

was the youngest general in the fast-growing

.Union armed forces,
Pointer

who,

West
named George Brinton McClellan,
a

34-year-old

commission to go
had come back to
serve as commander of the Ohio militia in
April of 1861 The letter was sent to the Genafter resigning his

into the railroad business,

eral in

soned troops across hundreds of miles of hostile

country,

all

in their

three-month

enlist-

How was he to supply that

army with ammunition and rations, which
would have to be hauled by long trains of
unwieldy horse-drawn wagons? "The general," Scott noted succinctly on the back of

Chief of the Army, Winfield Scott, 40

McClellan's
tation

letter,

"eschews water transpor-

by the Ohio or Mississippi

long, tedious, and

horses,

break-down

in favor of

(of

men,

and wagons) marches."

Although Scott found McClellan's sugwelcomed the op-

years McClellan's senior in age and in mili-

gestions ill-conceived, he

tary experience. In the letter, the brash

portunity to discuss military strategy with a

young general offered Scott two operational

plans that would, he declared, swiftly and

fellow professional; he was weary of being

inevitably bring about "the destruction of

ians

the Southern

Army."

McClellan's

first

plan was to gather

men

in the

In his alternate plan, McClellan proposed to

march

army

bombarded with amateur advice from

who thought

civil-

the South could be defeat-

ed by a single thrust into Virginia. So Scott

Middle West,
lead them southeastward from Ohio through
the mountains of western Virginia, cross
the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge
Mountains, and then fall upon Richmond.
force of 80,000

replied with

two remarkable letters, in which

own comprehensive plan for

he outlined his

winning the War.

He foresaw that the strug-

gle would be long and bitter, and his

was designed accordingly.

strategy

In his letters, Scott sought to explain not

only

how

the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers

Kenarmy forming
under Scott in Washington would cooperate,
moving southward to capture the Georgia
cities of Savannah and Augusta, the two
Union forces could meet at a Gulf Coast port,

could be used as easy avenues of supply but

thus sphtting the Confederacy.

of imported arms and exported cotton. "In

his

straight south through

tucky and Tennessee.

If the

Scott quickly put his finger on the flaws

in McClellan's strategic thinking.

44

McClellan to march a huge army of unsea-

ment period?

bring the war to a speedy close."

The

How

was

how they could become the keys to ending the rebeUion. He began by declaring that
also

as President Lincoln's

ports took effect,

it

blockade of Southern

would strangle Confeder-

ate overseas trade, shutting off the vital flow

connection with such

continued,

"we propose

blockade," Scott
a

powerful move-

ment down the Mississippi to the ocean," An

army of, say, 80,000 men would be carefully
trained with four or five months of hard drill
in camps along the Ohio. Part of that force
would then be carried in a fleet of river
steamers down the Ohio to the Mississippi;
the rest would move by land while being supplied by boat. The expedition would be
shepherded by a flotilla of perhaps 20 armored gunboats.
This army, with

TNC HERCULES OF THE UNION.

Winfield Scott, General in Chief

Union Army, is portrayed as

Hercules slaying the Hydra of
of the

secession in this 1861 cartoon.

Each

of the Hydra's heads bears the face

whose
Union is

all its

necessary supplies

our patriotic and loyal Union friends. They

urge instant and vigorous action, regard-

will
less,

fear, of

Scott's

consequences."

Anaconda nevertheless proved

in

the long run to have a crucial, constructive

influence on the Union's conduct of the
It

War.

convinced Lincoln of the military impor-

tance of the Mississippi, and although the

President and the generals

who succeeded

the aiUng Scott never followed the

Anaconda

strategy consistently, the significance

at-

it

following easily by water, would proceed

tached to the capture of Rebel strongholds

down

along the river

from

the Mississippi, cleaning the Rebels

their strongholds along the

great river.

banks of the

Combined with the sea blockade,

would

the conquest of the Mississippi

New Orleans, Vicksburg

became

and others

fundamental part of

the North's evolving war plans.

No

sur-

one knew whether, or to what extent,

round the bulk of the Confederacy with

Scott's strategic planning took into account

The

the North's very considerable material ad-

South, in short, could be isolated and stran-

vantages in the War. President Jefferson Da-

Union-controlled seas or waterways.

of a prominent Confederate,
alleged crime against the
written on his neck.

gled into submission.

And,

Scott added, his

scheme would achieve victory "with

less

lack of a comprehensive strategy

vis'

and

his

persistence in relying on defensive reactions

bloodshed than any other plan." In any

event, this bold conception of the War was
to remain the only comprehensive strategy

to

formulated by any leader on either side,

foresaw would distinctly favor the Union.

North or South.
Scott naturally

tle

Northern attacks suggest that he gave

thought to the Confederacy's disadvan-

tages. In fact, a long

war of the

sort that Scott

In almost every aspect, the

communicated

Lincoln and the Cabinet.

Word

his ideas to

soon leaked

and the Northern press proceeded to

denounce the scheme and its author. Firebreathing editors such as Horace Greeley of
the New York Tribune expected an immedi-

out,

ht-

North pos-

sessed preponderant strength that could only

increase as the

War

lengthened.

Two

thirds

of America's 32 miUion people hved in the

Northern

states; the

South had barely 9 mil-

Uon people, and more than

were

slaves, disqualified

a third of

them

from military

ser-

vice

by the whites' fears of armed insurrec-

they derisively called Scott's slow, undra-

tion.

matic strategy the "Anaconda Plan," after

ages

Of the able-bodied men between the

of 18 and 45, the Union could draw

the big constrictor snake of that name. Sev-

upon

ate

and victorious invasion of Virginia, and

eral editorials

implied that Scott must be

ther senile or pusillanimous

for

if he

would

more than

three times the

ei-

total of eligible

Southerners. However, slave

settle

manpower did

free for

such a tedious, ungallant approach. Scott

himself noted that "the greatest obstacle in

the

3.5 milHon,

way of the plan" was "the impatience of

ern whites

who would

combat many South-

otherwise have served

only as support personnel.

The North's

industrial might

made

the

45

The Soldier's CraJt

Confederacy look
alone had

more

pitiful.

New York

factories than

all

State

the South.

In addition, the free states outstripped the

slave states in food crops

and livestock pro-

duction; the South enjoyed superiority only

in rice

and cotton.

For distributing what

the Union's

Mississippi,

it

did produce, the

trast,

public, just as the

triots

French had aided the Pa-

during the Revolution. History would

itself,

Davis believed.

The Confederates were not

particularly

worried about their deficiencies in war pro-

single di-

duction. Besides the weapons and munitions

they would import, they had already seized

transportation.

and the South's meager rail

another impossible.

line to

nearly

would sym-

pathize with the ideals of the fledgling re-

connected Richmond with the

rail

net-

work was cursed with varying track gauges,

which made transferring cars and engines
from one

military aid. In addition, France

repeat

Confederacy possessed merely one third of

rect rail route

recognition, together with economic and

ic

all

By con-

of the North's railroad mile-

age was of uniform gauge.

However, the

large

supphes from Federal arsenals. Con-

federate agents were purchasing guns and

ammunition from cynical Yankee manufacturers, who were only too happy to sell weapons to anyone at good cash prices. In time,

Works in Richmond
would become a major supplier of cannon
and armor plate.
the great Tredegar Iron

fact that the Confederates

would be operating defensively in their home

states gave them one clear advantage: Their
lines of communication would be shorter
than those of the Northern invaders. In addition to the efficiencies that this permitted,

Lastly, the Confederates felt that South-

made

erners

better soldiers than Northern-

Surely drab city shopkeepers and toilsome Yankee farmers would be no match for

ers.

the Confederates would need fewer troops to

the plantation-bred cavaliers of the South,

guard the lines of communication and could

men who had been

use a larger percentage of their military man-

as a part of their upbringing.

men. Then, too, the poor

roads in the South would not hamper the
Confederate armies as much as they would

comforting notion proved untrue. Southern

power

the

as fighting

more heavily laden Federal

Still,

The Southern ar-

mies would be defending their homeland,

and that would give them an advantage

in

morale and in operating among a partisan

civilian population.

Although

this

men did start the War with a distinct mihtary

edge:

larger percentage of

them had

at-

tended military school, and therefore a larger

forces.

Confederate confidence was based

very largely on intangibles.

taught to ride and shoot

Furthermore, Davis ex-

percentage of Southern officers had some

formal military education.
It

sive

was possible that President Davis' paswar policy might triumph; if a stout

Southern defense repelled invasion and

flicted

heavy

losses,

and

if

in-

the Confederate

pected England and France to intercede in

armies remained intact and dangerous, the

the South's behalf, so as to guarantee them-

Northerners might lose heart and abandon

selves a steady supply of cotton

from the

world's greatest grower of the fiber. Pure

self-interest,

he thought, would impel both

nations to accord the Confederacy diplomat-

46

the War. Yet thoughtful Southerners

paused

to

contemplate the North's huge ad-

vantages in
ity

who

manpower and

industrial capac-

concluded that a long war would play into

America's grand old military hero,

General Winfield Scott began his
brilliant career as a dashing young
officer (above) in the War of 1812 and

command the army that

Mexico City in 1847. But by
1861, Scott was plagued by infirmities
that would soon force him to retire.
went on to
capt\ired

47

The Soldier's Craft

Yankee hands. The Federal armies could

only become larger and stronger, the Confederate armies only smaller and weaker. To
it seemed that the Confederacy's only
would
be to win the War before the
hope
Union could fully mobilize its strength. Said

them,

commander

menaced from
two or more directions and cause him to split
his force;

believe he was

thereupon the enemy's divided for-

mations could be crushed successively by the

own army. This

entire weight of one's

con-

centrated attack should strike the enemy's

one Southern skeptic: "What we have to do

unprotected flank or the weakest point in his

must be done quickly. The longer we have

defensive line.

them

to fight, the

more

difficult they will

Nevertheless, there was a powerful historical

argument against

prove that wars were

won

not by slowly

tlefield

Grande Armee had repeat-

spite of blockades

by the British Navy. Near-

a larger force

than he

force^or, as the great Confederate cavalry-

man Nathan Bedford

any Civil

his

and with

were speed and concentration of

it,

edly thrashed hostile European coalitions, in

on

The Napoleonic keys to victory on the bat-

but by destroying his armies in the

Napoleon and

crucial to capitahze

to attack before the enemy ex-

it,

sapping an enemy's power to wage war,

field.

was

thought was available.

Scott's strategy.

The career of the greatest modern military

commander, Napoleon Bonaparte, seemed
to

surprise

pected

be to defeat."

It

Forrest reputedly put

"Git there fustest with the mostest." But

War

general

who

followed Napo-

methods

slavishly was risking disasweaponry had changed radically between 1815 and 1861.
leon's

ter, for

every amateur strategist in the North ad-

In Napoleon's time, infantry attacked on a

mired Napoleon and urged the Union gener-

narrow front in tight-packed columns with

ly

als to

emulate him, advancing to smash the

forces of the upstart Confederates

the

War

and

to

end

forthwith.

bayonets fixed.

The columns smashed

into

enemy

hke battering rams, the

sol-

the

diers

Professional officers

had no need

for such

counsel; Napoleon's career and teachings

fine

running the defenders through, tramp-

Ung them down, clambering over the bodies

of dead comrades.

dominated military thinking in both armies

Such sledge-hammer attacks had succeed-

and would continue to do so throughout

the War. Every officer who graduated from
West Point after the early 1830s had studied

ed largely because the standard infantry

Napoleon's campaigns in a course on

musket. All models of musket had to be load-

strate-

gy and tactics taught by Professor Dennis

Hart Mahan. In addition, many officers had
been members of an after-hours study group
called the Napoleon Club. As wartime field
officers they would often pattern their battles

and campaigns

after

Napoleon's great

victories of half a century before.

According

to

Napoleon, the prime pur-

pose of maneuver was to

48

make an enemy

weapon used by

all

armies was the short-

range, single-shot, slow-to-load smoothbore

ed in the same laborious way:

paper car-

powder charge and a lead

was torn open; powder and ball were

tridge containing a
ball

dropped into the gun's muzzle, followed by

the paper, which served as wadding, and the

whole load was driven the length of the barrel

with a ramrod.

ble flintlock

To

fire

the weapon, a sol-

powder charge by an unreliamechanism: A chip of flint on

dier ignited the

...

-VXf

1
A company of Union

soldiers

practices a drill to the rhythmic beat

drummer (left). The formation,

designed to repulse a cavalry charge,
enabled two ranks of men to fire
simultaneously and then present a
soUd front of bayonets.
of a

the weapon's

hammer

created a spark in a

powder from
the paper cartridge. The weapon would not
fire when the powder was wet or even damp.
When the musket did fire (which was about
80 per cent of the time), the ball was unstable
shallow pan primed with a

in flight

little

and accurate only

at short ranges:

200 yards against formations, up

musket volleys before they began

work with bayonet and saber.
What was more important, the attackers' arfensive

their grisly

tillery

losses,

could, without sustaining prohibitive

move

far

forward and pave the way

for the infantry charge

the

enemy

by blowing gaps

In 1861, smoothbore muskets were

to 100 yards

in

fine.
still

against individuals.

widely used. These latter-day muskets were

Because the musket was a short-range

weapon, the Napoleonic infantrymen and

ily

cavalrymen could safely advance close to the

mechanism had been replaced by new

enemy

cussion caps

line;

upon launching

their charge,

they would only briefly suffer losses to de-

more reliable than

their antecedents, primar-

because the temperamental old flintlock

per-

cuplike copper casings con-

taining a small

amount of an explosive such

49


The Soldier's CraJt

as fulminate of

mercury. Muskets with the

percussion-cap feature were virtually certain

to fire,

even in foul weather.

with a long, clear

on the run, and reloading the singleshot early rifles was a slow and difficult proc-

in the

scored with spiral grooves. This rifling gave

wanted to

a lead

a pointed lead missile instead of

musket

ball

The

a stabilizing spin

when

ess (pages 52-53) that forced the

open under

fire.

men

stop: Rifle bullets traveled at high-

er velocities than

musket

balls,

600 yards away.

power of the

result

Armies had been reluctant

to

adopt the

and heavy

slugs that did not kill outright often infhcted

mortal damage to flesh and bone.

fired.

to stop

Naturally no one

was a dramatic increase in the accuracy and range of the basic

infantry weapon. In the hands of a good
marksman, a rifle could hit an enemy soldier
was

it

The

rately

a far

the bullet

of fire ahead of it.

attacking infantrymen could not fire accu-

more critical improvement had

transformed the musket into a rifle (pages 7071). The interior of the barrel was now
But

field

In 1861 tacticians

believed in the

still

bayonet charge, but they gradually modified

infantry tactics to take into account the
rifle.

When

preparing for a

charge, the infantry approached the

enemy

general issue, in part because the

broadside, in a line of regiments instead

loading process was time-consuming and dif-

of in column; this extended order brought

rifle for

ficult:

The powder charge had

to

be mea-

more

offensive firepower to bear. Greater

sured from a flask, and a tight-fitting bullet

emphasis was placed on the deployment of

had to be rammed down the grooves. In 1849

a French Army captain named Claude E.

skirmishers, who, instead of charging shoul-

der to shoulder as a mass target, spread

Minie had helped introduce the

out and became harder-to-hit individual tar-

first

of sever-

cone-shaped slugs with a hollow base. The

al

new

bullet

rel's

inner diameter and thus was easy to

was

slightly smaller than the bar-

ram

gets.

one

They worked

their

way forward from

cover to the next, reloading and

bit of

maintaining a sporadic

fire to

keep the en-

down; but when the bullet was fired, its base

expanded to fit the rifling with requisite

emy riflemen down.

snugness. In deference to Minie's original

soldiers erroneously re-

changes in the role of the cavalry. Napoleon's horsemen, facing short-range muskets, would charge boot to boot in the wake

They

of an infantry breakthrough or would carve

design, which had since been

proved, Civil
ferred to

War

all rifle

continued to

bullets as

Minie

call their rifles

much
balls.

im-

muskets, and

The advent

out their

of the

rifle

caused wholesale

own breakthrough in a surprise

now the most daredevil

they were supplied with more and more of

flank attack. But

them as the War lengthened.

Not surprisingly, the advent of the

cavalrymen seldom rode into the maelstrom

rifle

tipped the tactical balance in favor of the defense.

Now

infantrymen making a bayonet

charge were vulnerable to

rifle fire

for

some

of an infantry battle; the

not to mention the riders

great.

henceforth engaged chiefly in reconnais-

it

sance, in screening the

50

or near the crest of a rise

was simply too

Though the cavalry could dismount

when involved in a large action,

500 yards before they reached the enemy's

wood

on the horses

to fight

defense line, which was usually positioned at

the edge of a

toll

movements

army from the enemy, and

of an

in staging swift

raids

on the enemy's supply depots and

lines

longer range and greater accuracy of

War, gun-

techniques of rapid deployment.

weapons made the artilleryman's

job even more hazardous than it had been
before. As gun crews brought their field-

in the

muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon. In

of-

pieces forward, rifle fire slaughtered the

fensive operations the guns' usefulness

was

The

infantry

gunners

still

most widely used early

fieldpieces

War

were, like Bonaparte's guns,

And though

limited.

They were

took dehght in placing their bat-

whether

firing solid shot

horses that pulled the cannon.

teries in the front line,

they paid for their

courage with long casualty

At the outset of the War,

ing six to 12

inaccurate at long range,

pounds

or explosive

iron balls weigh-

At

shells.

closer ranges, in support of infantry, the can-

lists.

artillery differed

non were

far

from that of Napoleon's time. The

French Emperor had revolutionized the use

Case shot

little

The basic

Civil

ners on both sides were proficient in the

of communication

The

and during the

lery forces,

cially

deadly

more effective. They were

at

espe-

ranges of around 800 yards.

hollow

packed with pow-

balls

manual for both

annies was Rifle and Light Infantry
Tactics, a pocket-sized two-volume
textbook written by William J.
Hardee (above), a former West Point

of artillery by employing hght, mobile field-

der and clusters of small iron or lead balls

pieces that could dash to any threatened

cut a great swath

commandant who

Army was

training

spot on a battlefield.

joined the

Confederates as a brigadier general.

The maneuvers in Hardee's, such as
the diagramed movement below of a
regiment marching from line of battle
into a column by the right flank,
baffled many volunteers; by the time
the Battle of Bull Run was fought,
neither side had mastered them.

States

quick to copy and improve on the

French usage with

lightweight

lery

The United

its

own mobile

artil-

bronze cannon mounted

on rugged carriages with big wheels. By

the 1840s the U.S. Army had the world's
hardest-riding and swiftest-firing field artil-

when

they exploded amid

an enemy formation. Missiles called canis-

which resembled

ter,

oversized bullets,

tin cans filled

were even more

with

lethal, hit-

ting lines of soldiers with the effect of giant

shotgun
at

blasts. Canister

was generally used

ranges of around 300 yards, and case shot

at greater ranges.

Besides their hght, fast-firing smoothbore

guns, both North and South employed

field

U8

acBOOL or thi

oonnxrttssta

nr.

and vill lengthen tbe step^

on the eontnrj, in order to oIom up vbeo tU
piecM are anin brooghc to a shoulder. In aarcb
log in double quick litnc, the distance bettreen tbi
ranks will be twenly^ix inches, and the pieces
will b cnrried habitually on the right shnumer.
134. Wfaenerer a company is baited, the meg
will brine their pieces at once to a shoulder at the
eommand kaii. Tbe rear rank will closo to ill
proper diitaooe. Tkeu rvUt art genmU.

cannon that could throw projeclong distances with much-improved ac-

rifled iron

jiTctcribed distance,

tiles

which had

its

opti-

range was around 2,400 yards.

The

named for inventor Robert

came in various sizes ranging

Parrott rifle,

A>Tici.z FnsT.

2b mardk bg Hhiflmk.
135. The company being in line of battle, oJ
at a halt, when the instnictor shall wish to caoM
to march b; the right Bank, he will command:

P. Parrott,

from

10-pounder

it

1.

Ctmpany, rioAiTtcn.
i.

rifle,

a three-inch bore, could fire shot

or shell nearly 4,000 yards, though

mum

LKSSON FOURTH.

The Model 1861 Ordnance

curacy.

2.

Fonaard.

tile

that

weighing 10 pounds

is,

firing a projec-

to a

mammoth

30-

HaacH

136. At the first command, tbe company will

ftoe to tbe right, tbe corering sergeant will plaes
himself at the bead of the front rank, tbe captaii
harinij stepped out fur the purpose, so far as U

4nd himself by

the side of the sergeant, and on hi/

left
the front rank will double a is prescribed is
the school of the soldier, No. 352 the rear rani
will, at the same time, side step to the right cos
pace, and double in the same manner ; so that

pounder

siege gun.

Never during the Civil War would the ofup with the defense. But the

fense catch

bayonet attacks continued to the very end,

even in the face of elaborate complexes of

trenches and breastworks.

The

cost

would
51

How

to

Load a

Rifle

In Civil War battles, attacking infantrymen typiadvanced across several hundred yards of
open terrain toward enemy infantrymen defending a sheltered position. The men on both sides
had accurate, long-range, single-shot rifles. But
the attackers were at a distinct disadvantage,
since they had to stop moving to aim, fire and
reload all the while presenting an easy target.
It might take minutes to reach the enemy and
fire point-blank or use bayonets. These were the
cally

A paper cartridge, shown in cutaway

at actual size, held a conical lead

packed atop black gunpowder.

the bullet's hollow base
expanded to fit the grooved bore. A
sooty residue remained, making
reloading harder with each shot.
bullet

On firing,

LOAD: Grasp the rifle with the

left

hand. Place the butt between the

toward the front.

Seize the barrel with the left hand
close to the muzzle, which should be
held three inches from the body.
Carry the right hand to the cartridge
box on the belt.
feet, the barrel

52

most terrifying minutes in a soldier's life, and for

many a soldier they were the last minutes.
The worst of it was loading the rifle. This
compUcated, time-consuming process involved
opening a paper cartridge (left), inserting and
ramming home the bullet (called a Minie ball),
and attaching a tiny percussion cap (opposite).
The movements, which had to be made in specific order, required nimble fingers and steady
nerves under the best of circumstances. Many
experienced soldiers could load and fire no more

than three rounds in a minute, and the heat and

din of batde turned even seasoned troops into
frightened fumblers. Often the rifle failed to
fire, and the soldier did not know it. Of 27,000odd rifles recovered from the Gettysburg battlefield, two thirds were loaded with two or more
charges, and one contained 23. (A double charge
would usually fixe without mishap, but any additional charges could cause the barrel to explode
or might send a blast of flame back through the
firing mechanism, blinding the rifleman.)
Only one thing could prevent such mistakes
and increase a soldier's efficiency in both the
attack and the static defense: drill. Soldiers had
to repeat, time and again, the series of steps that
loaded their rifles, until they could run through
the movements automatically. In teaching the
drill to raw recruits, officers on both sides relied
chiefly on the training manual, Hardee's Tactics.
The steps are described below and illustrated
with figures after Hardee's.

CHARGE CARTRIDGE: Empty

HANDLE CARTRIDGE/TEAR
CARTRIDGE: Seize a cartridge

between the thimib and the next two

fingers. Place it between the
teeth. Tear the paper. Hold the
cartridge upright between the
thumb and first two fingers in front
of and near the muzzle.

Disengage the ball from the paper

with the right hand and with the
thumb and first two fingers of the left.
Insert the ball, with its pointed end
up, into the muzzle and press it down

the

powder

into the barrel.

with the right thumb.

4 DRAW RAMMER: Draw the

rammer out by extending the arm.
Turn the rammer. Keeping the back
of the hand toward the front, place
the head of the rammer on the ball.

RAM CARTRIDGE: Insert the

rammer. Steady

it

with the thumb of

The rifle's firing mechanisin (Uft)

was anned with a copper percussion
cap (above, actual size) containing
half a grain of fulminate of mercury,
placed on a nipple imder the hanuner.
Pulling the trigger

made

the

hammer

crush the cap, sending a flame

through the nipple into the barrel,
where it set off the powder charge.

its small end

with the thumb and forefinger of the
right hand. Press the ball home,
holding the elbows near the body.

the left hand. Seize

it

the eye. Half-face to the right,

8 READY/AIM: Fully cock

Turn

with the right foot at right angles

hammer and

from the bore by extending the arm.

it and insert it in the carrying
groove. Force the rammer home by
placing the

little

finger of the right

hand on the head.

to the

hand.

RETURN RAMMER: Draw the

cap.

rammer halfway out. Grasp it near

7 PRIME: With

the muzzle with the right hand. Clear

the piece until the hand

the

left

hand, raise
is

as high as

left.

with the

Half-cock the

thumb of the

Remove

Take

the

hammer

right

the old percussion

new cap from

the

pouch. Place it on the nipple. Press

the cap down with the thumb.

the

seize the small of the

stock with the right hand. Place

the butt against the right shoulder.
Incline the head to align the right
eye with the sight. Close the left eye.

9 FIRE:

Press trigger with forefinger.

53
I

The Soldier's Craft

be

terrible. In this bloodiest of

wars, the
causes,

toll

came

of soldiers
to

who

American

and hospital stewards

perished, of all

ies, a

one man out

band

some 620,000

to tend the

men's bod-

chaplain to minister to their souls and a

to help

them march proudly and

in

In basic organization, both armies were vir-

Regiments of the Confederate Army

were of approximately the same size. However, few regiments on either side ever went

and were not much different

into action at full strength. Disease, de-

of every four

who

tually identical

served.

step.

from those fielded by Napoleon. The

ment, commanded by

a colonel,

regi-

was the

smallest self-contained unit of infantry.

On

paper, the standard Union volunteer infan-

had exactly 1,046 officers and

men. That total included 10 companies of
101 men, each company commanded by a
try regiment

captain, plus the colonel's staff

tant to

do the paper work,

an adju-

a quartermaster to

sertions, casualties
losses usually

and delays

in replacing

reduced the effective strength

of most regiments by 20 per cent

and,

in

many cases, by a great deal more.

The average soldier gave his loyalty first to
his regiment; a man took pride in belonging
to the

33rd Virginia, say, or the 5th

New

York. Both the Union and Confederate high

commands

wisely realized the importance to

look after suppHes and equipment, and a

morale of allowing state-raised regiments to

commissary

maintain their state

the men.

54

officer to

handle the feeding of

The regiment

also

had surgeons

affiliations. "I

rather have no regiments raised in

would
Ohio,"

Men of the

1st Ohio Light Artillery

stand beside one of their six-pounder

Although cannoneers
were trained to work in giin crews of
eight or nine men, their drill
fieldpieces.

instructions provided for fighting with

diminished crews, ending ominously
with "service by two men."

declared an Ohioan in Lincoln's Cabinet,

"than that they should not be

known

as

Ohio

ward

one huge unit to attack an enemy

as

formation of similar magnitude.

For the cavalry, the regiment was again

regiments." This view was heartily endorsed

by the governors, who jealously guarded

the basic unit.

their prerogatives to appoint officers as po-

large part of the

litical

sometimes called troops, each with

patronage.

Most Civil War engagements were so large

seldom fought as independent units. Rather they marched and were
deployed as brigades, usually of two to six
regiments each. Three or so brigades were
that regiments

grouped together

to

make

still-larger units,

and several divisions would

combined
to form an infantry corps.
then be
the divisions,

In the great battles to

come

at

places like

Antietam and Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, a

commander would commit

several

perhaps 20,000
and send them

entire corps to the fray

men

Union cavalry regiments, for a

War, had 12 companies,

in 35 regiments

for-

strength of 103 officers and

regiment, including

men.
and

its staff

was therefore larger than

cers,

paper

cavalry

field offi-

infantry

its

counterpart, nominally numbering 1,254.

The

greater size was the result of simple

need.
tle

The

strength of a

mounted

was affected not only by the

unit in batfactors that

cut into infantry strength but also by the condition of

its

animals. Ailing or exhausted

horses could sap a regiment's strength in a

mounted engagement. And when

men

cavalry-

fought dismounted, as they often did,

men

only three

fourth

fight; the

out of four could actually

man remained in

the rear to

hold the horses.

The

was the batand

normally six cannon
144 men
tery
commanded by a captain or, more often, a
lieutenant. Early in the War, several artillery
basic unit of artillery

were simply attached

to

each infan-

try brigade or division. Later,

anywhere

batteries

from four
artillery

were formed into

to 12 batteries

brigades that were assigned to infan-

try corps.

Eventually an artillery reserve was

estabhshed

a large

number

of guns, under

the control of the army's chief of artillery,

thrown into

that could be

a fight at

any

threatened point.
In addition to the three

army needed
Playful volunteers of the 7th

York Militia build

New

human pyramid

an off-duty period. But the

soldiers' tough training schedules left
little time for clowning; they drilled
by company and regiment as often as
five times a day, seven days a week.

tions.

Among

combat arms, an

a host of ancillary organiza-

who cut
wilderness, dug earth-

these were engineers,

roads through the

in

works and

built

pontoon bridges; whole

regi-

marksmen known

ments of specially

skilled

as sharpshooters;

and signalmen

to estab-

55

The Soldier's Craft

lish

observation posts and oversee

nications.

Many

to operate the tools of

commu-

ing the Civil

war made available

when he was

by recent technological advances: telegraphers and wire-laying gangs for the telegraph
equipment that provided virtually instantaneous communication between widely sepa-

crewmen

Union armies durWar, recognized the problem

as the chief general of the

were required

specialists

a lieutenant in 1846.

"In the event of another War,

exhume

He wrote:
we

shall

again

the veterans of former days, and

again place at the head of our armies respectable and aged inefficiency?

Or

shall

we seek

of the U.S. Mihtary

out youthful enterprise and activity com-

Railroad to handle the trains that could

bined with military science and instruction?

rated armies;

speedily transfer troops and supplies from

The results of the war,

one scene of battle to another. In short, the

try, the glory

armies of the North and the South began the

measure, upon the answer that will be given

War

to this question."

as products of a

Napoleonic heritage,

but they evolved, during four years of battle,

into the first

modern

It

was

the honor of the coun-

of our arms, depend, in great

a question that every nation faced

during long periods of peace,

armies.

shriveled in size and

when

its officers,

the

army

whatever

Although the Federal and Confederate Ar-

their

mies were practically identical in the matters

men, grew old and conservative, clogging

of structure, weaponry and tactical princi-

the pathway to promotion for the younger,

ples, they differed significantly in

one

re-

spect. Despite the fact that the Confederate

Army was

being built from scratch,

its

proven merits as leaders and fighting

more vigorous officers. The seniority system, which awarded promotions more by
length of service than for present ability,

was better than that of the

well-estabhshed Union Army. This disparity
grew more and more obvious in the spring
and early summer of 1861, as both sides

made

struggled to organize, train and bring to bat-

pired to

officer corps

tle their

number

Union Army

especially attractive

to elderly timeservers. Conversely, the

federate

Army was

daring and energetic young officers

make

of reasons for the

Con-

particularly alluring to

who

as-

the most of their generation's

war. As the early battles of the

prohferating forces.

There were

the

show, the daring, energy and

War would

just plain bel-

superiority of the Confederate officer staff.

ligerence of the Confederate officer corps

The West Pointers who "went South"

had much

ly large

do with Confederate successes.

The Union Army, far from encouraging
its young officers to show their mettle, inadvertently discouraged them in various ways.

ficers

Political

in-

cluded an especially large and talented group

of high-level officers.

disproportionate-

number of the other Confederate ofhad had at least a modicum of for-

to

appointments raised

number

of

mal military education. But, paradoxically,

the most important reason of all was that

unqualified civilians to high rank in state mi-

the Confederate officer corps lacked what

young officers. Of course the Southern states

had their own political generals and colonels,
but fewer than the Northern states.
In the North, moreover, young Regular

seemed

to

al officer

seniors.

56

be the main strength of the Feder-

corps: a large cadre of experienced

Henry W. Halleck, who would serve

litias,

thwarting the careers of promising

Army

officers

were required

to resign their

scribing traditions. President Davis, himself

commissions before they could accept appointments to higher ranks in the state-

trained at

organized volunteer units. Since this meant

tary adviser, General

losing their seniority,

many

highly qualified

States

not so

West Point and a former United

Secretary of War, and his chief miU-

much

Robert E. Lee, looked

for unexceptionable veterans as

Ueutenants to accept promotions to brigadier

They were free to

gamble on their own judgment of men, and
their intuitions were keen. They found a
large number of talented brigade and regimental commanders in their 30s several

general, colonel or major in volunteer outfits

years younger, on the average, than their

junior officers declined promotion and re-

signed themselves to serving in minor capacities.

year passed before regulations were

changed

to

permit capable young West Point

without losing their Regular

The

Army

Federal and Confederate officer

most pronounced

The

rank.

discrepancies in quality between the

colonels

ments, which

at the

staffs

were

regimental level.

commanding volunteer regimade up the bulk of both ar-

mies, bore the responsibihty of molding raw

recruits into

competent

soldiers. It

was

their

task to oversee training in weaponry, march-

ing and battlefield maneuver.

The

training

was not so much comphcated

as

consuming; the soldiers had

to repeat their

drills

it

was time-

time and again until they obeyed orders

instantly

and without thought. Too often,

for exceptional fighters.

Union counterparts.
For their field commanders
Davis and Lee in

May

in the East,

1861 chose two

cers of excellent credentials. Brigadier

eral Pierre

Gustave Toutant Beauregard, a

43-year-old Louisiana

become

offi-

Gen-

a hero of the

Frenchman who had

South for

Fort Sumter, was appointed

his capture of

commander of a

Confederate army that was building around

Manassas Junction,
fines

a sleepy

town where

rail

running from Alexandria and from the

Shenandoah Valley crossed with rails leading

south from Washington to Richmond.
this

key position, Beauregard was

From

to protect

commanders neglected the job.

To make up for weary or lethargic or incompetent colonels, vigorous young West

northern Virginia from any incursion by

Point graduates were temporarily assigned to

seph E. Johnston,

regimental

the hard
recruits.

work of

drilling

and training the

But no matter how well

performed

this task,

a lieutenant

he often received as

his

Federal forces.

Also in May, Davis and Lee appointed Joold veteran

who

a distinguished 53-year-

held the rank of major

general in the Confederate

mand an army then

Army,

to

com-

being raised in the Shen-

only immediate reward the tragic decimation

andoah Valley, guarding Virginia's rugged

of the unit by his colonel's egregious battle-

western flank. Johnston's army was separat-

field

blunders.

ed from Beauregard's by 50 miles and the

On the other hand, the commanders of the

Confederate Army were untrammeled by a

Blue Ridge Mountains, but the Manassas

long hst of senior officers waiting patiently

forcements from either force

for

promotion, and they did not have to cope

with the Union Army's ponderous bureaucracy,

accumulated regulations and circum-

Gap Railroad could quickly

deliver reinif

the other

was threatened.

By

late

eral Scott

May, President Lincoln and Genhad appointed commanders to key

57

The Soldier's Craft

Eastern posts. First they turned to Robert

This young private, name unknown,

Patterson, a 68 -year-old major general of mi-

was

member of the Old Dominion

one of five Virginia militia

companies to retreat from Alexandria
Rifles,

litia

who had

led sizable bodies of troops un-

der Scott during the Mexican War;

thought that his experience might

it

when Union troops invaded the

was

state on May 24, 1861. This "cased"

(backed and framed) photograph is
an ambrotype a see-through glass
negative whose dark background
makes it resemble a positive print.

make up

for his lack of youthful energy. Scott first

assigned

him

job, placing
tary
ia,

to

what was

him

essentially a

desk

in charge of a large mili-

department that included Pennsylvan-

Maryland, Delaware and the District

of Columbia.

When

that responsibihty ap-

peared to overtax Patterson, Scott assigned

the

Washington sector of the

territory to an-

other old colleague. Colonel Joseph K. F.

Mansfield, 58 years old.

These moves did nothing to solve the

problem of who should command in the
field. Age and infirmity disqualified Scott
and the three other senior Regular
ficers

who had remained

Army

loyal to the

of-

Union.

pulling by Secretary of the Treasury

who had

P. Chase,

Salmon

practiced law in Ohio,

In the absence of an outstanding candidate,

McDowell was made

Lincoln and Scott allowed the choice to be

dier general

Regular

Army

and assigned the top

briga-

field

com-

of Ohio, William Dennison, was busily pro-

mand in the East. He would lead the army of

some 30,000 men that was now forming

moting the careers of two professional

around Washington, and he would carry on

decided by

diers

from

politics.

his state.

The vigorous Governor

One was George

Clellan, the ambitious

had proposed

young

sol-

B.

Mc-

his shoulders the

strategist

who

Virginia to quash the rebellion.

scheme for invading Virginia

from the west. Dennison lobbied for him so
a

successfully that McClellan

was quickly pro-

moted from a major general of state volunteers to a major general in the Regular
Army, charged with overseeing all operations in the Middle West.
Governor Dennison's second Ohio candidate for appointment to a high Army post
was Irvin McDowell, a 42-year-old brevet
(acting) major who had served creditably in
the Mexican War and who now held down a
desk job in the Adjutant General's

Thanks
58

to

Dennison and

office.

to strenuous wire-

onerous duty of invading

McDowell assumed his new

command, the troops who had gathered to
protect Washington made their first offenJust before

sive

move.

On May 23,

Virginians voted in a

popular referendum and ratified a previous

convention vote in favor of secession, mak-

member of the ConfederaOld Dominion now officially

ing their state a

With the
enemy territory. Generals
cy.

field acted

Mans-

with surprising swiftness. The

next day, they threw

Potomac

Scott and

to seize

1 1

regiments across the

and hold

buffer zone

the baggy-trousered 11th

Virginia,

New York

Fire Zouaves are welcomed by

Colonel Marshall Lefferts of the 7th

for the capital.

The operation was

At a camp near Alexandria,

carried out with a

New York Militia on May 25,

1861.

smooth

efficiency, but

it

was nevertheless an

exciting event for the green troops

who

took

part.

At exactly 2 o'clock on the morning of

May

24, under a brilliant

umns

of infantry, supported by

lery, folded

back the thin

erate pickets
river.

moon,

On

three col-

some

line of

artil-

Confed-

on the Virginia side of the

the right flank were three

New

York regiments, which crossed the river upstream from Washington by the roadway
atop the Potomac Aqueduct, a span connecting Georgetown, on the Washington side,
and the northern end of Arlington, in Virginia. These troops then pushed two miles into

Virginia, cutting the

rail line

Loudoun

& Hampshire

that connected Alexandria with the

town of Leesburg, 30 miles

to the west.

Two other Union columns crossed by way

Long Bridge from Washington to ArOne column, commanded by a mageneral of New York militia, Charles

of the

Hngton.
jor

Sandford, captured Arlington Heights,

vantage point from which Virginia militia

had been observing

tal.

activities in the capi-

The Confederates

swiftly retreated

and

Sandford's advance guard reached the Columbia Turnpike, one of the area's main

thoroughfares.

The Union

soldiers occu-

59

The Soldier's Craft

60

Officers of the Irish 69th

New

York Militia surround an 8-inch

seacoast howitzer at Fort Corcoran
in Arlington, Virginia. The unit
commander and namesake of the

fort.

Colonel Michael Corcoran (Jar

left), was later captured by the
Confederates at Bull Run and held
prisoner for more than a year.

pied,

among

other useful structures, the

home of Robert E. Lee, a spacious,

umned mansion atop one of the highest

hills

His motive, the Navy

Lee and his wife, already in

Richmond, had left the place in the care of
would, by occupying

said General

penned

Sandford

in

an

it

a truce until 9 o'clock

he would withdraw his troops peaceably.

if

in Arlington.

servants. "I

George H. Terrett,

col-

myself,"

official report

spare the

women and

man

said,

was

to

children of the town

any risk from gunfire.

Given
rett

this more-than-fair

was able

to

warning, Ter-

assemble his troops near Al-

comfort of Lee's parlor, "be

exandria's

main

responsible for the perfect care and security

and King

Streets, several blocks

of the house and everything in and about it."

waterfront. This was no easy feat, since

He was but the first of a string of Union

officers who would find it convenient to

the Rebel soldiers were billeted

oversee the defense of Washington from the

force

enemy commander's commodious home.

The other column to cross the Potomac on
the Long Bridge was made up primarily of

the

in the

Colonel Orlando B. Willcox's

Regiment.

On

1st

Michigan

the Virginia side, these sol-

diers turned southeastward

and

set off in

town in

their

intersection of

own homes.

Washington

from the
all

over

Terrett's ill-armed

had no more than two

per
man moved toward the nearby depot of
bullets

it

Orange & Alexandria Railroad just as

Willcox's Michigan infantry marched into
the town from the north and the 11th New
York came ashore from their ships. Willcox
later recalled that his

men "exchanged

few

pursuit of a group of Rebel horsemen who,

shots with their vanishing rear guard," but

flushed from their Arlington bivouac, were

the

speeding toward the small but important

aboard some railway cars and escaped. The

port

town of Alexandria

to raise the alarm.

Alexandria was occupied by some 700 locally

recruited Virginia militia.

main body of Terrett's troops got

safely

Federals were able to capture only 35 daw-

dhng Rebel horsemen.

During the operation, the Union

side suf-

Willcox had been ordered to capture the

fered a stunning loss: Colonel Ellsworth, the

To

Zouave commander, was killed (pages 6269). Nevertheless, the Yankee success was,
as a reporter for the Washington Evening

town and,

if

possible,

help him, the 11 th

clad

its

Rebel garrison.

New York an exotically

Zouave regiment led by an immensely

popular young colonel

worth

was

named Elmer

E. Ells-

to be landed in Alexandria

three river steamers, with the sloop of

Pawnee

by

war

given, as

it

turned out,

not by the fast-riding Confederate troopers,

but by a Union Naval officer from the

nee;

Paw-

he went ashore well before Ellsworth's

scheduled dawn landing and

with no authorization

mander of

apparently

offered the com-

the Alexandria garrison, Colonel

'

'a

stirring

one indeed

. '

'

The next

morning the exhilarated Federal troops on

the Potomac's southern bank set to work
erecting

as their escort.

The alarm was

Star wrote

what would become an

intricate sys-

tem of fortifications protecting the

capital.

As more troops crossed the bridges to enVirginia soil, their newly minted
brigadier general, Irvin McDowell, rode to
join them. There McDowell began planning

camp on

and preparing the Union's

into the

first

deep thrust

Old Dominion.

61

A Martyr for the

The

first

officer to die in the Civil

North

War was

dressing the

dashing 24-year-old colonel whose very

name Elmer E. Ellsworth was a syn-

forms.

onym

swift

for patriotism to millions of

North-

when virtually every town

own volunteer militia, the di-

erners. In a time

sponsored

its

He

Zouave

the

men

in

baggy-trousered uni-

developed his
drill,

own

variations of

featuring hundreds of

and sometimes acrobatic maneuvers

with musket and bayonet.
In the summer of 1860, with war clouds

minutive colonel was America's foremost

threatening to break, Ellsworth loured 20

parade-ground soldier and, in the popular

cities in the East,

imagination, the Union's most promising

to

military talent.

Colonel Ellsworth had earned his reputation as

commander of the U.S. Zouave Cawhom he had transformed

dets (below),

from

a lackadaisical

group of Chicagoans

into the national-champion drill team. Ells-

worth modeled his unit after the exotic

French Zouaves of Crimean War fame.

challenging all comers

compete against his Zouaves. He became a celebrity overnight; editorial writers
lionized him, women swooned over him,

and

politicians sought his friendship.

ham
man

Abra-

Lincoln called him "the greatest

I

little

ever met."

Ellsworth campaigned for Lincoln during the Election of 1860.

the President-elect to

He accompanied

Washington

as his

bodyguard and confidant, and became such

mea-

a close family friend that he caught the

from the Lincolns' sons Willie and

When war came, Ellsworth sounded
the call to arms and raised a regiment of
tough volunteers from the New York City
Fire Department. "They are sleeping on a
volcano in Washington," he warned New
York Tribune editor Horace Greeley on the
17th of April, 1861. "I want men who can
go into a fight now."
Twelve days later, the colonel and his
green regiment, called the New York Fire
Zouaves, left for Washington amid great
fanfare. There Ellsworth pulled political
strings to guarantee that his men would be
sles

Tad.

the

first outfit to

invade the South.

*
'

f .

4-

*i-.

% ^-

^v.

'>

';

':

'
,

^f,

,f,.

The U.S. Zouave Cadets, Colonel

Ellsworth's champion

drill

team, perform before an audience of local militiamen

in

Utica,

<

^l, ;f;.

*r

New

York,

in July

of 1860.

Sudden Death

In the early-morning hours of

May 24,
1861, the day after Virginia officially se-

Ellsworth stationed guards in the inn and

dashed upstairs with four comrades. After

on a Dark Staircase

ceded from the Union, Federal troops were

cutting

ordered to cross the Potomac River and

the stairs, preceded by Corporal Francis E.

seize critical points

on the Virginia

side.

Colonel Ellsworth had wangled a choice

objective for his Fire Zouaves

H. House of the

New York

At the
James W.

Tribune.

third-floor landing, innkeeper

He

dressed for the as-

Jackson

new uniform and

barreled shotgun leveled at them. Instinc-

pinned on his chest a gold medal that was

inscribed in Latin,

"Not for ourselves alone

tively

(left)

stood waiting with a double-

Corporal Brownell batted the shot-

gun with the barrel of

his

musket, but

but for country."

the innkeeper pulled the trigger. Ellsworth

At daybreak, a steamer put Ellsworth

and his regiment ashore on an Alexandria
wharf. The Union men encountered no

was hit and, as House remembered, "He

dropped forward with the heavy, horrible
headlong weight which always comes with
sudden death."
Jackson fired his second barrel at Brownell and missed. The corporal fired simultaneously and hit the innkeeper flush in
the face. As Jackson fell dead, Brownell
bayoneted the body and sent it crashing

resistance; Alexandria's only Confederate

troops, a sprinkling of Virginia militia,

were hurriedly leaving town. Ellsworth dispatched one company of soldiers to take
the railroad station while he and a small

Brownell and followed by reporter Edward

sault in a resplendent

city of Alexandria.

James Jackson, Ellsworth's killer, was a hero to

Southerners. "He was killed in defense of his home
and private rights," the Confederate coroner ruled.

the port

down the flag, he started back down

detachment set off to capture the telegraph

office. A few blocks up King Street the
group came upon an inn, the Marshall

House

(below),

Confederate
flag

taken

which was flying a large

Ellsworth wanted that

flag.

down

down

the stairs.

Then the Union men turned to Ellsworth. He lay in a heap on the bloody Confederate flag, his gold

medal driven

into his

chest by the shotgun blast.

immediately.

--.

m\

'rmwtm

,.^

n
,,

ff

im

m
C!HIHII2^
iCl

'-->*

The scene

of Ellsworth's death, Alexandria's Marshall House, was later ransacked by souvenir hunters,

who

cut

away the

staircase

or*^'

where the shooting occurred.

:,

^. V

;.,

'4'

Corporal Brownell strikes at Jackson's shotgun as Colonel Ellsworth slumps, mortally wounded.

An

instant later, Brownell shot Jackson through the head.

Head in hand, Lincoln and

grieving officials attend Ellsworth's funeral in the East

Room of the White House. On the casket lies a laurel wreath from Mrs.

Lincoln.

heartfelt letter

from President Lincoln condoles Ellsworth's parents.

Highest Honors
for the Fallen Hero
Ellsworth's death plunged the North into
mourning. Bells tolled. Flags flew at halfstaff. President Lincoln was grief-stricken.
At the sight of his young friend's body, he

sobbed,

"My

boy!

My

boy!

Was

sary that this sacrifice should be

it

neces-

made?"

At the President's orders an honor guard

brought the body to the White House,

where it lay in state on May 25, 1861. A
funeral ceremony followed (left), attended
by Cabinet members and high military officers. The casket was then moved to City
Hall in New York, where thousands filed
past to pay their last respects. Finally a train

bore Ellsworth's remains to his

of Mechanicville,

hometown

New York, for burial in a

grave overlooking the

Hudson

River.

spreading the
Ellsworth Cult
The death

of Elmer Ellsworth had a varied

issue in the North.

Sermons,

editorials,

songs and poems lamented his loss and

proclaimed his heroism. Babies, streets,
even towns were named in his honor. Corporal Brownell, the soldier

who

slew Ells-

worth's killer, was promoted to second lieu-

tenant in the Regular

Army, and many

photographs of him were sold in the small

carte de visite

format

(right).

From the Union's grief sprang a renewed

determination. "Remember Ellsworth" became

Army

a patriotic slogan. Enlistments in the

soared, and

Zouave regiments emuup everywhere.

lating Ellsworth's cropped

In

New

York, volunteers quickly

filled a

regiment called Ellsworth's Avengers.

needed

just

minister.

"We

Corporal Francis E. Brownell stands on

the Confederate flag that Ellsworth
captured and stained with his lifeblood.

such a sacrifice," thundered a

"Let the

nWORT-M'S

War go

\JV i^Jnn

on!"

111

The coat

that Colonel Ellsworth was wearing when

he died became a venerated relic in the North.
The hole was made by the killer's shotgun slug.

nl5 PAP.EJUTS.
-

Mi

!>**

moT* torow
wtiat

Uut

r^TU

WMBOTToa, Mas

23,

USI-

MoTBOy Iti raglmwt U orderwl la

W kkrt aa bmiu oi' knowing
matt with. 1 am loallnej to Um oplsloa

ua>

th< riTsr to niglit.

recepUoa va *re

lo

Mr eotnnee M tli aitj of AluaodrU will b

H lu iDformea a lixg

(area t>*T arrived

Ihu bappii, UT.dcar paraaU. tl may

ibwe

oa mjr lot (o

butly coqicsk^.
to day.

taa

tioouu

injareJ in touu

majr 1mi>o, otawian iba ooiuolaUatttiut 1 waa

(nmad ia tbc performanoa or a atorat duij: aad to oiglu, UilnH
irrow and tlu ooourraacaa at the paai,
iBgoTCr tte pralKbiUtca of to
ba,
I am ftitnUf coattsut to aacept wbateTor ia> (otlaue

aaaaw. WhataTar

m^

Ha wbo aotet^ aTan tiM tall of a aparroWt wUl baira

aoma parpoaa avea In tlM (kta ot osa lUe ma. ms darling aodaTer
luved parasu, good I9, Ood blaaa protaoi aod eata for ;aa.

cmfltttnt ttet

"KUIKA.

Memorial envelopes such as these

flooded the Northern mails.
The envelope at left bears a message
written by Ellsworth to his parents
the night before his death.

1
REMEMBER ELLSWORTH!

An Ellsworth portrait and scenes of his invasion of Alexandria decorate

the cover of a music sheet, one of

many pieces written in his praise.

Tools of the Soldiers Trade

During the first year of the War, both

North and South had to use a welter of
personal weapons to meet the demands
of their expanding armies. Indeed, two
years would pass before all the soldiers
carried up-to-date firearms. However, a
few models of the basic infantryman's
weapon soon emerged.

Of brief but

vital

importance for both

armies was the 1842 musket, America's

first

percussion musket. This weapon,

the first to be truly mass-produced

manufactured with fully interchangeable parts

was slowly superseded by
the 1855 rifle musket, whose rifled barrel spun the bullet and gave it greater

accuracy and longer range than the ball

shot from the smoothbore musket.

The

musket served as the basis of

three improved models, all of which saw
extensive use during the War. A similar
weapon, the imported Enfield, became
1855

rifle

the secondary
Still

rifle

of both armies.

more advanced than the Enfield

rifle

and the 1855

rifle

musket was the

Sharps, a breech-loading

rifle.

Conser-

vative ordnance officers distrusted the

Sharps's intricate

ognizing

its

mechanism but,

greater rate of

fire,

rec-

issued

it

companies of skirmishers.
Eventually the carbine version would be
heavily used by Union cavalrymen.
to selected

U.S. MODEL 1842 MUSKET

The 1842 musket weighed

10 pounds, was 57V2

inches long and fired a .69-caliber round ball.
Many of these weapons were converted by rifling
the barrel to

fire

a conical bullet.

imp
U.S. MODEL 1855 RIFLE MUSKET
The 1855 rifle musket used a Maynard percussion

priming system, which had a strip of priming pellets

glued between two paper tapes. But the system
proved troublesome and was soon abandoned for a
regular percussion cap. The weapon weighed
just under 10 pounds and was 55% inches long.

71

Swords and Sabers:

A Waning

Tradition

For both Union and Confederate forces,

the sword served a dual purpose: It was a
weapon and a symbol of rank. Infantry
officers on each side wore variations of
the U.S. 1850 Foot Officer's

used

it

in

last resort.

combat only

as a

Sword but
weapon of

Sergeants also carried dress

both sides con-

sidered the traditional saber their principal

weapon, preferring

it

to pistols

and

carbines. But since cavalry charges were

seldom practical

in the

overgrown

ter-

United States, more

and more cavalrymen adopted firearms.
rain of the Eastern

Gunners, whose work loading and

swords as emblems of authority.

18S0 U.S.

Many cavalrymen on

cannon prevented them from carrying rifles, were often issued Roman
style short swords to defend themselves
against enemy penetrations. But like

firing

their cavalry counterparts, the soldiers

who manned

the guns turned to revolv-

ers in increasing
their

numbers, and used

swords mainly as machetes.

FOOT OFFICER'S SWORD

United States Anny officers from the rank of

second lieutenant to colonel wore the 1850 pattern
sword. Many Confederate officers who had served
in the prewar Army retained their U.S. swords.
The hand guard and blade in this example
are decorated with floral and patriotic devices.

18(0 U.S.

CAVALRY SABER

The 1860 saber had

a curved 34-inch blade and a

ridged grip for sure handling. The swept-back hand
guard protected the trooper's fingers.

CONFEDERATE CAVALRY SWORD

Following a European style, this cavalry saber
features a straight blade. The hand guard carries
the letters

CSA cut in brass.

NONCOMMISSIONED 0FnCER*S SWORD

The sergeant's sword was elegant in design but
U.S.

heavy and poorly balanced. Introduced

remained in service for 70 years.

in 1840,

it

"^^mmmmmmmm

U.S.

FOOT ARTILLERY SWORD

The U.S.

artilleryman's short sword was copied

from the Roman-style weapon of Napoleon's
gunners. A federal eagle was added to the pommel.

75

Horse Pistols
Six-shooters

vs.

Soldiers

who wished

to

arm themselves

with a handgun usually chose a revolver

with

rifled

bore in preference to the cav-

smoothbore "horse pistols."

The revolver was clearly superior in accuracy as well as in rate of fire and ease of
loading. But selecting a revolver was
complicated by the wide variety and unalry's old

even quality of the makes available.

Some gunmakers turned

action revolvers.
reliable

but had to be cocked by a sepa-

hand motion before each shot. Othgun manufacturers produced double-

rate

er

Out single-

These weapons were

action types; pulling the trigger (or

ver)

its

le-

cylinder

and fired the shot. Many of these revolvers were unreliable because of faulty engineering or poor workmanship.
Both types of revolver fired much faster than the single-shot pistol, but they

were

Powder and
be packed into each cham-

just as difficult to load.

bullet

had

to

ber of the revolving cylinder and tamped

down with a ramrod built into

on. This loading process

the weap-

would not be

speeded up until self-contained metal

were perfected.

bullets

WHITNEY NAVY .36

Large numbers of single-action
Whitney revolvers were purchased by
the U.S. Ordnance Department for
standard issue and by soldiers for
personal use. The term "navy" was
the popular name for .36-caliber
pistols, .44s being labeled "army."

74

cocked the gun, turned

ADAMS .44-CALIBER ARMY

The double-action English Adams
was

a favorite of Confederate

ordnance

officers. Its cylinder held

only five shots (most Americanmade revolvers were six-shooters).

NORTH & SAVAGE .36-CALIBER NAVY

The single-action North & Savage
revolver was cocked by pulling back
the bottom part of the figure-8 trigger

housing.
lever,

The

trigger,

was then pulled

enclosed

in

the

to fire the piece.

75

Action on the Flanks

'Surrounded by military preparations, with troops arriving and

departing daily, with the tramp of armed men and the rapid roll of the drum
ringing in my ear, I feel as if the realities of war were fast closing in on us."
LIEUTENANT COLONEL EDMUND KIRBY SMITH, C.S.A.

While preparations were under way

for a

with the South

ties

and civilians on both sides

some alarming lessons from minor
actions that flared up on the flanks of the
Old Dominion. Virginia presented daunting
problems to defender and invader alike. In
territorial extent it was the second-largest
Confederate state, after Texas, and it was
dangerously exposed. Invasions could come
from four adjacent states: Yankee Pennsylvania and Ohio and the border states of
Maryland and Kentucky. Though Virginia's
northern and western borders were guarded
by rivers or mountains, none of these obstacles was impassable, and in the east the state
faced the Chesapeake Bay and a coastline
that was much too long to be defended, or
even adequately patrolled, by the craft at

slavery

ginia, soldiers

learned

Confederate disposal.
In both geographic and political terms,
Virginia was a fragmented state.

From

the

with secession and

were dominant.

Just over the Blue Ridge lay the lush,

beautiful

Shenandoah Valley. Walled

the west by the jutting Allegheny

tains,

it

in

on

Moun-

averaged 40 miles in width and ran

125 miles south westward from the Potomac

River to Lexington,

home

of the Virginia

Mihtary Institute. Here the people had voted

for secession,

but generally with less enthusi-

asm than the Virginians to the east.

The Valley was vital, for the crops
duced and

it

for its strategic position: It

natural thoroughfare of invasion for

pro-

was a

Yankees

heading south and for Confederates invading

Maryland, then heading north into Pennsylvania or striking east toward Washington. East- west traffic between the midlands
and the Valley was effectively blocked by
the Blue Ridge except at a few gaps, the
most important being Manassas Gap near the

Tidewater region. Broad rivers

town of Front Royal, and Ashby's Gap about

20 miles north. Any army that controlled the

mac, the Rappahannock, the York and the

gaps could

Chesapeake Bay back to Richmond

lay the

the Poto-

James

ran in southeasterly courses into

the bay, dividing the Tidewater into three

peninsulas.

The most prominent

of them,

move up

or

down

the Valley un-

impeded and probably unseen, to appear

suddenly where

least expected.

Beyond the Alleghenies

lay a broad ex-

framed by the York and the James and ex-

panse of mountainous ridges and deep, nar-

tending 60 miles west to Richmond, was so

row

hallowed to Virginians that they called

River and Kentucky. Northwestern Virgin-

it

simply the Peninsula, as though there were

no other. In the

Piedmont region west of

Richmond the ground rose slowly to the long

hne of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Between
76

the sea and the Blue Ridge, the Virginians'

large-scale confrontation in northern Vir-

valleys that stretched west to the

ia, as

Ohio

the section was called, was a place

and rocky for largescale farming by slave gangs. Here lived subsistence farmers who felt ignored by the

apart, a land too hilly

S^^*Ai'%

Richmond

Statehouse in

and often were.

Richmond

usually favored

tune was running Butler's way. His perfor-

make minor
amount

mance in Baltimore was widely applauded in

the North and grudgingly accepted by Lincoln, who would soon commission Butler a
major general of volunteers. Secretary of
War Simon Cameron and Secretary of the
Treasury Salmon P. Chase were both well

before he was quah-

disposed toward Butler, and the fact that the

pense of the small western farmers,

who

therefore periodically threatened to go their

own way. The

tries to

westerners nearly rebelled in

1830, prompting

Northern cartoon, pro-

Union western Virginia

stop

secessionist eastern Virginia

from plunging headlong into the

Confederate abyss. The schism
between the two parts of the state
carried over into a bitter military
campaign that began in May of 1S61.

for-

the large eastern slaveholders at the ex-

Legislation in

In a

on the 13th and 14th of May. But good

concessions
of land a

Richmond

such

to

as reducing the

man must own

But the coming of secession put

the two sections once more on different
fied to vote.

roads.
ties

majority of the Appalachian coun-

of northwestern Virginia voted against

secession in the state referendum of May 23,

and by then

loyal Unionists in the east

had

long since met and planned to fight for the

Stars

and

Stripes.

Clearly Virginia was vulnerable on both

its

and old General Winfield Scott was

flanks,

Bay

was an important Democrat who

Stater

wholeheartedly supported the Lincoln ad-

made it politic to give him a

prominent command.
Scott bowed to the inevitable and put Butministration

ler in

charge of the Department of Virginia

and North Carolina, with headquarters at

Fort Monroe. Scott even congratulated Butler for

taking his

quite willing to probe for advantage in the

soft-shelled crabs,

main movement matured in northern Virginia. A good base for

such flank attacks was Fort Monroe, on the

come in, and

east

and west

southern

until his

tip of the Peninsula.

Fort Monroe

new

right time of year: "It

fish

post at precisely the

is

just the season for

and the hogfish have

they are the

just

most delicious pan

you ever ate."

When Butler assumed his new command

May 22, he found barely 2,000 soldiers in

on

more regiments were assigned

not only threatened the Confederates with

the fort. But

the prospect of land thrusts toward Rich-

to

mond,

more than 7,500 men. He occupied the nearby town of Newport News without opposi-

it

was

While other

a constant obstacle to

coastal forts

were

secessionists, this one held.

moth

Confed-

on the James and the York.

erate traffic

falling to the

Behind

walls, the Federal garrison

its

mam-

was more

than secure, especially after being reinforced

in early

May by two regiments of Massachutrouble with prospective oper-

from Fort Monroe was the man who

would command them, Benjamin Butler of
Massachusetts. Scott would have preferred
ations

to

appoint

more competent

officer; in-

deed, he had angrily relieved Butler for

his

tion, then

command

began chafing under Scott's orders

forbidding him to take any further action

without formal permission.
Butler's willfulness soon evidenced itself

again:

He

decided to

make

civil

policy for

President Lincoln. Three slaves belonging

setts volunteers.

The only

him, and he would eventually

unauthorized occupation of Baltimore

to a

Confederate colonel escaped into But-

ler's lines,

and the Rebel

The

officer asked for

had been toiling

on Confederate fortifications on the Peninsula, and Butler declined to return them
to work against the Union. "I shall hold
these Negroes as contraband of war," he
their return.

slaves

77

I'

Action on the FlaoUcs

said;

henceforth the term "contraband" was

appHed

numbers of escaped

to increasing

stood Bethel Church, which had given

name to two

villages. Little

its

Bethel was a few

Lincoln decided that the secession of

miles south of the church on the road to

the Southern states

Newport News. Big Bethel

federal

had abrogated the old

Fugitive Slave Law; he accepted the

Creek, eight

slaves.

general's "contraband" ruling

and humor-

as "Butler's fugitive

ously referred to

it

slave law." This

was

road to emancipation.

a first step
It

on the

enabled escaped

slaves to get paying jobs building Federal

defenses and working as personal servants

Union officers.
While staging this

the James River toward

Richmond.

was the nearest outpost of the local Confederate forces, who were headquartered 10
miles farther north at
River.

To

Yorktown on

the

York

Butler, the Confederates were

al-

together too close for comfort.

The man

in

command

of the Southern

troops on the Peninsula was a handsome, en-

for

began considering

on Marsh
miles north of Fort Monroe; it
lay

Commanding Hampton Roads

Newport News
(rear), Fort Monroe was a base
for Union Army attacks launched up
(foreground) and

political

a military

coup, Butler

gaging, courtly and always flamboyantly at-

move up

tired Virginia colonel

the

Peninsula from Fort Monroe. In his path

named John Bankhead

Magruder. His friends called him Prince

78

John, and he did not object to

est.

He was

it

in the slight-

West Pointthree commen-

51 years old, a

trained officer

who had won

regiment was another officer of great promise,

Colonel Daniel Harvey Hill. He, too,

had fought with distinction

in the

Mexican

an early warning

War, but soon afterward Hill had resigned

his Army commission to become a professor
of mathematics at Washington College in
Lexington, Virginia. When the War came he

any enemy advance on York-

was superintendent of the North Carolina

town, he ordered one of his newest and best

Military Institute. Hill could be trouble-

regiments, the 1st North Carolina Infantry,

somely independent and was always ready

dations for bravery in Mexico.

Magruder had

just

2,500

men

to

defend

the entire Peninsula, and he deployed

as best

and

to

he could.

to slow

To sound

them

occupy Big Bethel. Commanding

this

to criticize his superiors.

But he had an

in-

stinct for a fight.

Hill

and

on June

7.

his Tarheels reached Big Bethel

They spent

all

of that day and the

next one erecting earthworks and felling

on both sides of the

Back River (page 83), which was crossed by a

trees to build defenses

bridge that carried the road from Fort

roe to Yorktown.

On

their left lay a

Monmarsh

would impede infantry movement, so

Hill stationed merely a handful of sharpshooters there. To the right, on some high
ground behind a cluster of buildings, the
Confederates emplaced a cannon of the Richmond Howitzers and 208 men of the 3rd Virthat

ginia Infantry.

North of the
was held by the

main defense line

North Carolina and the

river, the
1st

itzers. If the

HowYankees from Fort Monroe

come

across the bridge, they might

remaining four guns of the Richmond

did not

ford the river east of the bridge, on the far

side of the

move, the

swamp. To guard against this

Confederates built more earth-

works. Hill had to stretch his 1,400 troops

thin to

A political

appointee, Union General

Benjamin Butler often showed his
resentment of West Point graduates.
But he carefully concealed an
unsuspected reason for his attitude:
As a young man he had applied to
the academy and had been rejected.

man

all

the defenses, but the con-

struction work was finished by June 9. Early

the following morning word came that a
Union column was approaching.

Butler had learned of Hill's occupation of

Big Bethel, and he had decided to drive the

79

Action on the Flanks

Confederates out, thus preventing any raid

mishers met and drove in Hill's pickets south

on Federal outposts near Fort Monroe and

of Big Bethel.

Newport News. The

Confederate earthworks, some of the Feder-

which

general's plan,

he had devised without bothering to consult

Scott as

ordered, called for two columns

move independently toward Big Bethel

to

and then converge for

a surprise attack at

dawn. One column incorporated the 5th

New

York, Duryee's colorful Zouaves and

New York Regiment. The other column comprised the 7th New York and parts
the 3rd

Vermont and 4th Massachusetts.

and 2nd New York Regiments were

of the 1st

The

1st

readied to reinforce the attackers,

if

needed.

Butler assigned the task of leading the attack

another Massachusetts militiaman. Briga-

to

dier General

The

Ebenezer Pierce.

Federals, about 4,400 strong,

out before

moved

a.m. on June 10, and General

Pierce soon learned

how

difficult

it

was

for

als

As they approached

were surprised and annoyed

Hill's

men were

fields in the

the

first

to find that

not standing out in open

standard line of battle, offering

them good targets. "They were completely

in ambush," complained a New York soldier, "and within the embankment of one of
the strongest fortifications in this section
of the country."

The Confederates braced to meet the atAt 9: 15 the main body of the enemy
came in sight, and the Richmond Howittack.

under the

zers,

command

of Captain George

Wythe Randolph, opened fire.

Lieutenant Benjamin Huske of the

1st

North Carolina reported that the first Confederate fire shook up the Federal infantrymen and forced them "to do some pretty
dodging." The Yankee soldiers

unskilled troops and neophyte leaders to

scientific

make coordinated movements

conceded that point. "Their batteries," a

Zouave wrote later, "received us warmly";

On

Butler's orders, the

their white turbans

the other soldiers

white cloths,

all

in the dark.

Zouaves had

around

tied

their arms, while

wrapped

their

so that they

arms with

cannonballs "whistled through the

bushes as

would recog-

if

and

air

they meant something nasty."

opened up

Pierce's artillery

in return,

men

nize one another as friends in the dark.

firing ineffectually. Pierce

The precaution did no good, however. As

the two columns converged below Little

in line of battle along the woods on both

sides of the road. Units on his extreme right

Bethel, they mistook each other for the en-

and

emy and opened fire. Twenty-one soldiers

were killed or wounded before the firing

tempt

stopped, and by then the Confederates were

to the right, skirting the

thoroughly prepared to give them a hot wel-

in

come. Pierce patiently listened

to Colonel

Abram Duryee, commander of the Zouave

regiment named after him, who argued that
it was madness to continue now that they had
been discovered. But Pierce decided

to

go

ahead with the attack anyway.

It

80

was about

a.m.

when Yankee

skir-

deployed his

began spreading outward

left

in

an

at-

to turn the flanks of the Confederates.

Duryee and part of

moved off
marshy ground

his regiment

hopes of crossing the creek at a ford

and getting behind Hill. The detachment
soon ran 'into heavy fire. "At one time it
seemed

as if the balls could never

come

so

thick and fast," wrote one of the Zouaves.

"At every boom of the cannon we would

on our

drop

flat

they

came

faces

and

rise instantly,

so fast after that that

many

but

of us

(i

Contraband'' Slaves
at

Work

The

slaves in Virginia's

in Fort

Freedom

using old scowsHjysTer boats and dugoui canoes, leaving no trails for men or blood-

hounds.

On

the 27th of

May, 1861, only

three days after Butler's contraband ruling,

had 67 fugitives on his hands. By

end of July, just two months later, some
900 men, women and children had sought
refuge in Fort Monroe, which the slaves had
renamed "the freedom fort."
At the fort, the men were put to work at
a variety of tasks by the general's quartermaster. Most of them were assigned to heavy
work, such as unloading supply vessels or
building a series of earthwork bastions to
guard the neck of land that led to the fort.
the general

Tidewater region
were quick to learn by the grapevine that
General Benjamin Butler, the Union commander at Fort Monroe, had refused to return three escaped slaves to their Confederate

owner on the ground that such valuable

workmen were legitimate "contraband of
war." Immediately, scores of slaves began
fleeing their masters to seek haven within the
Union lines around Fort Monroe and Newport News. They traveled by river and creek,

the

Some became

officer's servants (belozv).

few acted as scouts for the Army, guidmg

patrols through the area's swamps and forests. The men were paid modest wages, from
which small sums were deducted for the upkeep of their dependents.
General Butler started a school with day
classes for the children and night sessions for

Many of the refugee families built

own houses in the nearby ruins of the

the adults.
their

town of Hampton, which had been burned

by the Confederates to deprive the Federal
troops of its conveniences. The new town
was well laid out, although it had one odd
feature: In the heart of a wartime Southern
community, the streets bore such names as
Lincoln and Union.

v:<^.--V.y

Escaped slaves serve an

officers'

mess of Duryee's Zouaves

at

Fort

Monroe

in 1861.

At center

sits

lanky Adjutant Joseph Hambltn, later a general.

81

Action on the Flanks

did not take the trouble." All along the line,

men were

frightened or bewildered by their

initial battle. "It

was

grand and awful

scene," wrote another, "but

it

fully until

it

did not realize

was over."

Thwarted on

mation

courage during the whole day."

A storytelling Confederate map

was in disarray now. Many

men, a soldier later wrote, "scattered
singly and in groups, without form or organi-

traces the course of the Rebel victory

to

Pierce's force

zation, looking far

more

like

men

the south (top), they were slowed

his right. Pierce tried ad-

huge picnic than

soldiers awaiting a battle."

After barely two hours of fighting, Pierce

New York and a

5th New York. Unfor-

decided to halt the action and return to Fort

Frederick Townsend's 3rd

few companies of the

tunately for the Federals, a

wooded

ravine

had separated one of Townsend's companies

rest of his line

during the advance.

When Townsend's men

looked beyond the

ravine and saw their lost

company, they mistook it for the enemy and opened fire. Then,
fearing that their flank had been turned, they
hastily

withdrew.

With

this thrust foiled. Pierce

alternative but to try once

his
jor

more

saw no
push

to

way around the enemy's left flank. MaTheodore Winthrop, General Butler's

military secretary, led forward a group of

companies from the 1st Vermont and the

4th Massachusetts. They went through and
around the marshy ground, pushed their
way across a ford, and advanced against a
Confederate strong point that was bolstered
with a howitzer. Winthrop, hoping to find a

chink in the earthworks through which he

could lead a charge on the pestiferous can-

non, climbed a fence and waved his sword,

gesturing his

men onward.
"Come

rally!" he shouted.

charge, and the day

is

"Rally, boys,
on, boys; one

ours!"

words.

Confederate bullet struck him square

in

Those were Winthrop's

the chest and
his

went

the

way through

him. "He was

enemy," Colonel Hill

his assault died with

the only one of the

wrote

82

all

last

body. Major Winthrop died instantly,

and

later,

Back River's north side (bottom).

As Union regiments advanced from

the

enjoying a

vancing with his left-flank units, Colonel

from the

at Big Bethel on June 10, 1861. The

Confederates emplaced most of their
howitzers behind earthworks on

of the

"who exhibited even an approxi-

Monroe. The

down by

the marshy riverside terrain

and repulsed by Confederate fire.

was just as confused

had been. But the Yankees
were not pursued, and they managed to retire safely to Hampton.
Behind them lay the War's first scene of
retreat

as the assault

Some five dozen soldiers,

them Yankees, lay wounded^

post-battle horror.
all

but 10 of

Colonel John Bankhead Magruder,

the Confederate commander
at Big Bethel, was much admired as a

bon

vivant.

He

displayed, a fellow

officer said, "princely hospitality"

and "the taste of a connoisseur,"

and was "always ready to participate
in the

amusements of his subalterns."

f^fSkf

iLL

83

Action on the Flanks

writhing and shrieking in pain.

boy with

his

comrades

to

arm torn

"One brave

off cried out to his

avenge him," wrote

Another youngster showed

Zouave.

hand danghng
from a shred of flesh and begged someone to
cut it off "as the pain was dreadful." Cried
a

God

Lieutenant Huske, "Great

mercy,

in

avert the awful results of civil war!" Yet the

managed

Federals

from

their defeat. "I

me

satisfy

first,

that

some pride

to salvage

have seen enough to

war

wrote a

ain't play,"

Zouave, "and second, that our regiment

no cowards in it."

ain't got

For

all that, it

was not much of

The Confederates

man

one

lost just

while the Yankees counted 18 dead.

sic situation at

changed not

a battle.
killed,

The

ba-

the end of the Peninsula had

at all.

But the

little

struggle did

have noteworthy results. Prince John Magruder and his field commander Hill were

made generals, and Pierce lost his command.

When

the

War Department

refused to con-

firm his rank, Pierce enhsted as a private.

As

for General Butler, he

blamed

for the defeat

by

was roundly
and the

his officers

home. One of Duryee's men deif any good came from the
defeat, then "we earnestly hope it may be the
means of removing our New York troops at
people

at

clared bitterly that

least

from Massachusetts generals, who have

been fledged in the foul nest of party

without the

least

mihtary merit."

esied that "if such generalship

proph-

to

be con-

of western Virginia, and considerably more.

From

doom thousands to an untime-

been

end." Benjamin Butler was one general

May

tinued,
ly

is

politics,

He

it

will

who would make

other costly blunders.

the outset, this rugged region had

a bright

hope

for the Federals.

cuss sece(iing

Union. "Let the world see," the

Even

as the

Northerners met with defeat on

On

met in Wheeling to disfrom Virginia and joining the

13 a convention

Intelligencer

urged

its

Wheehng

readers, "that there

the Peninsula, Federal troops on Virginia's

was one green spot where unyielding

other flank were winning the Union's

tism ralhed." But while the radicals for their

faint victory.

84

first

At stake was the future of

all

part talked of forming a

new

patrio-

state, conserva-

Northern troops needed

to take possession

they were to guard the

Ohio Railroad, which ran
through the area and connected Harpers
Ferry with the Ohio River. The railroad was
a life line for bringing troops and supplies
from the western states.

of the territory
Baltimore

vital

if

&

Luckily, Lincoln had exactly the right

man
eral

for the job.

The

officer

was Major Gen-

George B. McClellan, commanding the

Department of the Ohio, and he did not wait

to

be ordered into western Virginia. Learn-

ing on
to

May 26 that secessionists were moving

burn the bridges of the Baltimore

&

Ohio

line,

McClellan sent two columns into ac-

tion.

One, led by Colonel Benjamin Kelley,

moved south from Wheeling toward Grafton, repairing the damaged bridges as it
went. Brigadier General Thomas Morris led
the other

column across the Ohio River

at

Parkersburg and drove eastward to link up

with Kelley. With good fortune, they would

converge
ates

at

Grafton, catching the Confeder-

between them.

Their quarry was Colonel George A. Porterfield,

who

faced a far worse situation than

McClellan could have hoped. Governor John

Letcher of Virginia had assigned Porterfield
to

command

the state troops at Grafton,

where the northwestern Virginia railroad

joined the B & O route to Parkersburg.
Zouaves of the 5th

New York make

charge on a Confederate
Big Bethel. Six Zouaves

a desperate

battery at

died in the vain assault, and their

garish uniforms, a Confederate said,

"contrasted greatly with the pale,

fixed faces of their

dead owners."

argued that they had been the true

re-

Although Porterfield could severely ham-

presentatives of Virginia ever since the Rich-

per Yankee communications by holding the

mond government

Grafton junction,

lives

seceded, and that they

should establish a provisional government

for the

whole of the Old Dominion. So an-

other convention was called for June

1 1

in

hopes of setthng the matter.

precious
1

Richmond had given him

work with. He had only

,500 troops, and they were dismayingly un-

disciplined, with
to

President Lincoln welcomed the western

to

little

wander

in

some companies seeming

and out of camp

June 2, Porterfield

Virginians' political initiatives. But the

first

tive duty,

order of business was purely military:

The

a tiny village a

had

and he had

just

fallen

773

back

at will.

By

men on

ac-

to Philippi,

few miles south of Grafton.

85

Action on the Flanks

rt

y^

rr

That day Porterfield received word that

of

damned

fools!" Porterfield apparently

Colonel Kelley was coming, and that General

agreed, for he

Morris was believed to be only 20 miles

northwest of him. In fact, the two Yankee
columns had already joined forces in Grafton, not that it would have made any difference to Porterfield. The knowledge that
his foe numbered at least 3,000 was quite
enough; he had to leave Philippi and with
unbecoming haste.
Loading his few wagons with what they
could carry, Porterfield assembled his officers that evening and announced that if
they were attacked, they would retire toward Beverly, about 40 miles south, where
he expected to find reinforcements. It was
a rainy night, uncomfortable for all. One

away; no one

of his captains looked out the headquarters

Private

let his officers

sleep the night

knew that the Confederate out-

post guards had

left their

posts without per-

come into
town seeking shelter. Philippi was entirely unguarded, and plenty of "damned fool"

mission or replacement and had

Yankees were marching through the night,

bent on attack.

The
fire

ates

Federals struck at daybreak, opening

with two artillery pieces.

The Confeder-

were taken completely by surprise. In

little while Porterfield recovered from the

shock, and did a creditable job of organizing
his men and husthng them out of Phihppi on

the road

One

t*o

Beverly.

of the

last

men

to flee the

town was

only hotel, and exclaimed, "Hell, any army

John Sheffee, a member of a Highland County company of Virginians. Looking behind him, Sheffee saw a mounted Yan-

marching tonight must be made up of

kee riding toward him, took aim with his

window

86

in the

Barbour House, Philippi's

a set

Killed by a shell fragment, Federal

Lieutenant John T. Greble topples

backward from his cannon at Big

Bethel. Troops of the 2nd New York,
rushing up at right, withdrew with
the gun and Greble's body as
the clash turned into a Union rout.

<S

pistol

and

felled the

have done

it!"

horseman. "Sergeant,

he shrieked in

"Done what?"
was coming

of illness in Washington Territory. In accepting his western Virginia assignment, he

joy.

turned morbid, telling several friends that

the sergeant asked.

from

"I flopped that big fellow

that

his horse

after us so savage." Sheffee

he was going to his death.

Garnett quickly immersed himself in the

had wounded Colonel Kelley, and he would

work of

be captured for his trouble. Nevertheless

just

Kelley's

and the

fall

ly safely

and kept on going.

The whole
than the fight
1861, the

emy

halted the Federals' pursuit,

fleeing Confederates reached Bever-

affair
at

was even

less significant

Big Bethel. But on June

3,

Union press crowed about an en-

rout and referred to

it

as the "Philip-

Races," "The chivalry couldn't stand"

pi

Wheeling Intelligencer, reveahng the

said the

mountaineers' resentment of the

elitist

tensions of Tidewater Virginians.

scattered like rats

McClellan,

from

pre-

"They

who had been

absent from the

fol-

low up his victory with pursuit. Rather,

he spent the next few weeks vigorously
training

more troops

in

close

enough

to

provide

at least a threat to the

B & O, and at the same time he stood in the

way of any Federal attempt to penetrate
deeper into the state or toward the Shenan-

doah. By early July, Garnett had built his

army

to

He

about 6,000.

put the bulk of the

troops on Laurel Mountain; the rest, about

1,300, he placed

on nearby Rich Mountain.

Garnett assigned the

command

Mountain

handsome Lieutenant

units to the

of the Rich

Colonel John Pegram, a 29-year-old West

Pointer whose only real service thus far had

burning barn."

scene during the fight, chose not to

training and organizing his forces

west of the town of Beverly Here he was

Ohio, and for good

been on the

frontier. Garnett

made

his

own

headquarters on Laurel Mountain and wait-

ed for the enemy.

In response to Garnett's moves, McClellan himself took the field.

On

the 21st of

The 90-day enlistments of many of

Ohio regiments were due to expire in
middle of July, and he wanted to use

June he marched his fresh regiments into

western Virginia and moved to link up with

those troops before he lost them. Besides,

risoning the Grafton-Phihppi area. "Bear in

reason.
his

the

there were
the

B &

renewed Confederate threats

line.

enemy build-up

And
at

to

then came news of an

new commander. Colonel

which was already

Porterfield

had

been relieved with a mild reprimand and

re-

placed by Brigadier General Robert Selden

Garnett, a 41-year-old Virginian

who had

that any acts of casual plunder

He

would

feared
stir

upset the cautious politics of Lincoln and

Francis H. Pierpont,
Utical

convention

at

whom

the second po-

Wheehng had

just elect-

ed provisional governor of a pro-Union

known

to the

and one of

McClellan brought to bear 16 Ohio

man shaken by the loss

who had died

Wheeling, two troops of cavalry and 24

of his beloved wife and child,

rival

Richmond government.

the brightest officers in the old Regular

Army. But he was

up

the secessionist minority in the region and

served with gallantry in Mexico. Garnett was

as a strict disciplinarian

gar-

mind that you are in the country of friends,"

he admonished his soldiers, "that you are
here to protect, not to destroy."

Beverly.

This Confederate activity was the work of

a

the bulk of his army,

regi-

ments, nine from Indiana, two raised in

field-

87

Action on the Flanks

pieces in four batteries. In

all,

his

army num-

bered some 20,000 men. About 5,400 were

assigned in detachments to guard the line
of the Baltimore

commanded

&

Ohio. General Morris

a brigade at Philippi,

and he

was getting^nervous about Garnett's growing

Three Union brigades were assembled around Grafton, and these McClellan
assigned to three new brigade commanders:
forces.

Brigadier General

Newton

Robert L.

McCook and

William

Rosecrans.

S.

Schleich, Colonel

Brigadier General

Although none of the three

officers

was

considered especially promising, Rosecrans

had

a fair

amount of experience. A West

Point graduate, he had missed the Mexican

War and

spent most of his service in un-

glamorous engineering pursuits until he

signed his commission in 1854.

War came, he was managing

When

re-

the

a nearly bank-

rupt kerosene factory. McClellan, needing

professionally trained officers in a hurry,

appointed him as an aide on his

soon thereafter the

staff,

and

War Department made

Rosecrans a brigadier general, probably because of his energy in arming and training

Ohio volunteers.
Paying due heed to the inexperience of
his officers

campaign

and men, McClellan planned

carefully.

He

his

declared that "no

prospect of a brilliant victory shall induce

me

from my intention of gaining sucby maneuvering rather than by fighting"; he simply would not send these "raw
to depart

cess

men

of

avoid

mine"

it.

into real battle

According

if

to his plan,

he could

two

col-

umns would advance at the same time. Morris would move to Laurel Mountain and
keep Garnett occupied with demonstrations;
meanwhile, McClellan would lead the other
three brigades against Rich

Mountain and

88

George B. McClellan, the rising

young Union general, was renowned
as the designer of a simpler, less
costly cavalry saddle. The McClellan

saddle was adopted by the

what was mistakenly believed

enemy

force.

behind Pegram's

War

in 1859 and was used by

both sides throughout the War.

Department

to

be the main

McClellan planned

to circle

left flank,

cutting off his

a tactic that

had been used

finally

reached his destination

with some success by Scott

and had begun skirmishing with Garnett.

Stiff resistance had convinced Morris that

the

the real Confederate strength lay in his front,

retreat. It

was

at Cerro Gordo in
Mexican War, and McClellan was not

above

a bit

of flattery in declaring that he

would emulate the master.

eration.

rather than on Rich Mountain, but he could

not persuade McClellan to accept that fact.

McClellan cautiously put his plan into op-

Heading south from Grafton on

Nevertheless, the Confederate defenses on

Rich Mountain were formidable, and Mc-

June 30, he marched 25 miles in three days,

Clellan decided to precede a

reaching Buckhannon, about 10 miles from

with an

artillery

ground attack

bombardment.

lat-

General Rosecrans unexpectedly showed a

en route to Rich Mountain,

good bit of dash. A Union sympathizer

named David Hart came into his hnes that
evening and said he knew a way to flank

the extreme, but

Pegram's position. Rosecrans quickly

Garnett's position, on July 2. Three days

Pursuing the routed Confederates,
Union troops hurry down the main
street of Philippi, Virginia, on June 3,
1861. According to the Harper's
artist who sketched the scene, the
Confederate flag atop the hotel
(center) was soon "carried away" by
a cannonball, and "the Union flag
is now floating in its place."

McClellan

on July 10. By then Morris and his column

had arrived in front of Laurel Mountain

er

and

still

he wrote the

War Department: "The

delays

have met have been irksome to me in

I feel that it would be exceedingly foolish to give way to impatience
and advance before everything

is

prepared."

in-

corporated Hart's route in a plan for turning Pegram's flank. McClellan agreed to

89

Action on the Flanks

Outnumbered Confederates on
Rich Mountain (left) make a doomed
stand against the attack force
of Brigadier General William S.
Rosecrans on the 11th of July, 1861.

Rosecrans

later confided to his

wife: "If the

enemy had

disciplined

troops and any enterprise,

how

they would have stirred us up."

the scheme, though apparently with reluctance.

The

general undoubtedly disliked the

risk of sending a large

perienced

detachment of inex-

men through rugged terrain in the

early-morning darkness. But the

ised great things if successful,

sally

prom-

and that made

the risk worth taking. Rosecrans

was

to

move out at 4 a.m.

With Hart in the lead, the attack force of
1,900-odd men swung silently around the

which flank was being turned. Erroneously

guessing that the threat was to his right, on

summit of Rich Mountain, Pegram moved most of his small command

there. He was so confident of his men that he
even sent word to Garnett suggesting that
the northern

he attack McClellan.
Despite the long march, and despite get-

was

just as well, for

ting lost at least once, Rosecrans and his

column finally clambered up the back slope
of the mountain some time after noon on the
11th of July ind drove toward the rear of
the enenly, whom they outnumbered by
about 6 to 1. Skirmishing began around

the Confederates captured a

Union sergeant

2 p.m.,

southern spur of Rich Mountain, out of Pe-

gram's sight. In spite of rain, dim light and

the rough terrain, Rosecrans pushed the

on without stopping.

who

revealed to

It

Pegram

men

that a flanking

movement was under way. Pegram's

trouble

was that he could not learn from the sergeant

90

and half an hour

troops launched their

first

later the

attack.

Federal

At the

moment, Confederate gunners turned

one small fieldpiece

last

their

on Rosecrans, and the

Confederate Brigadier General

Robert Selden Garnett, killed during
his retreat from Laurel Mountain,

War general to die

deference to Garnett's
heroism during the Mexican War, a
Union honor guard conveyed the
was the

first

Civil

in action. In

body

to his family

under

a truce flag.

infantrymen ran to their crude breastworks

and opened

fire.

David Hart suddenly found himself in

the middle of a small battle right on his

own father's
ing down in
days

later,

"The

farm.

rain

began pour-

torrents," he reported a few

"while the enemy fired his can-

non, cutting off the tree tops over our heads

quite lively."

It

seemed

to

Hart that Pe-

gram had 25 or 30 cannon instead of one. For

30 minutes the Federals stood firm under
the Confederate volleys, then

went off

to the left

two regiments

through bushes that

Hart said were "so thick we could not see

enemy

out, nor could the

see us."

The

rest

of Rosecrans' force attempted to storm the

Rebel works;

failing,

they took cover behind

rocks and logs.

Pegram's men, believing the enemy was

flight, rose

from

pursuit. At that, said Hart,

into

and

them with
I

life."

in

their rifle pits in a cheering

their Enfield

"Our boys

and Minie

rifles,

never heard such screaming in

The Yankees

shot

down

ate artillery horses, felled

lit

my

the Confeder-

most of the gun-

wounded Garnett's chief of artilThe regiments off in the bush joined in

eral

should take decisive action.

many

jumped up,
expecting to be ordered to attack and thus
crush the Confederates between two fires.
But McClellan simply rode

and

ing gunfire.

forward in
earth

countercharge.

seemed

After three hours of fighting, the defenders retreated

down

the northeast.

With the much

matters well in hand.

Now Pegram was on the run in an attempt

"The whole

to shake," said Hart.

the mountain toward

larger forces

to save

that

what remained of his command. Late

day about half of his Confederates

to Beverly.

Pegram and the

all

now on

lowed, trying to find

and

rear,

Pegram had no

on the northern crest of Rich Mountain and

of

it all,

McClellan made no move

much to the dismay

who felt that the gen-

to join the battle himself,

of

some of his

officers,

wandered
fol-

route through the

wild country to join Garnett,

Through

rest

through the day and the night that

choice but to abandon the rest of his works

try to join Garnett.

es-

caped from Rosecrans and made their way

of McClellan in his front and Rosecrans

his flank

Rose-

movement by the sound of the advancIt seemed that Rosecrans had

crans'

of the Federals rushed

to his front fine

sat listening intently, tracking

lery.

all

hearing

of McClellan's Ohio boys

ners and

with a volley, and

On

the opening volley of Rosecrans' attack,

who was

north

them on Laurel Mountain. Late on July

12, exhausted and famished after going for

two days without food, Pegram's force

ly

offered to surrender.

When

final-

McClellan ac-

cepted the next morning, Pegram came into

91

Action on the Flanks

the

Union

lines

with 555 officers and men.

All the while, Garnett's position

steadily

grew

more desperate. Once he learned

of Rosecrans' success, the Confederate general

decided that he would have to abandon

were missing
on the

lost, deserted, or

Garnett pressed on. Tl^e

had

captured

retreat.

just crossed the

when he

Cheat

of his column

tail

at Carrick's

Ford

learned that Morris was approach-

Laurel Mountain. With Rosecrans drawing

ing rapidly. Garnett sent ahead for reinforce-

dangerously near the Beverly road, Garnett

ments, then began positioning the one

moved away

able

ly

to the northeast,

by Morris and

his brigade.

pursued

The

close-

Federals

company to resist the Yankee crossing.

At the first enemy fire from across the

The

general
in time.

heard

a bullet

Cheat, Garnett's aide ducked.

next day they caught up with the Confeder-

told

guard

at

Carrick's Ford on the

him

that one could never

A moment

later the officer

Cheat River, 30 miles from Rich Mountain.

strike

By then several hundred of Garnett's soldiers

nett sprawled

something

soft

and turned

Pro-Union men from western

Virginia, eager to fight the

duck

chased him throughout July 12, and the

ate rear

avail-

to see Gar-

on the ground. The gener-

Richmond government,
Morgantown to enlist
in the Union Army in the summer of
1861. By the end of the year,
secessionist

form ranks

in

the anti-Richmond "Reorganized

Government of Virginia" had

supplied the Union 12,688 soldiers.

92

presentiment of death had come true.

officers to cross the riv-

and he immediately found the body of

applied himself zealously to the task. Only

It

did not take long for the Federal troops

to rout the

enezer
of the
er,

army was turned over

from
the Virginia Military Institute who was so
eccentric and erratic that some considered
him insane. Colonel Thomas Jonathan Jackson took charge on the 29th of April and

al's

Rebel rear guard. Colonel Eb-

Dumont
first

of the 7th Indiana was one

Union

to a professor

Garnett, who had been his comrade in arms

in Mexico. Dumont raised his hands in an-

two weeks

guish over his fallen friend and exclaimed,

other Virginian, but one as distinguished as

"Poor Bob Garnett!"

the professor

The

later

he was superseded by Con-

federate General Joseph E. Johnston, an-

was obscure.

had no sooner stopped than

Johnston had attended West Point with

McClellan began touting his triumph: In his

Robert E. Lee, had fought the Seminoles

Washington he understated Rose-

and the Mexicans and had won repeated

commendation. When he resigned his com-

fighting

reports to

crans' role, giving the impression that the

flanking

movement was

his

own

conception.

Nevertheless, McClellan had acquitted himself well.

He had boldly insisted on invading

western Virginia, had conducted a successful

campaign there, had ensured the region's

entry into the

Union

had, in the process,

as a state in 1863

made

and

strategically im-

it

possible for the slave state of

Kentucky

to

mission as a colonel in the Regular

side with Virginia, he
al

became

Army

to

major gener-

of state troops, ranking second only to

Lee. Then,

when

the Virginia

army was

ab-

sorbed by the Confederacy, President Davis

made Johnston one

eryone expected
officer.

of his

first

much from

generals. Ev-

the 54-year-old

So did he.

Confederacy. The people of the

Johnston continued the task of building an

North, hungering for heroes and successes,

army. Within two months he had organized

quite naturally hailed McClellan as "the

four brigades, each with a battery of

Young Napoleon" and,

lery

join the

an affectionate

in

reference to his stature, "Little

eral Scott sent

warm

Mac." Gen"The

congratulations:

general in chief, and what

is

more, the Cabi-

net, including the President, are

charmed

with your activity, valor and consequent successes." Clearly McClellan

was destined

for

all

During the fighting in western Virginia, everything had been quiet in the Shenan-

doah Valley. After seizing Harpers Ferry

on April 18 and thus closing the northern
gateway to the Valley, the Virginians had

commanded by Colonel

was Johnston's
Army of the Shenandoah, numbering more
than 10,000 men.
By the time his army was substantially
J.E.B. (Jeb) Stuart. This

complete, Johnston had changed his base of

He had

never deemed Harpers

Ferry defensible, and had spent more than a

month persuading Richmond to allow him to
pull his army south toward Winchester. He
had received reports that a Yankee army of
18,000 men was poised and ready to march
against him,

and he regarded Winchester as

to

defend the Val-

much

The organization and

training of the

trolled all the

begun building an army

artil-

sharing the services of the 1st

Virginia Cavalry,

operations.

greater things.

ley.

and

better place to defend, since

main roads

it

con-

into the Valley

93

Action on the Flanks

94

The

hillside

town of Harpers

damaged
when Union troops occupied it in
July 1861. The retreating Confederates
Ferry, Virginia, lay heavily

had stripped the riverside arsenal

and the munitions factories, and they
had blown up the railroad bridge
across the Potomac River.

and also the

to the east.

vital

Manassas Gap Railroad

So Johnston occupied the Win-

chester area and waited there confidently for

enemy advance.
The Union army Johnston expected was
being marshaled in Chambersburg, Pennthe

sylvania, expressly for the task of keeping

him busy and preventing him from moving

east

on the Manassas Gap Railroad

to rein-

army gathering

force the Confederate

in

northern Virginia. But the Chambersburg

force appeared to be immobilized
less

by an end-

chain of real and imaginary problems.

To begin
damaged

with, Winfield Scott had severely

the army's chances of success by

sending his longtime friend, Major General

Robert Patterson, to take command. Patterson was simply too old, slow and timid to
handle an active

conceded

tually

to Scott.

command, and he virmuch in early messages

field

as

Announcing

that he intended to

take Harpers Ferry, Patterson said that he

would

try to "threaten"

position,

and

if

Johnston out of his

that failed, he

would

the enemy's flank and advance,

circle

"however

slowly," on Winchester.

After two weeks of sluggish preparation,

Patterson on June 15 began to march on

Harpers Ferry.

He

arrived there well after

Johnston had evacuated to Winchester. Elated

at his

bloodless victory, Patterson wired

Scott that

now he intended

to

march on

Winchester "and recover, without

a strug-

gle, a

conquered country." But when rumors

came

into Harpers Ferry that Johnston

had

turned around and was advancing, Patterson

at

once abandoned his prize and returned

to safety

north of the Potomac. Johnston's

force

had not

But

soon would.

it

left its

Winchester camps.

95

The Innocent,
Cocky Volunteers
fresh-faced young men who rushed to
arms in the spring of 1 86 1 were marked by a
special innocence and fervor: They did not
know, as later volunteers would, what lay

The

ahead.

own

They would

find out only at their

great cost.

Those

first

volunteers for the Union and

the Confederacy were ill-prepared for war

in almost every

way. The overwhelming

majority had no military experience and

tle training;

the most experienced of

lit-

them

were cadets from military schools and parade soldiers from state militia units. Many
lacked weapons of any sort. For months,
many lacked standard uniforms; their motley garb identifies several of the portraits

on these pages as early War photographs.

Among the Northern troops, the Garibaldi
Guards (right) and other foreign-speaking
units could barely understand an order in
English. And the men on both sides often
followed a democratic practice that would
get many of them killed: They elected their
own company officers. "The question of

military fitness," a

"was about the

Yet with

Union general wrote,

last

one asked."

little to

recommend

their pros-

pects for survival, both sides expected to

win a quick victory and confidently disparaged the enemy's fighting ability. Southerners claimed that any one of them equaled
five Northerners. "Just throw three or four
shells

and

among

those blue-bellied Yankees

they'll scatter like

sheep,"

North

Carolinian bragged. Such boasting prompt-

ed an Indiana farm boy to say, "Those

fellers down South are just big bluffers.
They would rather talk than fight."

96

,-i

COLONEL FREDERIC DTJTASSY (CENTER) AND MEN OF THE GARIBALDI GUARDS. NEW YORK

Parade-Ground Soldiers

UNKNOWN ENLISTED MAN, NEW ENGLAND MILITIA

98

DRUM MAJOR C.R.M. POHLE, 1ST VIRGINIA INFANTRY

99

Privates in Homespun

WILLIAM B. OTT, 4 TH VIRGINIA INFANTRY; KILLED AT BULL RUN

100

UNKNOWN UNION ZOUAVE

101

Cadets and Gentlemen

Ji

JAMES G. BARKER, NORWICH UNIVERSITY CADETS

102

WILLIAM OVERTON, VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE

103

ackwoods Farmers

UNKNOWN ENLISTED MEN, SUSSEX LIGHT DRAGOONS, VIRGINIA STATE CAVALRY

104

^Mim^r:

UNKNOWN SOLDIERS, MAINE VOLUNTEERS

105

Mere Boys

UNKNOWN CONFEDERATE PRIVATE

106

UNKNOWN UNION ARTILLERY.VIAN

107

Amateur Officers

108

FIRST LIEUTENANT EDWARD K. BUTLER, 69TH

NEW YORK STATE MILITIA

FIRST LIEUTENANT THOMAS M. LOGAN.

HAMPTON LEGION, SOUTH CAROLINA VOLUNTEERS

109

The Battle

Joined

Is

'The enemy has assailed my outposts in heavy force. I have fallen back on
the line of Bull Run and will make a stand at Mitchell's Ford.
GENERAL p. G.T. BEAUREGARD, JULY

General Irvin

He

17, 1861

McDowell was

mass of para-

To

cure these

ills,

McDowell needed

the

abstained from alcohol, tobacco,

one thing he could not have: "I wanted very

and tea, but was a ravening glutton.

("He was such a gargantuan feeder," an officer wrote of his first supper with McDowell,
"and so absorbed in the dishes before him
that he had little time for conversation"; the
general finished off the huge repast with a
whole watermelon, which he pronounced
"monstrous fine.") McDowell had won pro-

much a httle time," he said, "an opportunity

to test my machinery, to move it around and

doxes.
coffee

motion for gallant service in Mexico, but

his

demeanor did him no good as the commanding officer of the Union Army in northern

He

Virginia:

could not remember faces or

names, he was a poor

listener,

his subordinates with a

him

that lost

and he treated

brusque indifference

their professional respect

even their good

and

He

help

him

alienated the only

at a

time

men who

when he needed

could
all

the

help he could get. For in July of 1861 the

general was a desperate
less

man, under

pressure to attack the

army

relent-

enemy with an

was conspicuously unready. All

too many of his officers were either inactive
old veterans or inexperienced youths. His
enlisted men were short on weapons, ammunition and equipment. He had no rfeliable
that

maps of the
ginia,

whether

at the

will.

Such was Irvin McDowell's saddest paradox:

worked smoothly or not."

McDowell's superior. General Winfield
Scott, would gladly have given him the time
he craved; Scott, too, had been reluctant to
mount a campaign in northern Virginia, preferring his slower and less bloody plan to
strangle the Confederacy by blockading the
seacoast and controlling the Mississippi. But
the decision was not Scott's to make; it was
Lincoln's, and the President himself had
been constantly exhorted to attack by the
Northern press and public, which fumed
and fretted over the presence of a Rebel army
see

difficult terrain

of ndrthern Vir-

and he lacked enough cavalry

to pro-

vide the detailed information required for

it

very doorstep of the nation's capital.

After the Federal defeat at Big Bethel on

June

10, the President

patience.

He

had

finally

run out of

ordered Scott to mount a cam-

paign in northern Virginia, and Scott reluc-

McDowell to devise a plan of

attack. McDowell protested to Scott that his
army was inexperienced, but the general
only replied, "You are green, it is true, but
tantly ordered

they are green also; you are

all

McDowell had worked up

green alike."

several plans of

attack before one was accepted by Scott,

Lincoln and the President's Cabinet. The

Federal army, dividing into three columns to
increase

its

pace and mobility, would ad-

And though Mc-

vance westward on roughly parallel routes,

Dowell's troops had been drilling for weeks,

seizing the Confederate outposts at Fairfax

drawing adequate maps.

their training

was

far

from complete.

Court House, 16 miles from Washington,

110

i
^BiiiA^ttiH

and

at

stage,

Centre ville,

five miles

beyond. At

this

two of the columns would push ahead

and make

a diversionary attack

on the

likely

center of the Confederate line at Bull Run.

The third column would skirt the Confederates' right flank and strike southward, cutting the railroad to Richmond and threatening the Rebel rear. J'hc Confederates would
be forced to abandon Manassas Junction and
fall back some 15 miles to the next defensible
hne, along the Rappahannock River. Washington could then breathe more easily.
With the flanking movement, McDowell
hoped to force a Rebel retreat without a
pitched battle, which could cripple his fledgling army.
partly

The

success of his plan hinged

on intimidating Beauregard's forces

McDowell was ready to march.

At 2 p.m. on July 16, the Yankee army
lurched off toward an enemy with forces of

ration before

roughly equal size and inexperience.

At Manassas Junction, about 25 miles ahead

of the Yankees, McDowell's former class-

mate (West Point

rival

class of 1838)

and present

waited anxiously for the Federal on-

slaught. General P.G.T. Beauregard

had

spent June and the early part of July suffering through the

same delays and shortages

had plagued the Yankees. His plans had

changed too, shifting back and forth bethat

tween the attack and the defense. At

edict

from Richmond forbade him

last

an

to take

the offensive. President Davis and General

with superior numbers. "In proportion to

Lee knew that the army was not strong

numbers used," he wrote, "will be the

Uves saved." But his strategy also depended
on events farther west. If Joseph E. Johnston's army in the Shenandoah Valley managed to slip past the harassing Union forces
of Major General Robert Patterson and fall
on McDowell's right flank, the results might

enough, and feverishly they kept hurrying

the

be catastrophic.

McDowell admitted to Scott

that he felt "very tender" about this possibility,

but the general in chief assured him that

his old friend Patterson

ston pinned

The

would keep John-

down.
proved unreahstic.

In the midst of preparations,

McDowell add-

ed a reserve division to his order of battle and

army swelled

men, making it
the largest force ever mustered in North
America. (George Washington's combined
Franco-American army at Yorktown numbered only 16,000, and General Scott had
never led more than 13,000 men into battle.) It took another week of hectic prepathe

to 35,000

all

over the

South. Meanwhile, Beauregard weighed his

own

readiness.

"seem

to

He

wrote that his soldiers

have the most unbounded confi-

dence in me. Oh, that

had the genius of

Napoleon!" Modest disclaimers never quite

rang true coming from Beauregard.

As

additional regiments

came up from

the

Confederate capital, Beauregard fed them

into his long battle hne.

earthworks

projected date for launching the of-

fensive, the 8th of July,

more regiments forward from

at

Though he had

built

Centre ville, he came to realize

that the village could be easily outflanked,

and that the most

logical line of defense was

bank of Bull Run, which snaked
between Centreville and Manassas Junction.

the south

Bull Run's five-foot-high banks were a for-

midable barrier. Only one bridge,

stone

span on the Warrenton Turnpike, could support the

wagon

traffic

of an army. But the

stream could be forded in several places, so

Beauregard had
defend

all

to spread his

army

thin to

the fords.
Ill

The Battle Is Joined

Seated among his aides, Union

General in Chief Winfield Scott
signs the order for General
Irvin McDowell's advance against
Confederate forces at Bull Run.
Scott planned to accompany the army
in a carriage, to be on hand in
case his advice was needed during the
battle, but his age and ill-health
forced him to relinquish the idea.

The northernmost

crossing was Sudley

fond of

its

home

contents.

One

of Evans' staff

same

Ford, roughly two and a half miles upstream

wrote

from the Stone Bridge. The roads leading

time about the best drinker, the most elo-

it

from Centreville were circuitous and

to

little

known: Beauregard doubted that McDowell

would try them, and he left them unguarded.

that the colonel "is at the

quent swearer

(I

should say voluble) and the

most magnificent bragger

he was also a

man who

ever saw." But

loved to fight.

The next crossing downstream was the Stone

Downstream from

Bridge, which Beauregard discounted as a

three fords crossed Bull

Yankee route on the grounds

obviously unsuitable for an advancing army

obvious, defending

it

that

it

only with a

was too

new

half-

brigade of South Carolina and Louisiana

men under
At

who

first

Colonel Nathan Evans.

glance, Evans was not a soldier

inspired confidence.

An

insubordinate,

South Carohnian, he was

the bridge, the next

Run in dense woods,

by the brigade of
Colonel Phihp St. George Cocke. It was farther south, on a crescent-shaped bend of Bull
Run, that Beauregard expected all the action. There, two and a half miles from the
and guarded only

lightly

fol-

Stone Bridge, lay Mitchell's Ford, an entic-

lowed everywhere by an orderly who carried

ing prospect for an aggressor. Served by a

a gallon container of whiskey strapped to his

back. Evans affectionately called the con-

good branch road off the Warrenton Turnpike, Mitchell's Ford was on the most di-

traption his "barrelita," and he was quite

rect route

gruff, boastful

between Centreville and Manassas

112

Junction, the Federal objective. Between

ter

Mitchell's

Ford and Manassas Junction lay

level, open plain over which
McDowell's troops could march unimpeded
until they reached the Confederate works

along Bull

two miles of

Schooled in the new wigwag system of

protecting the junction.

ments by what he called

Beauregard was so certain that the Yan-

Alexander, to build four signal towers

signals,

Run and

at

Manassas Junction.
flag

Alexander would be able to give his

commander

early

warning of enemy move"aerial reconnais-

sance" from the towers.

Beauregard had another, more valuable

kees would strike across Mitchell's Ford that

he placed more than half his army in the area.

source of information: messages from South-

Brigadier General Milledge L. Bonham's

ern sympathizers and paid Confederate spies

brigade guarded Mitchell's Ford, and Briga-

in

dier General
a mile

James Longstreet's stood half

downstream

at

Blackburn's Ford,

Washington. Though Federal guards had

been posted

at the

and instructed

to let

ia

get through the

McLean's Ford, half

a mile farther along.

no one cross into Virgin-

it was not difficult to

Union lines. Rose O'Neal
Greenhow, doyenne of Washington society

another good crossing. Units of Brigadier

General David R. Jones's brigade blocked

Colonel Jubal A. Early's brigade was posted

Potomac River bridges

without

and

a pass,

a productive spy for the

Confederacy,

in the rear of the three as a reserve, not far

entrusted her messages to young Virginia

from the home of Wilmer McLean. And an-

dies

other mile and a half downstream. Brigadier

on such romantic missions. Yankee soldiers

Ewell and his brigade

were unlikely to suspect them of carrying

General Richard

S.

guarded Union Mills Ford and the nearby

bridge of the Orange

When

& Alexandria Railroad.

General Beauregard finished posi-

tioning his troops, the Confederate Hne along

Bull

Run

stretched for five miles from the

Stone Bridge to Union Mills.

five of his

No fewer than

army's seven brigades held the

who were

secrets,
their

and the

But when he packed

his troops southeast

of the Stone Bridge, Beauregard had

more in

charm

belles could easily

way through the lines with smiling pro-

testations that they

were

just

going for

a ride.

The intelligence from Washington soon

warned of critical developments. On July 10,
a

woman named

into General

Bettie

Bonham's

Duval was shown

tent.

She unpinned

her long hair and withdrew from

right half of the hne.

la-

anxious to serve the South

note from the

widow Greenhow

its

folds a

stating that

McDowell's army would probably move on

On

mind than positioning the defense according

to McDowell's likely course of action. He

July 16.

planned to attack across the fords there, out-

Beauregard received the message

army and cut it off from

Washington. Though Richmond had forbid-

just six

west. Immediately he called in his outposts

den an offensive campaign, Beauregard

and prepared

flank the Federal

fully

that date she sent confirmation:

"McDowell has been ordered

to

advance."
at 8

p.m.,

hours after the Federal army started

to

defend Bull Run.

intended to steal the initiative from the Federals.

Since his success in this venture de-

The

three columns of Federals were in no

men trekked

pended on timely and accurate information,

hurry in their march. The

he ordered his signal

through a thinly populated region of low,

officer,

Captain E. Por-

113

The Battle Is Joined

'J7-

,.!-:

J^.-J:^^

>

'
--

(ny

'

-.

-**

.KP^:^

;JS^

,-=CF'=^--

^'^&m

Encampments of the 23rd New York and

114

the 2nd

New Jersey

Volunteer Infantry Regiments sprawl along the Virginia side of the Potomac River. Visible across the

<4i;'^^5f^*^

-^^"^

et5^

.-r^

>

r^r.^

>Wjt*^

river in

Washington, D.C., are two

partially

completed landmarks: the Washington Monument

(left)

and the Capitol dome

(right of center).

115

The Battle Is Joined

rolling hills, with

dense forests and

vated fields interspersed with

many

culti-

creeks,

few bridges, and soft stream bottoms that

bogged wagons

to the axles.

The swatches

of tangled brush dispelled any possibility of

cross-country travel.
to the roads,

McDowell had

most of which were

to stick

dirt tracks

column into
earthworm and slowed its

so narrow that they squeezed a

the shape of an

soldiers

dragged their

feet,

sang and

bragged, choked on dust, sweltered in the

heat and humidity.
ly

to forage for

The

enlisted

men casual-

broke ranks to stop for drinks of water, or

chickens

all

their faces, or

in defiance of the

best efforts of their officers to maintain or-

der.

Even

officers yielded to the yen for

On one occasion during the march,

officer of the 79th New York High-

plunder.
a kilted

General Irvin McDowell

(center),

preparing for the first Union offensive

in early July of 1861, stands with his
staff on the steps of his headquarters,
the former home of Robert E. Lee
in Arlington, Virginia.

His adjutant,

is on
McDowell's right, with arms folded.

Captain James B. Fry,

landers went running after a pig. During the

chase he leaped a
a

comrade

anatomy

pace to a crawl.

The

wash the caked grime from

to

rail

fence, presenting

what

called "such an exhibition of his

as to call forth a roar of laughter."

He never wore the kilt again.

Of greater concern, high-ranking
displayed poor judgment.

officers

The commander

of the southernmost column. Brigadier Gen-

116

i.

eral

Samuel

P.

Heintzelman,

veteran of the Mexican

a distinguished

War and

the Indian

campaigns, was paying no attention when his

lead regiment slowed
single

file

on

lowed

his

column

down at a creek to cross

a log bridge.

Heintzelman

to be held

up

al-

for hours

while crossing that creek. Finally one of

commanders, Colonel Ohver O.

Howard, ignored the log and marched his

his brigade

men

through water only knee-deep.

across

When night fell,

ing;

it

the columns kept march-

was 10 p.m. before most troops

reached their objective and were allowed to

bivouac.

None had hiked more than

miles. Early the next day, July 17, the

resumed. The middle column,

six

march

commanded

by Brigadier General David Hunter, began

trickling into Fairfax

10 o'clock.
in

The

Court House around

Confederates had departed

such haste that meals were found simmer-

worried about Heintzelman, whose position

mystery to him. McDowell had to

know whether Heintzelman had crossed Bull

was

Run on

his flanking

march.

He determined

to find out that night.

McDowell issued orders for the

next day. Having learned from scouts that
Centreville was being abandoned by the
But

first,

Rebels, he ordered Tyler to pass through the

village at first light,

following. Tyler

Bull

with Hunter and Miles

was then

Run, simulating

Dowell did not

tell

to

march toward

a noisy assault.

Tyler

how

far

go in his demonstration attack, but he said

emphatically,

"Do

ment." Tyler was

not bring

on an engage-

to give the impression that

Union army was marching directly toward Manassas, thereby masking Heintzelthe

man's flanking maneuver.

After a brisk ride through the darkness,

ing over campfires; the food was greedily

McDowell found Heintzelman

devoured by the Yankee vanguard. Soon

the northernmost column, commanded by
Brigadier General Daniel Tyler, and the reserve column led by Colonel Dixon S. Miles
arrived and made camp around the town.
To the south, Heintzelman's column lost

18.

time steadily to the jumbled terrain. Their

objective

crossing Bull Run

at

Union Mills

and skirting the Confederates' right flank

seemed

to be receding in the distance.

Heintzelman encamped

in the evening,

Alexandria Railroad bridge, set

afire

side,

early

on July

quick tour of the country-

he learned what good maps might well

have told him

that the terrain

was too

diffi-

Run at Union Mills

Ford and getting around the Confederate

cult for crossing Bull

right flank. Instead, he ordered Heintzel-

man

to

wheel his column and move toward

Centreville.

McDowell would have

to re-

While McDowell was meeting with Heintzelman, events to his right were getting out

&

of hand. General Tyler was vigorously ex-

by the

ceeding his orders.

He moved

out at 7 a.m.,

with Colonel Israel Richardson's brigade as

Court House, was

vanguard. Richardson, a combative West

by the march. He had

Pointer seasoned in the Mexican and Semi-

at Fairfax

sorely disappointed

expected to take the Confederate garrison

at

nole Wars, passed through Centreville with-

Fairfax by surprise early that morning, but

out incident.

delays had given the Rebels ample opportu-

pulled

nity to withdraw.

in a

he

retreating Rebels.

McDowell,

But then,

think his strategy.

When

could see smoke rising from the Orange

Mc-

he should

The commander was

also

all

As expected, Beauregard had

of his troops out during the night.

Since the day was

still

young, Tyler decid117

The Battle Is Joined

ed to advance and take a closer look

Bull

Run

fords south of Centreville.

Richardson rode two miles to a

at the

He and

rise that over-

wrote the next day, "the balls

a beehive.,

am

sure

humming hke

shall see

nothing so

close hereafter."

looked Blackburn's Ford and, a few hundred

As the balance of the Federal brigade

Open fields

reached the scene, Wells withdrew his com-

yards west of it, Mitchell's Ford.

down

Run, but the stream was

cloaked on both banks by trees and dense
underbrush. Tyler spotted an enemy battery
some distance behind the fords, and a few
ran

to Bull

pickets here

and

there, but nothing else.

He

panies, leaving several

arose about the

men

killed.

Doubts

wisdom of continuing

the

engagement. Captain James B. Fry, McDowell's adjutant, rode up and advised Tythe general's demonstration

ler to call a halt;

three miles off in the distance, and the idea of

had uncovered the enemy's position and

strength, and that was enough. But Tyler
had the smell of powder in his nostrils. He
had a full brigade on hand, and he wanted to

Would not

attack. Ignoring Fry's arguments, the gener-

suspected that there might be more.

Tyler's orders were only to look, not to

Yet he thought he could see Manassas

fight.

capturing the town tempted him.

the Rebels

fall

back before

his attack, as they

He called up all of Richardand began making preparaprobe across Bull Run. While await-

had done so

far?

al

ordered Richardson to

forward.

They

move

his brigade

were about to discover that

son's brigade

Beauregard had more than half of his army

tions to

directly in front of

ing the infantrymen's arrival, Tyler ordered

two 20-pounders
erate battery,

to

open

fire

on the Confed-

and he sent forward two com-

panies of the 1st Massachusetts as skirmish-

smoke out Confederates along the

creek, forcing them to reveal their posiers to

tions

and strength.

The Massachusetts men, commanded by

Colonel George D. Wells, soon discovered
that a

few houses and stands of trees on

side of the

their

run concealed Rebel marksmen,

and an hour of spirited skirmishing ensued

as the Confederates staged a fighting with-

drawal back across Bull Run.

Yankees came

The

closer the

to the stream, the hotter

the Rebel resistance.

When

grew

Colonel Wells

Richardson

set

them.

up

a line

on the

half a mile north of the fords.

He

hillcrest

put

a bat-

open on the road and positioned the 2nd and 3rd Michigan and the 1st
Massachusetts on the right of the guns, facing Mitchell's Ford, and the 12th New York
on the left, poised above Blackburn's. The
hilltop regiments were exposed and uncomtery out in the

fortably within range of the Confederate ar-

and random shots from the concealed

Rebel riflemen. "We made excellent marks

tillery

enemy, who commenced firing at

us," wrote one Michigan private. "The bul-

for the

whistled musically around us."

lets

At

this point,

cided that

it

General Tyler abruptly de-

was time

to call off the attack.

that poured out of hidden positions up

and down the tree-lined south bank. "We

coming out of the wooded banks suggested that he was getting in

over his head. His decision was correct, but
its timing was lamentable. The general had
gone forward with a squadron of Regular

were in the thick of it full 15 minutes," Wells

Army

brought his two companies out of the cover

of a ravine and into the open directly above
the stream, they were caught in a heavy cross
fire

118

The

increasing

fire

cavalry and Battery E, 3rd U.S. Artil-

Majors

Last Letter Home

July 14, 1861

Camp Clark, Washington

My very dear

Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall

move in a few days perhaps tomorrow.

love of Country comes over me like a strong

wind and burns me unresistably on with all

Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel

impelled to write a few lines that may fall
under your eye when I shall be no more. Our
movements may be of a few days duration
and full of pleasure and it may be one of
some conflict and death to me. "Not my will,
but thine, O God be done." If it is necessary
that I should fall on the battle field for my
Country, I am ready.
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged,
and my courage does not halt or falter. I
know how strongly American Civilization
now leans on the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those
who went before us through the blood and
sufferings of the Revolution. And I am will-

these chains to the battle field.

Sullivan Ballou, a 32-year-old

Providence lawyer and former

Speaker of the Rhode Island House

of Representatives, left a promising
political career to enlist as a

major

2nd Rhode Island Volunteers.

From a camp near Washington,

in the

Ballou wrote a poignant letter (right)

to his wife, Sarah, predicting his

own death. At
he

fell

Bull

Run a week

mortally wounded.

later,

perfectly willing

ing

to lay

down

joys in this life, to help maintain this

ment, and to pay that debt.

But my dear wife, when I

my own

joys,

lay

and replace them

down

know

nearly

all

all

my

Govern-

that with

of your's,

and
having eaten for long
years the bitter fruits of orphanage myself, I
must offer it as the only sustenance to my
dear little children, is it weak or dishonorable, that while the banner of my forefathers
floats calmly and fondly in the breeze, undersorrows,

when

in this life with cares

after

neath my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children should struggle in
fierce, though useless contests with my love
of Country.
I cannot describe to you my feelings on this
calm Summer Sabbath night, when twothousand men are sleeping around me, many
of them enjoying perhaps the last sleep before
that of death, while I am suspicious that
death is creeping around me with his fatal
dart, as I sit communing with God, my Country and thee. I have sought most closely and

and often in my heart for a wrong

motive in thus hazarding the happiness of
those I love, and I could find none. A pure
love of my Country and of the principles I
have so often advocated before the people
another name of Honor that I love more
than I fear death, has called upon me and I
diligently

have obeyed.
Sarah my love for you is deathless, it seems
to bind me with mighty cables that nothing
but Omnipotence could break; and yet my

The memories

of the blissful

moments

have spent with you come creeping over me,

feel most gratified to God and to you
have enjoyed them so long. And hard it
is for me to give them up and burn to ashes
the hopes of future years, when, God willing,
we might still have lived and loved together,
and seen our sons grown up to honorable
manhood, around us. I have, I know, but few
and small claims upon Divine Providence,
but something whispers to me perhaps it is
the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I
shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I
do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much
I love you, and when my last breath escapes
me on the battle field, it will whisper your
name. Forgive my many faults, and the many
pains I have caused you. How thoughtless
and foohsh I have often times been! How
gladly would I wash out with my tears every
little spot upon your happiness, and struggle
with all the misfortunes of this world to
shield you, and your children from harm.
But I cannot. I must watch you from the
Spirit-land and hover near you, while you
buffit the storm, with your precious httle
freight, and wait with sad patience, till we
meet to part no more.
But, O Sarah! if the dead can come back to
this earth and flit unseen around those they
loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladest days and in the darkest nights, advised to
your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours,
always, always, and if there be a soft breeze
upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the
cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall
be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn
me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee,

and

that

we

for

As
I

shall

for

meet again.

my little boys

they

have done, and never

and

care. Little Willie

ber

me

is

know
too

will

grow up as

a father's love

young to remem-

and my blue eyed Edgar

long

will

keep my frolicks with him among the dim

memories of childhood. Sarah I have unUmited confidence in your maternal care and your
development of their characters, and feel that
God will bless you in your holy work.
Tell my two Mothers I call God's blessing
upon them. O! Sarah I wait for you there;
come to me and lead thither my children.
SuUivan

119

The Battle Is Joined

lery, to take a close

to use these

look himself, intending

two units

to cover Richardson's

their

weapons and ram the charges home.

After firing several rounds, the

advance. But now, having decided to with-

that the barrels of their

draw, Tyler pulled them back just as Rich-

touch.

ardson sent forward the 12th

New

Yorkers would be

left

New York. The

out on a limb.

New

we marched

fusillade

of an excited or frightened horse than any-

later recalled,

them about one or

"and as
two rods, not thinking of danger quite so
near, the bushes seemed to be alive with the
Rebels."

The

trees

and brush across the

stream suddenly erupted with flame. "Their

first

volley

was the most murderous

said a private.

forced them
fire

The Confederate

to the ground.

and rolled over on

the firing along the run continued.

They returned

Yorker

into

The Yankees tobk whatever cover

they could find, and for half an hour or more

The Confederates were stiffening after a

shaky beginning. The attack at first caught
them off guard; they were lounging among
the streamside shade trees when news of
Tyler's advance came in from scouts. The
men were still at their ease when the Federals
reached the crest north of them and opened
fire with their artillery. The first Yankee
projectile made a sound "more like the neigh

"There were pine underbrush very thick,

ahead of us," a

men found

guns were too hot to

to us,"

their backs to reload

thing

can compare

it

to," wrote Private

Centreville, Virginia, the northern

gateway to the Bull Run battlefield,

stands bleak and depopulated
eight

months

after the clash.

The

from which
seven roads radiated, changed hands
five times in the course of the War.
strategic village,

120

York. After half an hour the

"^^

began

New

Yorkers

to retreat, not as a disciplined unit,

but singly and in wavering groups. Within

minutes they were in rout and did not stop

even when they reached the
son's forces. Their flight

rest of

Richard-

from the

field left

the flank of the neighboring 1st Massachu-

"in the

completely exposed

setts

Then Longstreet ordered

air."

his 1st

and 17th

The

Virginia to attack across the stream.

men

of the 1st Massachusetts caught the full

force of the onslaught

fall flat to

and they,

Michigan regiments on the

jji^

/y^i^

n**^
'7

too,

escape the withering

Federal Une were

and playing the

still

had

to

The

fire.

far right of the

facing Mitchell's

role of spectators.

Ford

But before

made them
and soon the entire Yankee front

long the attacking Confederates

targets,

f^itpy-ves

was on the ground.

The fiery Colonel Richardson his men

wanted to ralcalled him "Fighting Dick"

/'iK<,

//

ly the

A r r*^

New

Yorkers and send his whole

bri-

But by now Tyler had

had quite enough, and he ordered the colonel

gade in

oS /?i;tr5

at a charge.

to pull out of the fight. Reluctantly

Richard-

son withdrew his battered brigade, and the

tired Rebels returned to the south

bank.

The

Ford was over, though

two sides continued to

battle at Blackburn's
This crude map, drawn by Private
Alexander Hunter of the 17th Virginia
Infantry, depicts the positions of both
sides in the skirmish at Blackburn's
Ford on July 18, 1861. Though
Hunter's outfit stopped Union troops
from crossing Bull Run, he conceded
that "if we had known more about
military affairs, we could have seen at
a glance our bad position."

William Morgan of the

1th Virginia, "a

kind of 'whicker, whicker, whicker' sound

as

it

swapped ends

federate

commander

at

heavier, the

rumble

As

in the air."

As the skirmishing got

the artillery of the

Con-

Blackburn's Ford,

for another

hour or

so.

the battle ended, the scene in the rear

of Tyler's

command was bedlam. His

bri-

gades continued to arrive, only to see hun-

General Longstreet, was forced to stand be-

dreds of panicked soldiers running in

hind some of his men, sword drawn, to pre-

William T. Sherman rode

up and reported "the always sickening confusion" one observed when approaching a
fight from the rear.
McDowell himself arrived and berated
Tyler for his breach of orders and the humiliating Federal performance. Only half

vent

them from breaking and running for the

rear.

But soon they were joined by reinforce-

ments from Early's nearby brigade. Beauregard himself was there urging them on.

The Confederates

at

Blackburn's Ford

were simply too powerful for the 12th

New

all di-

rections. Colonel

121

The Battle Is Joined

of Richardson's 3,000

men had participated,

against 2,500 of Longstreet's

Early's

and portions of

2,600-man brigade, Richardson had

wounded, and another 26

missing and probably captured. The Confederates had suffered slightly lower casualties
15 killed and 53 wounded
and they
had enjoyed the sight of the fleeing Federals.
The Federals marched back toward Cenlost 19 killed, 38

know

again,"

tre ville, tired, angry, frustrated. 'T

felt

mad and

anxious to try

Michigan private confided to

it

his diary that

Sherman was Hvid over

night.

the bungled

Two

battle,

but not

before,

on July 16, the army's unpreparedprompted him to write, "I still re-

at all surprised.

days

ness had

gard this as but the beginning of

long

screwing up their courage, they watched and

were watched by
to witness the

Centreville

and developed

He had been

sat

around

new attack plan.

correct in discarding his origi-

Union Mills;
Ford had proved
that the enemy's center and right were too
strong, and the ground too heavily wooded.
McDowell now decided to circle the Confederates' left, masking the maneuver with a

grandest spectacle of their

the thrashing of the Rebels.

time

hundred people had arrived

Several

in buggies or

on horseback, including senators, congress-

men, and
retary of

ladies with picnic baskets. Sec-

War Cameron was on

hand. So

was the prominent Washington photographer Mathew Brady, who would try unsuccessfully to capture the coming battle with
his camera. Congressman John A. Logan of
Illinois

came

man. Since

to join the fight as

his state

an infantry-

had no unit on the

field,

he offered to fight in a Michigan regiment.

He went into battle wearing top hat and tails.

Every few hours, the Federals heard

train

whistles blowing from the junction at

Ma-

Most

nassas.

For the next two days, McDowell

throng of civilians from

Washington who had followed the army

war." Blackburn's Ford did nothing to persuade him otherwise.

trains

of the Yankees assumed the

were bringing small numbers of unor-

ganized troops from

Few

gard.

Richmond

for Beaure-

chose to believe the rumors that

nal plan to flank Beauregard at

those trains arriving on July 20 were bring-

the fight at Blackburn's

ing with

demonstration

by fords.

at the

Stone Bridge and near-

A reconnaissance report on July

19

informed McDowell that Sudley Ford, two

and

a half miles north of the

Stone Bridge,

seemed to be a suitable crossing for the flanking column.

The

general learned nothing,

them

the

first

of General Johnston's

brigades from the Shenandoah.

Johnston had been summoned by telegraph after the clash at Blackburn's Ford.
Eluding the Federal army of General Patterson

at

Winchester, Johnston made an ex-

hausting overland march to Piedmont Station

on the Manassas Gap

line

shipping his four brigades east

and began
on July 19.

The engines and cars were in poor condition

and the roadb^ was not much better, but by

however, of the sinuous and confusing roads

the afterr^oon of that day General

that led to Sudley Ford.

J.

McDowell hoped

to

march on the 20th of

July, but delays in the arrival of supplies

forced

him

to

postpone the advance until the

next day. While the

122

men

sat in their

camps

Thomas

Jackson and his Virginia brigade had

ar-

rived at Manassas Junction.

As soon as Jackson's men jumped from the

cars, the train steamed back toward Pied-

mont

Station to pick

up

the Georgia brigade

Briefly detraining during their hasty

journey to Bull Run, troops of

General Joseph E. Johnston are plied

with refreshments by Confederate
women at a station on the Manassas
Gap Railroad. In two days, 9,000
soldiers traveled 50 miles by rail from
the Shenandoah Valley to Manassas

Junction en route to the battlefield.

commanded by Colonel

Francis S. Bartow, a

lawyer and politician from Savannah.

The

Georgians reached Manassas after dawn on

July 20. Shortly after noon, Brigadier General

Barnard E. Bee, a dignified South Carolin-

ian

who had

served with gallantry in the

Mexican War, arrived

his brigade,

at the junction

with

an amalgam of volunteers from

mac.

And

Colonel

Wade Hampton,

dy-

namic South Carolina planter and pohtician,

Hampton Legion, which he

had raised, fed, clothed and armed at his own
expense. The legion had its own infantry,
arrived with his

artillery

and cavalry companies, though the

cavalry had not yet arrived

when Hampton

joined Beauregard.

Another brigade, led by Briga-

General Johnston reached the junction on

Edmund Kirby Smith, a former

the afternoon of July 20. Because Johnston

major in the Regular Army, would follow

was the senior general, he automatically be-

from the Valley. This massive reinforcement

came the commander of the entire Confederate force, Beauregard's army as well as his
own. But since he was unfamiliar with the

several states.
dier General

by railroad was progressing under the nose

of the Federals.

Beauregard was also receiving fresh troops

from other quarters.

small brigade led by

Brigadier General Theophilus H.

rived from

Holmes ar-

Aquia Creek on the lower Poto-

terrain

ston

and the deployment of troops, JohnBeauregard in command. He imme-

left

diately

approved Beauregard's plan

for

attack across the lower fords of Bull

an

Run
123

The Battle Is Joined

daybreak on the 21st of July to get beleft flank and cut him off

at

hind McDowell's

First Unit

from Washington.
Beauregard's disposition of the new troops

was, as before, distinctly unbalanced.

Union Mills

to bol-

and sent Bee and Bartow

to sup-

put Holmes's brigade

ster Ewell,

He

at

port Longstreet at Blackburn's Ford. Jack-

son and his Virginians were placed in reserve

Banners

of the Confederacy

Early in the War, virtually every Confederate

company boasted its own unique flag, created by
local women and presented to the unit with great
ceremony. Most of the banners were about six
feet long and made of homespun cotton. In design, they commonly included elements of the
Confederate Stars and Bars flag, and state symbols, such as a palmetto for South Carohna.
Before long, however. Confederate officers
realized that it was dangerous for every outfit to
fly its

at Mitchell's

None

Ford.

of the troops were

sent to the left half of the line to protect the

upper fords. So certain was Beauregard of

McDowell's intentions that Sudley Ford

re-

mained unguarded.

To compound

the danger, Beauregard

proceeded to draft thoroughly confusing battle

orders for his field commanders. Even

though the largest organizational unit in his

army was the brigade, Beauregard referred

to divisions without saying which brigades
constituted them, and he implied that certain divisions would combine to form two

although he did not

actually use the

corps

word "corps." Moreover, he hinted that

General Holmes would command one corps,
but never told Holmes of this half-formed
notion. It appeared that Beauregard intend-

ed to ignore the benefits of his massive

inforcements by attacking
just the brigades

On the

own

Bonham.
of Bull Run, McDowell

of Cocke and

other side

called his

re-

McDowell with

last

council of war at 8 p.m.

on July 20 at his Centreville headquarters.

Spreading his inadequate map on the dirt
floor of his tent,

Tyler, as

if in

he made his assignments.

punishment

for Blackburn's

Ford, was to be mostly a spectator, demonstrating at the Stone Bridge

and the middle

fords to hold the attention of the Rebels in

his front.

Once

was expected
124

the battle was joined, he

to cross the creek. Miles

would

own

depended for
on quickly identifying nearby
So the early flags were generally replaced
flag; soldiers in battle

their very lives

units.

by standard regimental battle flags, such as the

one below. This banner has 13 stars, 11 for the
Confederate states plus two for states claimed by
the Confederacy: Kentucky and Missouri.

1ST LOUISIANA INFANTRY

BATTALION

FLORIDA INDEPENDENT BEL

ES.

3RD FLORIDA INFANTRY REGIMENT

FROM THE SMYTH LADIES.

^AIOOR RIGHT.

VIRGINIA BRIGADE FLAG

SMYTH DRAGOONS, 8TH VIRGINIA CAVALRY REGIMENT

125

The Battle Is Joined

General Beauregard doffs his cap to a

regiment of boisterous Mississippi
soldiers as they pass in ragged review,
brandishing bowie knives. The high
spirits of such units were due largely
to Beauregard's style of leadership;
he often dropped in on their camps to
mix with the rank and file.

stay in reserve near Centreville. Hunter's

and Heintzelman's divisions would march

to

Sudley Ford, cross, and then strike the

enemy's

left flank.

McDowell

told his officers that he

hoped

to get

behind the Confederates and drive on

to the

Manassas Gap

men

line "before Johnston's

get there." Clearly

correctly

McDowell

that Patterson

and,

had

was doing

of course,

httle confidence

his job of holding

General Tyler, smarting under criticism

Ford, asked McDowell

2 a.m.

and attack

at

dawn.

What was left of the night passed quietly.

McDowell stayed in his tent with a stomachache. Sherman wrote to his wife, "I know
tomorrow and next day we shall have hard
work." Colonel Howard, an intensely religious

man who

felt that

had been punishment

Tyler's defeat

for the army's

wicked

ways, expressed the conviction that "the

Johnston in the Shenandoah.

for Blackburn's

McDowell had no choice but to continue with his plan. His army would march at
mies."

just

what army they would be fighting tomorrow:

Beauregard's, or Beauregard's and John-

Lord

will take care of us."

The men in the army tensed for the battle.

could not sleep. Some gazed heavenward. "This is one of the most beautiful

Many

McDowell replied impatiently, "You know as well as I do."

Tyler would not let it pass. "General, we

nights that the imagination can conceive,"

have got the whole of Joe Johnston's army in

is

our front, and we must fight the two ar-

be disturbed by the roar of cannon and the

ston's together?

126

wrote a Yankee soldier. "The sky

clear, the

as

still

is

perfectly

moon is full and bright, and the air

as if it

were not within a few hours

to

men."

around

layed. Realizing his error after an

march,

the march. General McDowell belatedly or-

the

men watched

shadows into the

the flames cast ghostly

fields

and woods. They

tened to the lowing of cattle in the

and the music from

Thousands of last

When

lis-

meadows

their regimental bands.

letters

that night, expressing

knowledging the

were written home

hopes for survival,

ac-

possibility of death.

the Yankees were

It

at 2

took

aloud.

came

A mile out of Centreville the vanguard

to

Cub Run,

a little

stream spanned by

The

crossing of the

whole army was foolishly delayed for another

half

hour while

a big

30-pounder cannon of

was 5a.m. before Schenck's advance brigade

Brigadier General Robert

its

McDowell had commit-

had the shortest distance

down

the

Bridge

to travel

straight

Warrenton Turnpike to the Stone

should have been the last one to

move out. Instead, Hunter and Heintzelman, who had farther to go in their flanking
march to Sudley Ford, were severely de-

battle,

Everywhere, men stumbled and fell in

the dark, bruising themselves and cursing

commanded by

ted a serious mistake. Tyler's brigade, which

served as the
Confederate headquarters during the

the others pass.

Tyler's was coaxed over the fragile span.

pace was snail-like.

it

to let

another hour to get Tyler's lead brigade,

C. Schenck, ready to advance, and then

after

dered Tyler's division off the road

a single rickety bridge.

awakened

a.m., everything began to go wrong.

A few months

hour on

Sitting

their campfires awaiting the order to

shouts of contending

finally

approached the Stone Bridge.

was 6 a.m. before the 30-pounder

shots

resounding

And

it

fired three

blasts that told the entire

Federal army that Tyler was

at last in place.

Hunter and Heintzelman should have

rived at Sudley

It

ar-

Ford by then, and they

should have been standing poised and ready

to

move down

the south

bank of Bull Run

strike Evans' troops at the Stone Bridge.

to

But

l^^^^irrJC

Wilmer McLean's Manassas

farmhouse wears a look of calm. But

by the Second Battle of Bull Run
in August 1862, McLean was so fed up
with soldiers tramping through
his property that he moved well to the
south only to have the War
end in his parlor at Appomattox.

127

The Battle Is Joined

128

The

his appetite for fighting;

and Colonel Porter (blue arrows,

upper left) reached Sudley Ford at
9:30 a.m. on July 21 after a dawn

in Central

battle at BuU Run began as the

Union brigades of Colonel Bumside

the

a filibuster

a warrior for

Giu-

and weighing nearly 300 pounds, Wheat was

Union troops feinted toward

and Mitchell's Ford.

the Stone Bridge

an imposing figure on the battlefield

General Beauregard's Confederate

brigades (red boxes) were spread over
a six-mile front, with most on the
right. Only Colonel Evans' halfbrigade (red arrow) moved to counter

Rebel

America and

unification. Standing six feet four inches tall

followed to bolster the Federal right

the threat to the

Mexican War and had been

seppe Garibaldi during the war for Italian

march from Centreville. Three

brigades under General Heintzelman
as other

he was a veteran of

friend

and foe

to

alike.

Evans moved with speed and confidence.

He

left flank.

sent two companies of the 4th South

Carolina

down toward

the bridge to act as

skirmishers, but he refused to

ance of his

show the

command. For nearly an hour his

skirmishers alone returned

fire,

rest of his line, including the

General Joseph E. Johnston, the
ranking Confederate officer at Bull
Run, jeopardized a longtime
friendship when he entrusted the
battlefield command to General
P.G.T. Beauregard. Though the two
men cooperated during the battle,
they later quarreled bitterly over who
deserved more credit for the victory.

mained

bal-

silent.

When

at last

with his fieldpieces, he

infantry concealed.

still

He was

while the

cannon,

re-

Evans opened

kept most of his

surprised at

first

that Tyler did not attempt to cross the

bridge; he did not guess that Tyler was there

only to hold his attention. But by 7:30, Ev-

Hunter's march had been further delayed

by puzzling forks

in the road; a

had added four miles

of the

enemy to attack me in my present posi-

At

tion."

He therefore was free to use the bulk

command to meet another threat.

to Hunter's route.

9 a.m., his lead brigade reached the ford.

For

all

jump on

that,

McDowell had gotten

his foe

by the

the

feint at the Stone

Bridge. Only Nathan Evans' troops stood

there to

ans had realized that "it was not the intention

wrong turn

meet the enemy. Evans needed

re-

of his

Evans had stationed a few pickets to his

left and a couple of cavalrymen off to the
north around Sudley Ford,
tries

warned Evans

that

One

of the sen-

Yankees had been

Yet Evans, more

sighted marching toward Sudley Ford. At

than any other man, was to determine the

the same time Captain Alexander, perched

on an observation tower and scanning the

inforcements, and

outcome of the

fast.

battle.

As Tyler appeared
wisely kept his tiny

in his front,

command hidden

Evans
in the

horizon with his

field glasses,

spotted the sun

glinting off Hunter's bayonets

and bronze

woods behind a rise south of the bridge. He

had only a squadron of cavalry, two fieldpieces, his 4th South Carolina Regiment
and Major Roberdeau Wheat's 1st Louisiana

cannon north of the Stone Bridge. Quickly

Special Battalion, styled "Wheat's Tigers,"

belliger-

"you are turned."

In view of the overwhelming odds against

Evans

him, Colonel Evans could have withdrawn

a unit notable for its red shirts

ence.

Wheat was

man much

and
like

in

Alexander wigwagged to a second tower,

which was on the hill just behind Evans.
"Look out on your left," warned Alexander,

129

The Battle Is Joined

without apology. Instead, he decided to

tack.

He

left

at-

four companies of the South

Carolinians to face Tyler's troops at the

bridge, then led the rest of his

command

north over farm tracks to the crest of Mat-

and pinned them down on the

slope. Hunter was seriously wounded in the
neck and left cheek while attempting to rally
the men and lead them forward in a bayonet
assault. Then Colonel John Slocum of the
their tracks

men under

2nd Rhode Island took a mortal wound as he

climbed a fence to wave his men on. As the

cover of woods, with a good view of the

injured officers were carried from the field.

thews Hill, barely a mile south of Sudley

Ford. Here Evans deployed his

cleared fields that

cross.
line

Hunter would have

The 4th South Carolina went

on the

left,

to

into

with one fieldpiece, while

Hunter
in

told Burnside, "I leave the matter

Burnside speedily brought the

rest of his

brigade into the battle fine, only to have his

9 a.m. Evans was ready,

fresh regiments mauled. Intense Rebel fire

and none too soon. At

9: 15

the

men saw

the

killed Burnside's horse

under him and con-

vanguard of Hunter's column march out of

vinced the colonel that Evans must have six

the trees that shaded Sudley Ford.

regiments of infantry and two batteries of

In the Federal vanguard were two

Island regiments

Rhode

from the brigade of Colonel

Ambrose E. Burnside. Hunter himself was

leading them as they started up Matthews
Hill. Evans' first volley stopped them in

An artist sketches the

scene for a Northern newspaper,
while an officious civilian (right)
questions a staff officer.
21, 1861.

your hands."

Wheat's Tigers and the other gun held the

right. Shortly after

Opening the battle at Bull Run, the

main Union column of 18,000 men
swings into action at 9:30 a.m. on July

artillery

on Matthews

right. Colonel

Hill.

To

Burnside's

Andrew Porter began to

his regiments into line,

now had more than

bring

meaning the Federals

a brigade facing only a

regiment and a battalion of Confederates.

130
<

The Yankees were adjusting their line, shiftwhen Porter and

Burnside saw the Rebels suddenly swarm
down the slope toward them.
Roberdeau Wheat must have seemed insane to some of his troops. They were overwhelmingly outnumbered, yet their coming troops and artillery,

Sudley Ford, where Yankee troops

waded across
Confederate

Bull

left,

Run

to attack the

flows quietly again

months later, deserted except

for a farm boy perched atop the
stone springhouse. Sudley Church,
the top of the ridge, was a major
landmark during the fighting; the
eight

Federals used

it

as a field hospital.

mander ordered

The Rebels came on screaming, some

waving bowie knives over

Although the Tigers could not hope

threw the Federals into confusion

was

all

to dis-

and

that

Evans needed. Confusion would buy

time for Beauregard to get reinforcements to

Matthews

Hill.

But

cost of 48 casualties

Louisiana Tigers raced

him

plunged into

Wheat and his 500-odd

down the slope and
the off-guard Yankee regi-

his chest

to follow his order.

their heads.

lodge Porter and Burnside, their wild charge

And they were insane enough

his flimsy hne.

at

a charge with only part of

ments.

Major Wheat was

just

it

was time bought

at the

among the Louisianians.

hit hard.

A bullet struck

under one armpit, plowed through

and came out the other

side.

His

131

The Battle Is Joined

wrapped him in the regimental flag

and carried him to the rear, where surgeons
told him he had suffered a mortal wound. "I
soldiers

Confederate Colonel Nathan Evans,

"Shanks" because of his
skinny bowlegs, detected the Union
flank attack at Sudley Ford and
rushed to meet it, even though his
called

Wheat protested.
The doctors said that in all their experience
no one had ever recovered from such a
wound. "Well, then," said Wheat, "I will
put my case upon record." And he did, surviving the wound to fight again.
don't feel like dying yet,"

brigade was greatly outnumbered.

Evans' initiative held back the

Yankees for more than an hour and

was praised by General McDowell's
adjutant as "one of the best
pieces of soldiership on either side."

After the Tigers were beaten back, Evans

course.

He

could see the Yankee hne spreading out

far-

realized that his sally

had run

ther on his left flank,

and he knew

could not hold his position

More

its

much

signal messages arrived,

that he

longer.

warning that

Heintzelman's column was crossing

at

Sud-

was time to pull back before

being overwhelmed. But Evans had perley

Ford.

It

formed a remarkable

feat,

holding a vastly

superior force at bay just long enough for his

own support

to arrive.

General Bee's brigade, the

federate reinforcements,

the army's threatened

first

of the Con-

came rushing up

left,

to

followed closely

and exhausted, but eager for the fray."

There was no time to rest or to slake their
thirst. Bee led his men
the 4th Alabama

and the 2nd and 11th Mississippi to the

right of Evans' line and moved them forward

by the brigade of Colonel Bartow. Bee had

to within 100 yards of the

been angry that morning when Beauregard

men, the 7th and 8th Georgia, immediately

went into line on Bee's right. The brigades
fired a volley, lay down on the slope to re-

ordered him off toward the Stone Bridge; he

thought he would find only a skirmish and

Yankees. Bartow's

and jumped back up

would miss the real battle, which everyone

expected at Mitchell's Ford. But as Bee
and his artillery commander. Captain John

Bee and Bartow, like Evans before them,

were merely buying time, waiting for re-

D. Imboden, rode over the crest of Henry

House Hill, across the turnpike and Young's

peared poor.

Branch to Matthews

his battery

see that the

Yankee troops kept pouring into line, extending it beyond the Rebels' left. If the Fe-

Hill, Bee was relieved to

main fight was looming here after
all. He told Imboden, "Here is the battlefield, and we are in for it!"
Bee's and Bartow's men had marched
nearly six miles that morning in broiling heat
with httle water, and they arrived on the battlefield, as

132

one said, "breathless, footsore

load,

to fire again.

inforcements. But their chances, too, ap-

Though Imboden was wheeling

into action on Henry House Hill,

derals attacked with their entire line, noth-

ing could stop them.

The whole Southern contingent on the hill

now totaled perhaps 5,500 still only a third

of the enemy's assault force. But the Con-

the time thinking

that

was

in the

somber thoughts. "I

presence of death," wrote

one of Bartow's men.

'This

is

ting us

unfair;

way;

open and

let

"My first thought was,

somebody

is

didn't

all killed. I

fight this

felt

to

blame

for get-

come out here

to

wish the earth would crack

me drop

in.'

"

At about 10:30 a.m., the whole Confederate fine charged toward Burnside's and Por-

They caught heavy

ter's brigades.

fire.

Bar-

tow's Georgians on the right flank bore the

brunt of it, since they had no woods for cover.

"The

balls just

poured on us, struck our

muskets and hats and bodies," a soldier later

wrote home. "This bold and fearful move-

ment was made through

The

a perfect storm."

8th Georgia finally reached a thicket

within easy musket range of a Federal bat-

They rained fire on the Yankee gunners

and their infantry supports. The Federals returned their fire. "It was a whirlwind of
bullets," recalled a survivor. "Our men fell
constantly. The deadly missiles rained like
hail among the boughs and trees." In one
company of the 8th, five men were killed,
25 wounded, five more lost or captured.
Bartow's horse was killed, the regimental
adjutant was killed, and Lieutenant Colonel W. M. Gardner fell wounded. The Geortery.

gia

men

later

named

that grove "the place

of slaughter."
At 9:45 a.m., Colonel Evans' brigade
confronted the vanguard of two

Union divisions on Matthews Hill.

Evans was reinforced by General
Bee's brigade and Colonel Bartow's

The Confederates managed

McDowell's offensive
nearly two hours, but finally they

brigade.
to stall
for

were flanked and routed by the

brigades of Colonels Porter, Sherman
and Keyes (blue arrows).

federate officers decided to attack again, giv-

more reinforcements time to join them.

While they awaited the word to go forward, some thirsty, hungry Georgians began
throwing rocks to knock apples out of a nearing

by

tree.

tree,

A few men even started to climb the

but Yankee cannon drove them

with a shell or two in their direction.

boys dropped from the apple tree

bears," said a Georgian.

down
"The

like shot

Other soldiers spent

While the Georgians were held up

grove. Bee's brigade on their

left

at the

pushed up

bald slope leading to Burnside's position.

"Our brave men fell in great numbers,"

wrote Captain Thomas Goldsby of the 4th
Alabama, "but they died
die

with faces

as the brave love to

to the foe, fighting in the

holy cause of hberty." That was

ferred to

remember

dirt, painfully,

it.

They

how he

pre-

also died in the

mixing their blood with the

133

The Battle

Is

Joined

red clay of Virginia.

One company

lost

30

men. Lieutenant Colonel J. B. Jones was

mortally wounded, his leg shattered, and every other field officer of the 4th Alabama was
killed or injured. When one of Bartow's
aides rode across the rear of the Alabamians,

was struck and knocked down by

and before he could pick himup from the ground, five more bullets

his horse

eight bullets,
self

tow's Georgians on his right nor Evans' weary

men on

his left

had been able

to

were exposed

to

enemy fire, and

the Yankees

Matthews
Hill had at last become untenable. There
was nothing'to do but retire or be overwhelmed. Bartow and Evans were already
puUing their remnants back over Matthews
were preparing

to counterattack.

dead animal. Now thousands of Federals were firing steadily and the
air was ahve with lead.

fire,

and again they suffered

General Bee grew desperate. Neither Bar-

ties.

Just as they were hastening

slammed

134

into the

keep up

with his brigade. So both of Bee's flanks

Hill to

Young's Branch.

Now

Bee's

men withdrew under heavy

fearful casual-

down

the

Colonel Ambrose Bumside, astride a

rearing horse (center), urges his

Rhode

Island

men up Matthews

Hill.

But Bumside's troops, shattered by

withering Confederate fire, retreated
and took no further part in the fight.

south slope of Matthews Hill, they saw

gray-clad regiment off toward the Stone

Bridge. Bee's

men

be reinforcements.

Alabama made

thought the

An

officer

outfit

must

from the 4th

a signal of recognition

and

The Alabamians
moved to re-form their unit beside the new
outfit. But when the Alabama regiment unthought he saw

furled

its

it

returned.

Confederate colors, the other unit,

were being overwhelmed on the flank

as at the front, their

into a rout.

doned the

Out of

control, soldiers aban-

and raced across the Warren-

line

ton Turnpike and up the north slope of

Henry House

Hill. In spite of their magnifi-

cent performance that morning. Bee, Bartow

and Evans were about

tide of

to be engulfed

Sherman

side

Wisconsin, the gray-uniformed vanguard of

Dowell were nearby, and they

a grave

new

threat to the Confederates.

Sherman's troops were part of Tyler's di-

As the Rebels

which had been

fled,

joined Burn-

and Porter near the Matthews house on

the newly

won

be

Heintzelman and Mc-

hill.

the Confederates
to

by

Yankees.

one of Bee's men, "opened a murderous

upon our ranks." The newcomer was, in
fact. Colonel William T. Sherman's 2nd
said

fire

as well

withdrawal dissolved

fell

back

a full-scale retreat.

in

all

watched

as

what appeared

The commanding

behind the

general immediately ordered Sherman's bri-

Stone Bridge and doing nothing for several

gade to join in the pursuit, then McDowell

hours that morning. At 11 a.m., when Hunt-

himself mounted and rode along his advanc-

vision,

er's

sitting

and Heintzelman's divisions resumed

McDowell's

ing battle lines.

now seemed

their advance, Tyler received

ly

orders to attack across the Stone Bridge at

his divisions

had crossed Bull Run and

memory

of Blackburn's Ford

third

large in Tyler's

mind, and he waited

casualties suffered

once. Yet the

loomed

A day that had begun so badTwo of

to be going perfectly.

and worried

for a time. Finally

he ordered

Colonel Sherman to take his 3,400-man bri-

gade across Bull Run.

Sherman crossed the stream several hundred yards north of the Stone Bridge at
a shallows that he had reconnoitered that
morning. The Yankees met almost no resistance from the four companies of South
Carohnians left there by Evans. Within a few
minutes, Sherman and his men came out of
the woods several hundred yards north of
the Warrenton Turnpike and headed directly for the Rebels' exposed flank. They were
soon followed by the brigade of Colonel
Erasmus D. Keyes.

When

the Confederate troops falling back

across Young's Branch realized that they

side

was starting

to cross. Despite the

heavy

by the forces under Burn-

and Porter, McDowell's army was now

up the enemy. Once he reached the

Warrenton Turnpike, just on the other side
of Young's Branch, McDowell had only to
push three miles down the road to reach
the tracks of the Manassas Gap Railroad.
There he would be able to cut off reinforcements from the Shenandoah Valley while advancing unimpeded to Manassas Junction
and down the Orange & Alexandria Railroad
toward Richmond.
Flushed with success after all the weeks of
rolling

frustration, General

McDowell rode

jubi-

lantly along his fines, standing in his stirrups

and shouting

advancing ranks, "Vic-

The day
was premature.

tory! Victory!

tion

to the

is

ours!" But his ela-

135

Verdict on

''The words, gestures,

Henry House

and

thrown away upon men

threats

of our

officers

Hill

were

who had tost all presence of mind and

only longed for absence of body."

COLONEL ANDREVi; PORTER.

It

was not

regard.

USA

good morning

for General

He

spent most of

it

at the

Beau-

McLean

farm, his headquarters near Mitchell's Ford,

in

deepening perplexity and alarm.

He heard

only a Uttle firing on his right, where five of

his brigades

were supposed

be crossing

to

Run to attack the Federal camps around

Centreville. And not much was happening in
front of him at Mitchell's Ford, where he
expected the main enemy blow to fall. InBull

stead,

sounds of battle grew steadily in the

northwest

his lightly

defended

left flank.

said. "I

am

the

flatly that

"The

reinforced.

left

must be heav-

battle

is

there," he

going."

Johnston's decision apparently came as a

great relief to Beauregard, lifting

from

and permitting him

battle

clearly.

to think

more

"My heart for a moment failed me,"

he later admitted in his customary melodra-

matic manner. "I

wished

lost. I

the 18th; but

soon

my

though

felt as

had

rallied,

and I then solwould that day

gades of Barnard Bee, Francis Bartow and

commands toward the fighting on the

Thomas Jackson to reinforce his threatened

left. Then he again lapsed into inaction. Lat-

He

call-

was

all

fallen in the battle of

emnly pledged

and framed orders

his

shoulders the ultimate responsibihty for the

Nothing was going as Beauregard had

planned, and for some time he was so paralyzed by confusion that he made no countermove. By 9:30 a.m. he had sent the bri-

er he roused himself

life

that

conquer or die!"
Beauregard ordered Holmes, Jubal Early

and Milledge

Bonham

to start

moving

their
left.

then decided to send Jones, Longstreet

and Ewell back across Bull Run, thinking

that perhaps the Centreville attack could be

was

ing the brigades of Richard Ewell, David

restored to the program.

Jones, Theophilus Holmes and James Long-

day for the brigades that Beauregard kept

bank of Bull Run.

As the morning shpped by. General John-

street

back

to the south

moving back and

socks.

and waited with growing anxiety

tial

for Beaure-

seemed more and more obvious that Beauregard's orders had immobilized his army's right flank. Much/ more
act. It

alarming was the situation on the

Although Johnston had given

nate the battlefield

command, Beauregard's

off to the left finally impelled Johnston

to act. Shortly before

a frustrating

forth across Bull

Run; the

managed to dry their

But Beauregard had sent substan-

reinforcements to his threatened

flank.

His confidence

rising,

left

he rode off after

Johnston toward the northwest to watch

events unfold.

left flank.

his subordi-

evident inability to take control of the battle

It

soldiers never quite

ston hstened intently to the sounds of battle

gard to

136

Beauregard
ily

noon, Johnston told

The

battle

was

a desperate one for the three

brigades that had been trying to hold off

two Federal divisions

for nearly

two hours.

the Confederates had fallen back

Matthews
HiU, across the Warrenton
from

By noon

Turnpike and through the shallow waters of

Young's Branch, and they had
to the crest of the hill

finally

come

where stood the Henry

family's farmhouse.

The

first

Hampton Legion, fresh

from Richmond. Colonel Hamp-

Hill.

The dogged

toil,

Union

the

chewing up the advance units of

McDowell's comAndrew Porter and

right wing.

manders, particularly

off a train

forces during the morning, sending in at-

their

ton had reported to General Bee just before

tacks by single regiments rather than slam-

the Confederate retreat began, and he had

been ordered to act as a reserve, placing his

ming ahead with entire brigades to overwhelm the outnumbered enemy defenders.

men

Burnside had so depleted his brigade

in

piecemeal attacks that his only remaining

ef-

in a defensive position

on Henry House

But Hampton was interested

He formed up

in glory,

men

his

in front

owned by a freed slave

named James Robinson, then marched them
down the slope to the Warrenton Turnof a white frame house

pike

Before marching off to Bull Run,

most of the Highlanders exchanged
their kilts for either blue Army pants
or trim tartan trousers called trews.

Henry House

Rebel defense of Matthews Hill had taken a

Ambrose Burnside, had squandered

Hill.

of the British Army's Scottish troops.

of

at the foot

Warrenton Turnpike

Carolinians of the

not defense.

blue jacket modeled after the dress

his line along the

heavy

reinforcements to reach these

battered Confederates were the 600 South

This handsome uniform, worn on

full-dress occasions by the 79th New
York Highlanders, includes a kilt and

form

fective force

New

a single regiment, the

division disorganized by

enemy

1 1

in his

fire.

Mc-

Despite his heavy losses of troops,

Dowell retained

a strong

manpower. In re-forming

edge

his left, placed

in available

his line,

the newly arrived brigade of

on

2nd

Hampshire. General Heintzelman had

already seen three regiments of the

Confederate line broke.

just as the

The retreating troops came rushing back toward Hampton's Legionnaires, then fled
past them and up the hill.
Suddenly the Hampton Legion was all

was

he placed

Erasmus Keyes

WiUiam Sherman's

fresh

alone and in the forefront of the battle; for a

brigade in the middle, and put Porter's

was the only Confederate command

battleworn units on the far right along with

while

it

fighting.

still

hard

hit

The South

by Federal

Carolinians were

fire, their

ranks torn by

exploding shells from the crack Union batteries of

Captains James B. Ricketts and

Charles Griffin.

foot of a lieutenant

single shell tore off the

and

killed three soldiers.

Hampton's heutenant colonel was killed and

own horse was shot from under him.
Realizing that his legion could no longer
stand alone, Hampton withdrew to the cover

his

of a

wooded depression behind

the Robinson

house, 700 yards northeast of the Henry

house.
the

ly

Now

it

seemed

that nothing stood in

way of the Yankee advance.

Orlando Willcox's and William Franklin's

brigades. Burnside's decimated brigade was
be held in reserve. General Schenck's

to

gade, backed

up by

artillery,

end of the Stone Bridge. McDowell

ployed 24 pieces of
12

artillery,

also de-

including the

guns of the batteries commanded by Rick-

etts

and

Griffin. In all,

he had some 11,000

infantrymen ready to advance once more by

2

p.m.

vigorous thrust up Henry House

would gain the smashing victory that

McDowell had prematurely claimed.
Meanwhile, the Confederate left had been
reinforced by General Jackson's five regiHill

But the Federal forces did not immediate-

ments of Virginia infantry. Jackson and

pursue the retreating Confederates; Gen-

men had been awake

eral

McDowell

first

found

it

necessary to re-

bri-

held the north

since before

his

dawn, pre-

paring to support Longstreet in Beaure137

Verdict on Henry House Hill

on Centreville. An-

gard's projected attack

Confederate Colonel Francis S.

Bartow, a Savannah lawyer before
the War, made up for his lack of
military experience with sheer hard
work. "I sleep about five hours in
the 24," he wrote his mother a month

ticipating a confused fight in tangled country

and fearing bloody mistakes because some

Union units wore gray uniforms while his

own 33rd

Virginia wore blue, Jackson in-

structed his

men

to identify themselves

tying strips of white cloth around their

before the Bull Run battle, "and

very seldom take off my clothes or

by

even

my shoes. My toilet is made

morning by putting on my hat."

in the

arms

or hats. Further to identify themselves to one

another, his

men were

to strike their left

breasts with their right hands and shout,

"Our homes!" Some

soldiers

tine a bit theatrical:

"We

pearance of so

many

found

this rou-

presented the ap-

lunatics," one of

complained, adding, "They failed to

that while

them

tell

us

we were going through this Mawe thus gave the other

sonic performance,

In any case,

some of Jackson's Virginians

were puzzled by their eccentric commander's decision to

"The

firing in

take a defensive position.

our front was

terrific," a sol-

we had any."

"and why we did not render

immediate and timely assistance to Bee I

When the fight on the left started, Jackson

could never learn." Bee's retreating line did

did not wait for orders but marched north-

some support from the Confederate

artillery commanded by Colonel WiUiam N.

fellow an opportunity to
if

blow our brains out,

ward toward the sound of the guns. Sending

word ahead to Bee that he was coming, he
pushed

his

men some

four miles from their

bivouac near Mitchell's Ford to the reverse

slope of

Henry House

Hill, arriving there

shortly before noon.

fight,

which

was then raging around Young's Branch.

he ordered his

men

to

form

behind the crest of Henry House

In-

a fine just

Hill. Exact-

why Jackson stopped here remains a mysHe may have decided that this was the
best place to make a stand, which it arguably
was (another who thought so was Captain
Imboden, who moved his battery of artillery
ly

tery.

here after

it

had been driven from the crest of

the hill by accurate

receive

Pendleton. Elements of four batteries totaling 13 guns were

Union

"Fire, boys!

may have

on

hesitated to

his

own

initiative,

do anything more

without hearing from his superiors.

efforts

and the

Henry House Hill.

Jackson and shouted,

bling over the crest of

Bee rode up

to

"General, they are beating us back!"

"Sir," said Jackson calmly, "we'll give

them the bayonet."

Reassured, General Bee galloped back to
his shattered force.

Amid all the confusion,

"What regiment is

he recognized no one.

"Why,

to the battle line

But Pendleton's

to stop the retreat,

Confederate infantrymen were soon scram-

Jackson was a stickler for orders. Having

he

And may God have mercy on

were not enough

this?" he

fire).

Pendleton,

an Episcopal minister, shouted the order,

Further,

come

now on the hill.

their guilty souls!"

Jackson did not rush into the

stead,

dier recalled,

demanded.
General, don't you

know your own

troops?" asked a soldier. "This

left

is all

that

is

of the 4th Alabama."

Bee asked the battle-weary men

to

make

138

another effort. According to Captain

as

Thom-

Goidsby, he put the question thus: "Will

me back to where the firing is

on?" And his men answered with a

way Jackson
enemy fire.

The

trouble was that

when Bee

uttered his

cheer,

remark, Jackson's brigade was

Bee,

low, not yet exposed to Federal bullets.

men back

into the fight. Several of those

present recalled that their general pointed

toward the nearby Virginia brigade and ex-

claimed that Jackson was standing there

"like a stone wall."

One

of several latter-day

accounts said that Bee added, "Let us deter-

mine

to die here,

and we

will

conquer."

Exactly what Bee said or meant

Bull

the

stood under

going

his

left flank at

a tribute to

men had

his

more pithy to his men, and that their

cheer may also have been less heroic and
more flavorful.
Bee said something more before leading

Confederate

was

it

and

thing

Brigadier General Barnard E. Bee,

who rallied the collapsing

claim

you follow

"To the death!" It is more likely that

known as a virtuoso swearer, said some-

Confederates would

clear. In after days.

is

jor

Thomas Rhett

lying

Ma-

of Jackson's staff later

claimed that Bee had told him he was furious

when Jackson had lodged on the hill "like a

stone wall" instead of coming to his assistance.

Whatever he meant, General Bee had

given Jackson his nickname, Stonewall.

Bee quickly led the 4th Alabama forward

over the crest of Henry House Hill and

down

the northern slope in an attempt to turn back

the Federals.
effort.

not

still

It

was

The Union

a gallant

artillery

but hopeless

under Griffin and

Ricketts battered the Alabamians so brutally

that the

men broke and ran once more, head-

ing back over the crest of the

hill.

Bee was

Run,

showed early in his career that

he had no patience with pettifogging
regulations and no fear of

seen riding bravely through

While attending the

Military Academy at West Point, Bee
accrued a large number of demerits,
many for chewing tobacco on duty.

panic. Later on, one of Jackson's Virginians

disciplinarians.

hold his

command

trying to

together in the face of

saw the general turn

enemy,

it all,

his horse

toward the

as if dehberately riding to his death.

Perhaps he did. Eventually,

in front of the

remnants of his brigade. Bee was shot off his

wounded. His dying utterances, some said, were bitter recriminations

horse, mortally

against Jackson for not aiding him.

General Johnston and General Beauregard

arrived at the front about the time Bee was
vainly trying to patch together a
sive line.

and

defen-

The commanders found Jackson

his Virginians

crest of

new

still

Henry House

in place

Hill,

behind the

with the

Hamp-

ton Legion far to the right near the Robin-

son house. Behind this sketchy line they

from the
morning's bloody work. Some of Evans'
encountered bits and pieces

left

and Bartow's troops had re-formed and were

139

Verdict on Henry House Hill

.-W**iA.fW

"

>

^1

i'iii-,yiMi'wnOlfMli

now making their way back toward the front.

''

With

this

'Jifc'

',.,!ai>!ii:;.in.!iJ.i.iliiii::..i

MRiMtUiiidMM

iLI'

jlll'iiilli.

.,.i'.i

.'.^.'..'!ri!r:.,i.

patchwork of survivors and

Johnston rode over to the shattered rem-

Jackson's brigade, the Confederate leaders

The exhausted

had salvaged a defense out of what had

seemed to be certain disaster just an hour

nants of the 4th Alabama.

men were
rear.

standing in hne 300 yards to the

Johnston found the color sergeant and,

before.

The

Confederates' line stabilized.

banner, led the 4th Alabama back to form on

Now, with the brigades of Early and Bonham on their way to the field, followed by

Jackson's right. Johnston also encountered

Colonel Jeb Stuart's

Nathan Evans, almost alone

now but ready for more fight. Evans led his
few surviving men into hne on the right of
the Alabamians while Bartow worked gal-

Beauregard and Johnston paused to consider

with the sergeant carrying the regimental

the indomitable

lantly at re-forming his Georgia regiments.

When Bartow

reported to Beauregard, the

general directed

him to anchor the Georgians

to Jackson's left.

140

how

1st Virginia

to condifct the battle. It

Cavalry,

was decided

would take up a position in the

and funnel reinforcements to Henry
House Hill as they appeared. Beauregard,
meanwhile, would continue to exercise tactithat Johnston

rear

cal

command

of the battle, plugging

new

troops into the line as they arrived. Johnston

'.I-

'L

Confederate General Joseph E.

Johnston (foreground), arriving at his
threatened

left

flank to reorganize

the sagging defense, raUies a Georgia

regiment. Colonel Bartow, waving

a flag at rear, gallops through enemy
fire to regroup his shattered forces.

well concealed in a patch of woods.

left,

By

had perhaps

2 p.m. the Confederates

6,500

men and Pendleton's

13

cannon on the

But they still faced a foe that greatly

outnumbered them, and Beauregard knew
hill.

it.

Now

command

fully in

Beauregard rode along his

of the situation,

line,

exhorting the

men to stand fast, telling them that they need

hold only a

little

longer until more reinforce-

ments arrived. His horse was shot from under him, but he calmly picked himself up,

found another mount and continued

to over-

see the defense.

The

lull in

the battle as the two forces re-

organized soon came to an end. Jackson saw

two Yankee batteries

fin's

Ricketts' and Grif-

lumber down Buck

Hill to the

renton Turnpike and start up

War-

the slope of

Henry House Hill, obviously intent upon

softening up the Confederate line before an
news

infantry attack. Quickly Jackson sent

of the threat to Beauregard, then passed

word among

his Virginians that they

were

to

stand ready on the ground back from the

The turning point of the Bull

Run battle was reached at about 2:30
p.m. The 33rd Virginia captured
the exposed batteries of Captains

Ricketts and Griffin near the crest

of Henry House Hill, routing the

units supporting the batteries
the
11th New York Fire Zouaves and
a battalion of U.S. Marines. Federal
reinforcements, led by the 14th
Brooklyn, reached the scene too late
to save the all-important artillery.

then rode to "Portici," the home of the Francis

Lewis family, a mile south of the

line

on Henry House

battle

crest.

But when the Yankees came up the

slope,

and "when

the

hill, let

above

their heads are seen

the whole line rise,

move forward
To

with a shout, and trust to the bayonet."

Hill.

Even as Johnston was establishing his

new headquarters at Portici, fresh regiments
reached Beauregard. Three companies from

commanded by

his aides, Stonewall confided: "I

this

am

tired of

long-range work."

So was McDowell. The time he had taken

elderly

reorganizing his line had surely given the

ex-governor William Smith, plus a scatter-

Confederates the breathing space they need-

ing of surviving companies from other

ed to

the 49th Virginia,

mands went

com-

into line on the extreme left;

set

up a new defense.

finish off the Rebels

another Virginia regiment soon followed.

close-range artillery

Beauregard's idea was to extend the

to flight

left

of his battle hne, guarding that flank against

the ever-lengthening

When

Yankee

line opposite.

Jeb Stuart and his cavalry came up,

Beauregard positioned them on the extreme

with a

final

It

was high time

to

pound them with

fire

and then put them

bayonet charge.

To

his

chief of artillery.

Major William F. Barry,

McDowell gave
Ricketts to move

the order for Griffin and

their batteries forward.

Barry conveyed the order to Griffin,

who
141

Verdict on Henry House Hill

He would

be advancing

Griffin led the way, with Ricketts right

one had been disabled without

behind him. They galloped their guns up the

instantly protested.
five

guns

infantry support,
for a

sured

making them easy prey

Confederate counterattack. Barry

him

as-

Union infantry would adThe regiment would

1 1th New York Fire Zouaves.

that the

vance right behind him.

be the colorful
Griffin, a

Regular

entering their

Army

officer, confessed

Zouaves, green volunteers

his fear that the

first battle,

firm under

enemy

said Barry.

"At any

fire.

rate,

would not stand

"Yes, they will,"

it is

General Mc-

Dowell's order to go there." Griffin obeyed,

but tossed a

warning over his shoulder:

last

"I will go, but

mark my words, they

not support us."

142

will

slope of

Henry House

Hill to within 300

yards of the Confederate? line. If the Federal

them quickly, they

would make handsome targets for enemy
marksmen and a ripe prize for capture if the
infantry did not support

Rebels advanced. Indeed, the Confederate

fire

began

just as Ricketts

into battery

brought his guns

in line several yards apart,

with the ammunition caissons and limbers

several yards to the rear.

Bullets at once started bringing

down

his

gunners and horses. Ricketts concluded that

the shots

federate

came from the Henry house. Conmarksmen were posted around the

Artillery

Captain Charles Griffin,

to brevet major

who was promoted

for his heroics at Bull

Run, was much

admired by his men for protecting

their rights and promoting their
welfare. Grifhn was so outspoken in
their defense that on at least
one occasion his superiors almost
arrested

him

for insubordination.

house and perhaps inside. The owner of the

fell

house, an elderly, invalid widow, Judith

Henry, had been confined inside since the

battle began swirling through her fields. She
lay in

an upstairs bedroom, waiting fearfully

with her son, her daughter and a servant.

Ricketts quickly turned his guns and be-

gan slamming shells into the house. One

shell tore through the wall of the widow's

bedroom.
tearing

large fragment struck her bed,

away one of the old woman's

feet

and

wounds. She died before

Her son John lay on the ground

outside, under the fire of both armies, crying

out in anguish, "They've killed

While

my mother!"

and Ricketts followed Mc-

Griffin

Dowell's orders, Major Barry went looking

for the Fire

Zouaves

to

support the batteries.

11th

New

send them forward to

He rounded up

the

York, the 14th Brooklyn Chas-

captured Federal batteries of Griffin

and his fellow artillerist, Captain
James B. Ricketts, remnants of the

led a battalion of gaudily

New York Fire Zouaves (foreground),

the Brooklyn Chasseurs and other

move up Henry House Hill. The

wounded Ricketts was captured
units

but later paroled; like Griffin, he

became a Union general.

But

anians.
later

when

New

wrong turn and arrived

late.)

took a

"We pushed at

double-quick," wrote one of the Zouaves.

"Up, up, not a single enemy in sight, not a

shot from his side. Up, up till we gained the
."
top, and then
.

Jackson's Rebels held their

fire until

Zouaves had swung to the right of

Then

and Ricketts'

batteries.

ate line stood

and delivered

ley.

"We

literally

a Virginian.

air

sulfurous with gun smoke.

dropped

to the

the Confeder-

crushing vol-

mowed them down,"

Suddenly the

ground

second enemy volley.

the

Griffin's

said

was blue and

The Zouaves

up the slope.
two companies of Confeder-

At

this point,

under Jeb Stuart reached the left

end of the battle line and emerged from the
ate cavalry

woods

New Yorkers' unprorear. A brief melee ensued.

to assault the

tected flank

and

few Zouaves used their bayonets

back with
art

drew

their sabers or carbines.

his

command back

into the

woods.

to rally the

shaken

Yorkers, intending to lead them back

fused to budge.

The Federal batteries had been doing

damage all along the Confederate line in
front of them. But their own position was
jeopardized when Griffin moved two of his
guns

to

right,

from which he could

an exposed location on Ricketts'

federate line.
ly

enfilade the

The gun crews now

Con-

desperate-

needed infantry support, but the Zouaves

and Marines remained stuck well behind the

batteries.

Two

regiments of Franklin's

bri-

gade were also within striking distance in the

At

to return fire,

Soon Stu-

up the slope to support Griffin and Ricketts.

But some of the Zouaves fled and others re-

rear,

Yorkers rose on their elbows

to stab

passing riders, while the cavalrymen fought

New

of

moment
a belated

volley thundering

in time to escape the

A number

Yorkers sent

New

men

line

uniformed Louisi-

doubts vanished

his

the

Zouave officers attempted

Brooklyn

batteries.

Colonel Arthur Cummings, commanding the 33rd Virginia on Jackson's left,

was not sure that the Zouaves in his front
were the enemy and ordered his men to hold
their fire. He knew that Roberdeau Wheat

them across Young's Branch, then up the

forward slope of Henry House Hill. (However, the red-trousered

Union

as well.

seurs and a battahon of U. S Marines and led

.

In a desperate charge to retake the

to the rear of the

Confusion enveloped the Confederate

inflicting other
nightfall.

back

but they had not been told to advance.

this point, a violated

ror of

order and an er-

judgment altered the course of the

Cummings

but others, singly and in bewildered groups,

mistake-filled battle. Colonel

broke and ran. The bulk of the regiment

the 33rd Virginia decided to disobey Jack-

of

143

'**r

Verdict on Henry House Hill

Now,

son's order that he simply hold his position.

his grasp.

Cummings

led his blue-clad regiment for-

this

steamy July afternoon, he saw the battle

ward, heading for the Federal right flank a

slip

beyond

few hundred yards down the long

on

control.

Jackson was the

rise.

Captain Griffin saw the Virginians coming.

at a Httle after 2 o'clock

setback to the

first

enemy

to capitalize on the

batteries.

He immedi-

The two fieldpieces he had placed on the

ately ordered his brigade to charge. Beaure-

were loaded with canister, ideal for

gard committed the units on Jackson's right

far right

use against massed infantry. After brief hesitation caused

by the blue uniforms, the cap-

was about

tain

intervened.

to fire

He was

when Major Barry

certain that the ap-

proaching troops were friendly. "Those are

your battery support," he told Griffin, and

to the

was

advance as well. Because the enemy

still

numerically superior in this sector,

momentary advantage had

be exploited quickly, buying time for

the Confederates'
to

Johnston to send additional reinforcements.

The next two hours were

a confused peri-

ordered him not to shoot. "They are Confed-

od of charges and counterattacks. The aban-

erates!" Griffin yelled back.

doned guns of Ricketts and Griffin changed

hands several times. Losses on both sides
mounted steadily as other Federal guns con-

Barry forbade the gunners to

Still,

until

it

was too late.

fire

When the Virginians had

advanced to within 70 yards of the Federal

tinued to

battery, they loosed a devastating volley. It

ies

number of men in each of the two

wounded Ricketts, slaughmany horses and stampeded most of

killed a

Union
tered

batteries,

the rest.

"That was the

later recalled.

As

fire

and the Confederate

batter-

answered. "The cannonballs struck

around us," one Virginian

later wrote,

ail

"the
Colonel

of the 600-man

last

of us," Griffin

the Virginians

swarmed

to-

in

fled

down

command and

the slope. Griffin, alone

with most of the

artillery

horses shot, ordered the artillerymen to retire

without their guns.

McDowell and other officers were

alarmed at the signs of panic among their
infantry. They rode back and forth, desperGeneral

ately trying to re-form the

diers did not stop

men. Many

sol-

running until they reached

Sudley Ford, and the sight of comrades

flee-

ing in fright sent shivers through the fresh

Yankee regiments moving up toward the

battle line. Some Union outfits were demorahzed before they fired their

first

shot.

The turning point had been reached. Two

hours before, McDowell had seen victory in
144

commander
Hampton Legion,

was reputedly the South's wealthiest

planter. He owned some 3,000

worth perhaps $3 million

and the yearly income from his halfdozen estates approached $200,000.
slaves

ward the guns, the remaining Zouaves and

Marines

Wade Hampton, the

organizer, financer and

shells burst at

our

feet,

and the Minies sung

song of death around our ears." Each

their

time the Confederates swarmed over the

and struck the Federals

hill

a sharp blow, the

Yankees recovered and forced the Rebels

retire

back over the

to

The contested Federal fieldpieces were

moved because neither Northern

nor Southern troops held dominion over the

long enough to pull them in either di-

rection.

At one point.

Griffin

and men of the

New York managed to haul three of the

38th

guns toward

men

safety,

but

just

then Jackson's

struck again, with Beauregard himself

the

summit of the

back with heavy

until yet another Federal charge

drove the

Yankee compatriots,

battle for the

guns raged back and

his color sergeant, carry-

bullet caught

Bartow near the

words he begged his

hold their banner

at all costs:

me; but boys, never give

During the savage fighting,

soldiers

"They have

it

up."

McDowell be-

so engrossed in riding to

the fighting front, rallying his

lost track

and

fro along

men,

of the battle as a whole.

their confusion

When

their place.

New York

Union one

(the Stars

Highlanders took

that he

He

con-

on

spent the entire battle rooted near the Stone

Bridge, and Tyler with Keyes's brigade
tered behind Young's

a windless day)

and ceased

"As we lowered our arms and were

where the banner floated,"

wrote a Highlander, "we were met by a terrible raking fire, against which we could only
stagger." The Highlanders fell back down
the hill. "As we passed down we saw our
about to

rally

Colonel lying

The

still

in the

hands of Death."

colonel was James Cameron.

few

miles away, hstening to the roar of the bat-

Simon Cameron.

possessed. Schenck's brigade

and Bars of the Confed-

eracy resembled the Stars and Stripes from

tle,

stood his brother, Secretary of

War

The Federal commanders were wasting

loi-

their regiments so prodigally that their lines

Branch through most

soon became a jumble of fragmented units,

and whatever semblance of organization

of the engagement.

McDowell doggedly continued

at a

firing.

Again chaos reigned. The High-

serves he

thrift practice

and resumed

the Wisconsin boys were driven

sequently failed to bring up the strong restill

and
His 2nd Wis-

before the Confederate soldiers recovered

firing.

came

send his

within a few yards of Jackson's right flank

nants of the 7th Georgia in an all-out coun-

killed

to

at a time,

consin, clad in gray uniforms, advanced to

afar, especially

to

began

with the same unhappy results.

ing their regimental banner, led the rem-

heart. In his last

also

regiments into the fight one

landers mistook a Confederate flag for a

Virginians back.

died of sunstroke.

Colonel Sherman, as inexperienced as his

back, the 79th

terattack.

only to be thrown

Some men

dust-filled air.

them the bayonet! Give it to them freely!"

Griffin once again had to leave his guns

Bartow and

hill,

losses. All the while, troops

on both sides were collapsing from heat ex-

from

forth.

and

then one of the Yankee units actually gained

leading the 5th Virginia and shouting "Give

The

Now

haustion and thirst and from breathing the

crest.

scarcely

field

dreds of lives in modest reverses.

his spend-

of attacking with one brigade

time; instead of striking with his over-

whelming strength, he dribbled away hun-

re-

mained was threatening to disintegrate at

any moment. At about 3:45 p.m. the last
unbloodied brigade was committed to the
battle
three regiments from Maine and

145

^v

Verdict on Henry House Hill

Henry House*

^Q)

Wi

y^ ^

/f

HOUSE^

CHINN--'

RIDGE

China / ^
fl^fe House /^^r

:::::f

^^M

BALD
HILL

c&

a.
146

EWELL

M H H

1.000

Scale in Feel

2,000

3,000

Starting the Federal rout, the

Confederate brigades of General
Edmund Kirby Smith and Colonel
Jubal A. Early arrived to hammer
Colonel Oliver O. Howard's brigade,
the last fresh Union unit. Elsewhere,

Union troops began

to leave the

disorder, some men fleeing by

way of Sudley Ford, others taking
field in

the shorter route across the Stone

Bridge. General Beauregard ordered

a full-scale Confederate attack.

one from Vermont, commanded by Colonel

reaching the battle were just in time to strike

command

telling blows. One such unit was the brigade

commanded by Brigadier General Edmund

Oliver Howard. But Howard's

had made the long march

Sudley Ford

via

during the hottest part of the day with

heavy field packs and empty canteens, and

They

they were exhausted.

McDowell's order

many

failed.

tried to

deploy

to

run, but

at a

"Our men began

obey

to fall out

and

could not go any farther," a Maine private

Kirby Smith. After arriving at Manassas

Junction around 12:30, Smith had rapidly
formed his troops and quick-marched them
along roads choked with dust and strewn
with wounded men and stragglers. "Our

more quickly than our

pulses beat

wrote

out before we got to the battlefield."

Howard formed his brigade in two lines on

battle

waxing nearer and nearer every moWhen Smith reached Portici, Gener-

think at least one quarter of the

fell

the right of the Federal position and gave the

order to attack. His

fire.

first line

met

a hail of

Orders could not be heard above the

din, and the

men were unnerved

to see

bloodied Federals from earlier assaults

ing in terror. Like the troops in

flee-

many fright-

ened units before them, some of Howard's

soldiers

became disoriented and

weapons
sion cap

al

Johnston met him and gave him simple

orders.

"Take them

"Go where

the

fire is

to the front," he said.

hottest."

At about 4 p.m. Smith led

his

men past the

southern slope of Henry House Hill and off

toward the

left.

Colonel Howard's Union

brigade seemed to be re-forming there for

shaw, commanding the 2nd South Carohna

they had neglected to put a percus-

of Bonham's brigade, directed Smith's atten-

on the nipple

at the rifle's breach.

forgot to use a percussion

cap failed to notice that the

from the barrels before

rifle

had not

fired

firing

and sent them

Howard's
the colonel

was badly mauled,

so

went back down the slope

to

first fine

bring up his second line. This line in turn

was met by devastating

blasts

federate artillery and volleys

from the Con-

from Howard's
hill; a

bullet struck

nel

Arnold Elzey of the

1st

Maryland. Deter-

a Confederate general, Elzey said that he

would end this day with "a yellow sash or six
feet of ground." Elzey was later promoted to

brigadier general

Moving

retroactive

to the very

battle.

the brigade quietly through thick

woods west of Henry House

Hill, Elzey

suddenly struck the exposed right flank of

Colonel Howard's exhausted,

fled, stopping only after they were back

The

across Young's Branch.

the entire right

Those fresh Confederate brigades now

and

The com-

earn the rank and sword belt of

to

day of the

Howard had no alternative but to

his men to retreat. They broke and

in the chest

battle.

mand of the Rebel brigade devolved on Colo-

Groups

of Maine Volunteers soon began to break for

Smith

knocked him out of the

from fresh Con-

federate troops on their right flank.

Moments later a volley

men came whisthng up the

tion to the threat.

mined

sailing over the field like arrows.

all

ment."

another attack, and Colonel Joseph B. Ker-

Many were

and kept ramming more charges home. A

few men even forgot to remove their ramrods

order

sounds of

unable to

Some of those who

the rear.

in the brigade, "the

fired their

into the air.

fire at all;

man

feet,"

men

said. "I

attack put

began

to

jittery troops.

Howard's men

and
wing of McDowell's army
to rout,

crumble. Joining Elzey in the

at-

147

Verdict on Hciuy House Hill

Sword-waving Colonel Louis Blenker

New York volunteers
to open fire on Confederate cavalry
signals his

riding in hot pursuit of the retreating

Union troops (far left). Refusing

to be panicked by the Federal rout,

Blenker's brigade held

just

tack was the brigade of Colonel Jubal Early.

The Federals were

panic had seized
Colonel

Howard

all

way

giving

fast.

"A

the troops in sight,"

said.

Union

soldiers

were

they had had enough.

fell

The whole Yankee Hne

apart and went to the rear.

The

retreat

began about 4:30. McDowell

later recalled painfully that

"the plain was

running about in confusion, throwing away

covered with retreating troops, and they

heavy equipment and shouting, "The enemy is upon us!

in contact.

We shall all be taken!"

and

their guns, shaking off their

Beauregard sensed that the decisive mo-

ment was
tire line

at

hand, and he boldly led his en-

forward in an attack. McDowell's

adjutant, Captain

James Fry,

later reported,

seemed
this

panic."

to infect those with

The

soon degenerated

The

best that

enemy

against

148

but

now

pursuit.

He

sent

Major

George Sykes's battalion of hard-bitten Regright to cover the

soldiers,

further into a

McDowell could do

army
ular

summer

still

a rout,

to cover the withdrawal of his

by the conviction that it was no use to do

anything more and they might as well start
home." They had fought remarkably well
for inexperienced

became

was attempt

"The men seemed to be seized simultaneously

whom they came

retreat soon

Army

field.
trol.

infantry to the vulnerable

Union

stampede from the

battle-

The rest of his force was beyond conSome of the men ran with crazed fear

toward Sudley Ford or Centreville. Most,

its

south of Centreville.

ground

too weary to run, simply shambled off the

discarding their gear as they went.

field,

Beauregard sent one unit

after another in

pursuit of the fleeing enemy. Early went di-

Howard's brigade while Stuart

rectly after

and

his

horsemen followed the main body of

The cavalrymen soon had to

had taken so many pris-

the Federals.

dering Longstreet and

Bonham

or-

to cross Bull

Run at Mitchell's and Blackburn's Fords

and advance on Centreville. Should they
reach the village before McDowell's men

south of the Stone Bridge in the hope of

they were stopped by Colonel Israel Richard-

and Heintzelman's

son's fresh Federal brigade, stationed south

before they completed their

of Centreville to block access to the town.

Other cavalry detachments crossed Bull

getting behind Hunter's

fleeing

men

wide swing via Sudley Ford back

to the

War-

did, they

These Yankees showed no inclination

to

renton Turnpike. But while these horsemen

stand aside, so the two Confederate brigades

a rumor
Yankee units had been seen threatening
Union Mills, far to his right. Fearing another

at last

of a pocket-

were advancing, Beauregard heard

New Testament show where the

book stopped

head off the defeated Federals,

to

Run

oners that they could no longer advance.

sized

tempt

would cut the main escape route to

Washington. But the Union Mills rumor delayed Longstreet and Bonham also, and then

stop, however; they

The punctured pages

Union troops had fled too far to be caught.

Johnston, meanwhile, made another at-

a bullet that

would

that

otherwise have killed Private A. P.

Hubbard of the 4th South Carolina
during the Bull Run battle. This
was the first of many Bibles that
saved the lives of Civil War soldiers.

attack, he

a full-scale pursuit un-

rumor was proved

the

til

postponed

By then

false.

the

returned to Bull Run.

In fact, the Confederates were just as

worn

out as the Federals. Even the brigades that

had not fought had been marching most of

the day in the heat,

and by the time the rout

began there was not enough daylight left for

an effective pursuit, even with fresh troops.

Beauregard
'rfi'".?
r

thiaisafA^

'

'r'fe;^^

ifOmhcMBf^

Ba .
woiKn yi
thioc*. vincfa
J a hsrr
9 XOM9 laUX*.
(hinn>ed.aalcaTod.i.-tJ raj g..vEgHd.udiseBUiio<u^: woA.U Nocv

-^-OMBf

Ctow

in

mj DeA

Inil tiop)

iig

Only a squadron of
Colonel R.C.W. Radford's 30th Virginia
Cavalry, which had been held in reserve, actually clashed with the fleeing Federals.

<-

SsUodof

e*ocihlUba<ntli

^^

w
U B to
ftii^

A. l-ri
u UK iMM.[itm

YBt
mUlT. Urn a<nr
Hwcin of oae htth faaiitfaI

irjolce* ia

h i*^^.^.U4 tu

xtuCfwOl -ttoe

bsui^*in

I *r...
Tr-

ivnn hub

bdcod

'

in.

Iicfat;

drLrcred

la tb fHrarrr of dmrlinPM.

halll

h^

EpvbT'n:"'- "

vliA

'

J
tjuulstrd ara into Uio
1^3:11 oflMi de*rSon
, BiMdnt to hb Mlitfi I
^ whOlB VB tUVS HDBCS^^
T (.hMB tint aroaU mtkm
raotb bl* blood, tm 1^ kaowa h>l n tba ndirrth
'-jewofna*;
!ia ia tba uxwo of the
UasUmtOaa) wkid
Ctiia
..0 Ooo. thB WTffhona cf

-
a

The cavalrymen charged

of ot: for I kKVS Icuncal.

ilk to ba eoauac
>< I ko ho*

Ja^^

11

roar Brti

-:;

.^"^ "3" *y*

*^

*{

^^

evct Ames.

vUiUe and tocrO'Ttrtbiaoea,

J ay pneci palifie^

'

tsabaaataaiua

tbrr that

ts&^

KB f Caot^

rnfeola UwS

?^etaala"

Epistle of Pil the Apotfc to tiw

to Idaiivik-

Turnpike.

CtUlTTXl

la aB l&c o>M :,^J^

diOjdiBi
Mb (bnk fras. aa 7
bnda
at ft

tlaa

dar

br tie will of God.

d UWid

S To tka iMta
biilliiM ill Cknat wbieh are

Slho Load ia
g>^
t
aad
cm tho^a ( God
1%
Fhar of aar Lacd JaaM

7Aajata> b?*S
hrw oar dear ljlto>JB2S
S5 a far j "

bridge on the Warrenton

fierce

melee followed, but in

the end the Virginians were driven off by a

Hm Mm ihosld aU fclocaa

battery of Regular

tnbitebted ofbiaccoML.
VM* fa iKoaols alt Ihom
JM Unaatf br hka. / >cr.
""T^irniini lliiaaai

Army

artillery.

^"
Sxnc.

raa. Ibat

j_

(h

4 Siora wi bid aC>yyatt

ion
ta CteiK JfOK. tirf

wen

aoaaeaaaatica in

^Beaaud aad
Vradad.W wiek<4

warta.

?s^
^ItifM acRM.

>

n> ibaatf

Ma

closed to within range of the

h Oa

bridge.

Kemper

ed

the

shot to an elderly civilian guest, the

tub
Cbhn Jxaa Iba Laad. aa
7 |Uotr4 aai bok
ia Wb.
"fttSwaTiSlaSTPaal aadauMikd
U iba fan^ aa
aad b^

wSVw

i^liia la

bj

same Cub Run

Hcab, jcc am 1 wila

f Iba
Jioru* aad l b a llirw
jarmt
yuar ORlr, aaa laa itHaaiaa
aeaa of juar
ia Cfarul.

iaril.
vml.

aratkreiahav:

a^o a >l^

Delaware Kemper's Virginia battery, which

4 Apt lUa I KT. laar aar

baafd bualbi yaa with aane-

iavwoada.
For tboack

y 'to avar from iba bopa

af^

The most damage was done by Captain

MnptalaaRH.

Who alaa deelmd

f tba toed

west

rnSHi

iSd

Mar tenia the

just

Slad. baviac uml a yeaoe

COLOSSIAXS.

rcte^

Cub Run

of the

f'

atrit^aiao
iac wWlch

tbit in ^1 ltoa,a ha
OBthBTa the pn^min^isoe.
fSm it pinard Ur f VlVr

The

wildly into the rear

guard of Erasmus Keyes's brigade

ftriobareD.aad
ia earth.

where urf i a Sita!Tl'S|M

SS:^ntT
SSnl^iwCnOxd both 'Jem. Thel.miJw4ia

officially called off the chase

shortly after 7 o'clock.

first

famed

n bara b<a t^. abaaaMi

jJ

offered the honor of firing

secessionist agitator

who had

fired

one of the

Edmund

first

Ruffin,

shots at Fort

Sumter. Ruffin jerked the lanyard and sent

149

Verdict on Henry House Hill

aimed

perfectly

The

bridge.

middle of the

shell to the

explosion overturned a wagon,

which blocked the span

just as

columns were converging on

it.

two Federal
Abandoning

arms, wagons and anything else that might

slow their

flight, the

Yankees waded across

the stream to continue their race for Centreville.

That was the

last stroke.

The battle was

through with rain

all

did the Confederate forces attempt a

with General Johnston that the troops, weary

and hungry, with

nition,

little

food and

were in no shape

to

less

ammu-

undertake forced

marches. In addition, a drenching rain

ed to

fall

start-

during the night and continued

into July 22, turning the roads into quag-

the

all

men

with

murk and sweat and

rain,

back, pouring over the

Long

this coating of

Bridge

agreed

all

up everywhere on the dry roads

and trodden fields by the regiments, swarm-

who had reached

the battlefield from Rich-

their clothes

stirr'd

now recoiUng

in time to witness the rout,

saturated with the clay-powder filling the

air

pursuit the following day. President Davis,

mond

ing wagons, artillery, etc.

done, the day a Southern triumph.

Nor

down staccato, impressionistic notes:

"The defeated troops commenced pouring into Washington over the Long Bridge at
daylight on Monday, 2irid
day drizzling
jotted

march of 20

a horrible

miles, re-

turning to Washington baffled, humihated,

panic-struck.

Where

are the vaunts,

and the

proud boasts with which you went forth?

Where are your banners, and your bands
of music, and your ropes to bring back
your prisoners?

"The sun

rises,

men

but shines not. The

sparsely and shame-faced

mires. Davis contented himself with sending

appear,

an exultant telegram to his capital, where

enough, then thicker, in the

everyone went wild with jubilation over the

ington

news of victory.

and on the steps and basement entrances.

They come along in disorderly mobs, some

On

the Federal side, General

managed

to

McDowell

re-form enough of his army to

erect a defensive line

anchored on his reit was obvious to

at first

appear

streets of Wash-

Pennsylvania Avenue,

in

in squads, stragglers,

companies. During the

forenoon, Washington gets

all

over motley

queer-looking

serves at Centreville, but

with these defeated soldiers

him and his officers that they could not remain there. Half the army was still streaming
in panic toward Washington and would not
stop before crossing the Potomac. McDowell

objects, strange eyes

Good people

(but not over-many of

had no choice but

ther) hurry

up something

to follow,

the remainder of his

and on July 22

command marched

glumly back to Alexandria. The battle had

cost the

army

good reason

him

his

its spirit,

and McDowell had

to think that

it

would soon

cost

command.

and faces, drench'd

steady rain drizzles on

all

worn, hungry, haggard, blister'd in the

They put wash-kettles on

for coffee.

walks

They

feet.

them

ei-

for their grub.

the

fire, for

soup,

set tables

on the

side-

wagonloads of bread

are purchas'd,

swiftly cut into stout chunks.

aged

(the

day) and fearfully

ladies, beautiful,

Here are two

they stand with

store of eating and drink at an improvis'd

The Yankees' return

doleful,

Washington was
almost funereal. Walt Whitman,
to

then a reporter for the Brooklyn Standard,

150

table of rough plank,

and give food, and have

the store replenish'd from their house every

half-hour

all

that day;

and there

in the rain

swampy

area of the Bull Run battlefield

Union troops killed there in
July 1861. This photograph was taken eight months

Planks

in a

mark

the graves of

later, after the

the Bull

Run

line.

Confederates had abandoned

When Union

troops marched

in

unopposed, they found that most of their dead

comrades had been hastily piled into mass graves.

151

Verdict on Henry House Hill

they stand, active, silent, white-hair'd, and

give food, though the tears stream

down

without intermission,

their cheeks almost

the whole time.

"Amid

AWV
a staff officer,

motion, and desperate eagerness,

it

seems

strange to see many, very many, of the

in the midst of

all

sol-

sleeping

down anywhere, on the

up close by the basements or
on the sidewalk, aside on some va-

Amid
officers,

and

all

fences,

made amends

A poor

17- or 18-

year-old boy lies there, on the stoop of a

grand house; he sleeps so calmly, so profoundly.

Some

clutch their muskets firmly

Some

even in sleep.

in squads;

brothers, close together

comrades,

and on them,

as

Bartow and other

grief over the loss of Bee,

bles

sleep.

too soon internecine squab-

began to tarnish some of the hving heBeauregard,

and weak
under

who

some extent had

to

for his confused attack plans

tactical leadership

fire,

by

his courage

was cocky now, and he began

to

had been

a surprisingly vicious battle,

considering that for

but a few

all

it

was the

bitter enemies. Johnston,

who

that he

felt

had not received proper recognition

for his

come to
them both. Though he had incautiously made himself partner to Beauregard's
poor planning and shaky command deci-

awkward first fight of their lives. To be

sure, many had panicked and run at the first
shots. But many more had stood and fought

realizing that the left flank

hard and contributed to casualties that were

reinforcements as they arrived on the bat-

The Confederates suffered

1,582 wounded and 13 missing,

shockingly high.

387 killed,

and unreported

injuries

probably swelled the

total casualties to 2,000.

those

Fully one fourth of

came from Jackson's brigade. Though

had been slow getting into the

the Virginians
fight, they
battle.

But

then stayed

defense, Beauregard's
ly

at the

vortex of the

for Jackson's skillful, tenacious

army would very hke-

have been the one that fled the scene.

It

was Jackson, Bee, Bartow and Evans

who had made

the difference.

And while the

reverent Jackson attributed the victory to the

Almighty, Nathan Evans placed the respon-

home. There was "no

use for other generals to brag about what
sibility a bit closer to

152

j.yo7/).
i'ulllishid by A

SUCKMta

t esc

M Cin;i S'

sions,

Johnston too had redeemed himself by

by displaying strong
tlefield.

mance

staff

in

danger and

in deploying

Despite the disappointing perfor-

commanders, and

of the two top

despite the losses

among

nates, the Confederate

battle with a
at the

was

work

their chief subordi-

Army came out of the

sohd nucleus of capable leaders

brigade and regiment level.

"It's damned bad" was Lincoln's comment when he heard the first news of the
beating that McDowell had suffered. It was
worse when Lincoln and his military leaders

counted

tiieir losses.

At

least

470 were dead,

more were wounded and 1,793 the

equivalent of nearly two regiments were
missing and presumed captured or killed,
raising the total to more than 3,000.
No one in the Army appeared to blame
1,071

General Beauregard, who was

lionized throughout the South as

despise
It

.*''l'^A5i-

bedevil President Davis over rank and pro-

motion; within weeks the two had become

contribution to the victory, would

they lay, sulkily drips the rain."

ggAURBeARi)

the Confederate euphoria there was

roes.

and deeply

had "inau-

the fight before any reinforcements came."

steps of houses,

lot,

said that he

through, and he and Bee whipped

it

sound. They drop

cant

Evans

gurated that fight, and he and General Bee

fought

the deep excitement, crowds and

diers sleeping

they did in the battle," he said. According to

the hero of both Fort

Battle of Bull

Sumter and the

Run ("Manassas"

to

Southerners), adorns the sheet music

of a song composed in his honor. The
title was a triple pun: "Quick-step"
was a dance, a faster-than-normal
army march, and a sly reference to
the unseemly speed with which
the Union troops fled the battlefield.

Battle Art and Fictitious Victories

And

such

The furious scene below, purportedly depict-

portraying battles.

ing an incident in the Bull Run battle, appeared shordy afterward, marking the start
of a genre of Civil War battle art. A torrent of
such works flowed from the sketch pads of

shown here, published by the firm

were sorely
of Currier and Ives in 1861
lacking in both artistic and report orial merit.

who

followed the armies; their illustrations for newspapers and

magazines gave the public pictures that could
not be provided by the camera, which was
still in its infancy and unable to capture action. Some pictures were superb as reportage
and as art for example, the works of Alfred
artist-correspondents

Waud and Winslow Homer.

Others were

second-rate as art but thoroughly accurate in

still

the print

others

as

This picture represents according to its

title
"The Gallant Charge of the Zouaves
and Defeat of the Rebel Black Horse Cavalry." The 11 th New York Fire Zouaves did in
fact clash with Confederate horsemen at Bull
Run, but they neither charged nor defeated
them; instead the New Yorkers were demorahzed. And the Zouaves' enemy was Jeb Stuart's 1st Virginia Cavalry, not the Black
Horse Troop of the 4th Virginia.

Distortions like this were sometimes ordered by editors or publishers; they told the
engravers to doctor the artists' sketches to
satisfy the public

demand

for heroes, victo-

and grand-scale battles. But the artists

themselves were often at fault. Some illustrated mistaken or boastful soldiers' tales.
Others simply used their imaginations. And
ries

the

anonymous limner of

tious victory

the Zouaves'

ficti-

may well have illustrated a wild-

ly inaccurate report in

The New York Times of

July 24, 1861. "The Zouaves," proclaimed

the Times, "literally decimated the Black

Horse Cavalry" in "hand-to-hand

Locked in misrepresented combat. Zouaves in trousers of the wrong color (red instead of blue) bayonet Rebels in coats

ut the

conflict."

wrong style (Union cavalry).

153

Verdict on Henry House Hill

154

Union soldiers captured at Bull Run

mark time in the courtyard of Castle
Pinckney in Charleston Harbor while
their youthful guards sprawl on the

McDowell

personally for the defeat. Years

even the

later

Sherman, by then the

critical

regiments, had been dispatched

United States Army's commanding general,

would credit McDowell with "one of the
best-planned battles of the War." The Fed-

proving
themselves too troublesome to

eral forces lost, said

parapet above.

The

prisoners, 156

members of New York and Michigan

to the island fortress after

be held in a

Richmond

prison.

Sherman, because

"one of the worst-fought." In

also

was

it

fact, the

much more sound

Federal plan had been

than Beauregard's clumsy strategy. But the

Union army, with

atrociously led.

rare exceptions,

had been

A disillusioned New Hamp-

theless. Scott called

east

and put him

Other lessons were learned from the Battle

Run (so called by Northerners, who

usually named battles after the nearest geoof Bull

graphical feature; Southerners called

Battle of Manassas

and would

Bull

Run, many

men

Among
many Northerners no
doubt including some who had exhorted
Lincoln to hurry into battle now blamed
civilians,

the President for forcing

before his

army was

McDowell

ready.

to fight

Congression-

on both

soldiers

much

giddy volunteer from

a failure."

persist in

the

nam-

sides

had

written and spoken romantic twaddle about

mihtary service, in

ment

it

ing battles after the nearest town). Before

"Every order was

blunder and every move-

of the Union

armies around Washington.

shire soldier put the bitter truth succinctly:

a

George B. McClellan

command

in

except

can do

the

New

same vein

picnics, with ladies in

straw hats and flowers

is

so picturesque as

Run,

soldiering." After Bull

who
had a dim

a soldier

fought there grimly confessed: "I

notion about the 'romance' of a soldier's

I

as a

York: "Nothing

have bravely got over

life.

since."

it

McDowell of
He and many other

many people on both

sides expected the War to be a short one, and

Union officers would retain enough credit to mismanage other battles. But there would be better things to
come from Union officers who had not discredited themselves, or whose conduct during the battle had shone brightly in the
gloom of defeat. These officers men such

cynics even said that the powerful Northern

al

investigation later cleared

blame

for the disaster.

culpable, incapable

as Griffin, Ricketts,

Richardson and Sher-

would benefit no

man

httle

from the hard

lessons they had learned along Bull Run.

One
tion

lesson

and one course of remedial

were immediately clear

to Lincoln, his

army must be pieced

to-

gether again fast, and by a general other than

McDowell.

On

July 25, just four days after

the battle, Scott looked off to the

general

who had given

the

Union

West

bankers and big Southern planters would not

permit fighting to interrupt their normal

business for long. But the confusion of the
battle suggested that

some time

to a

victories

not great ones, to be sure, but victories none-

both sides would take

to turn their

amateur armies into

efficient fighting forces,

were

killed at Bull

Run

and the men who

sealed in blood the

commitment of both sides to fight the War

through to an uncompromised decision.

ac-

Cabinet and General Winfield Scott: The

shattered Federal

Before Bull Run,

lust to

avenge Bull

Run

soon inspirited

the depressed Federal troops in their

Yankee
these scoundrels and

around Washington. Said

"We

shall flog

camps

soldier:
traitors

more bitterly for it before we are done

with them." Now a new determination to
win moved Federals and Confederates to
write home the same pledge: "I shall see the
all

the

thing played out or die in the attempt."

155

Seeing the

The
at

soldiers

Bull

shocked

Elephant"

who fought their first battle

Run on

July 21, 1861, were

like soldiers in every

to discover the savagery of

war

combat.

To

express their reaction to the experience,

they adopted a phrase from farm boys

who,

after attending a traveling circus,

spoke with awe of "seeing the elephant.

Some

of their feelings are captured on

these pages in their

words and

renderings of critical

daylong

in artists'

moments

in the

Southerner compared the duel of enemy

guns to "two mailed giants hammering
each other with huge battle axes."
In this

first

great clash of the

War,

who were as inexperienced as

their men found it next to impossible to

officers

battle.

To McHenry Howard of the

land Infantry, the baptism of fire at

Bull Run came "as if in a dream, the
whole thing was so sudden, unexpected
and novel." A private in the 8th Georgia wrote, "The whole air sounded as
though a large aeolian harp was hung
over, around and about us." Another

1st

Mary-

)^

Colonel Ambrose Burnside's brigade joins battle with Colonel Nathan Evans' Confederates on Matthews Hill at 9:45 a.m. on July 21.

156

The regiments advancing

in

the field as they delivered their fire.

with their eyes and mouths wide open,

and did not seem to hear me."
Troops on both sides were victimized
by their lack of physical and mental
preparation. Dozens of men, wearing
heavy woolen uniforms, burdened with
gear and short on water, collapsed of

They went

sunstroke in the

maintain discipline. Inexplicably, an entire

Confederate regiment broke ranks in

midcharge and went off to pick blackberries. Captain Charles Griffin of the
5th U.S. Artillery reported that "a great

many of our regiments turned

right off as a

walking the street

right off

crowd would

every man

himself, with no organization whatever."

Another Union officer, who had repeatedly shouted orders to his men, said that
"they seemed to be paralyzed, standing
for

midsummer heat. Even

humane instincts worked
them: Scores of men left their

the soldiers'
against

units in the lurch to help casualties.

"moved the hearts of men who had not

by long experience become callous to the
sight of human agony."
In the final reckoning, there was not
much difference between the Confederates and the Federals in fighting prowess. In such balanced circumstances,
resolution alone was bound to count
heavily, and the Confederates at Bull
Run were unshakably resolved. Said one
Rebel: "The truth is, we were so unused

"The sufferings of the wounded," wrote

to a fight

an officer of the 11th Massachusetts,

that

and determined on victory,

we never dreamed

of retiring."

J#

m,^

^-^.

*rtvns

%*^

*-^^i
^5^

.^jer-

past the

Matthews house

(left)

are the 2nd

Rhode

Island, the 1st

Rhode

Island and the 71st

New

York.

157

"There stands Jackson

BRIGADIER GENERAL BARNARD

like

E.

a stone wall!

Rally behind the Virginians!

BEE, C.S.A.

d"

Apparently winning the day. Union forces at 2 p.m. drive the shattered brigades of Bee, Bartow and Evans across the Warrenton Turnpike, past the Robinson house and |

i|

158

ip

Henry House

Hill.

But success eluded the Federals as the Confederates, urged on by General Bee, made a last stand behind Thomas J. Jackson's Virginians (inset).

159

T
"/ leaned down from

the saddle,

of my man and pulled the

but he

was

160

11th

New York

the stomach

He tried to get his bayonet up to meet me;

too slow, for the carbine

ADJUTANT WILLIAM W. BLACKFORD,

The

rammed the muzzle of the carbine into

trigger.

blew a hole as big as

my arm clear through him."

1ST VIRGINIA CAVALRY

Fire Zouaves, protecting Griffin's and Ricketts' batteries

on Henry House

Hill,

stand their ground against a charge by a squadron of

<

Icb Stuart's Ist Virginia Cavalry. Although the Fire Zouaves managed to repulse the attack, they were

left

shaken and demoralized.

161

*/

saw some

troops in front

of us.

Down came their rifles and muskets, and probably

a destructive fire for a few minutes. The Marines and Zouaves

be struck with such astonishment that they could not do anything.*'

there never zvas such

seemed

to

FIRST 1 lEin i-NANT WILLIAM W. AVERELL, 3RD

At the turning point of the BuU Run

U.S.

CAVALRY

battle, soldiers of the

33rd Virginia Infantry charge the Federal artiUery on Henry House

Hill.

Because the Virginians

(visible

|j

162

}ugh the smoke at right) wore blue uniforms, Captain Charles Griffin of the Federal

artillery

was mistakenly instructed

to hold his fire,

and disaster followed.

163

''The enemy's i^attery on the

lefty

and the one on

of musket balls from the front, made

.

it

rather

the right, with the showers

warm work for new men.**

COLONEL OLIVER O.HOWARD, 3RD MAINE INFANTRY

:*.

^^\

4* %-.

l^

Vermonters and Mainers of Howard's brigade charge shoulder to shoulder up Henry House

164

Hill in this painting

by Captain James Hope of the 2nd Vermont. Their

f
<

4
(

'

'

'

^^-^

<.-^

*L.

-:

^^^^H^^^^^^^^^Hjllfl

^MH|^|^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HhM^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^|

^^^^^^^^K-

^^HiK

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1

-"'*''

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1

^Hftk^
^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^p

i^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^i
"^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1

-<I^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I

^^^^^^^^^^^^f"'

^^^^^^^^^F>.

.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1

^^^^K^

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

^^^^^B,.
^^^^^^^^^h,_
^^^^^^^^^Bbs^^^^^,

^9Ri^?^S5?^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

--->'" ^

'^

'-"yc^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l

vv''>!^^|^^^^^^^^^^^^H

'.

.^

/,'r-^fl'lW.r-'

i/

^,

^^t^finvm-^^K

(,.'i'/
:'

Ml
0-

assault

was the

last

of several Union efforts to recapture guns lost hours before. General E. Kirby Smith's Confederates soon flanked and routed the

New Englanders.
165

''Bidding those of my staff and escort raise a loud cheer, I dispatched orders to go forward
in a common charge. Before the full advance of the Confederate ranks the enemy's

whole

line irretrievably broke, fleeing across

Bull Run by every available direction."

GENERAL P.G.T. BEAUREGARD, C.S.A.

Mounting a climactic counterattack, General Beauregard urges

166

his

men forward

to victory against crumbling Federal resistance.

The Confederate

drive, executed

between 4 and

5 p.m.,

was made possible by the

arrival of

General Joseph E. Johnston's fresh troops from the Shenandoah Valley.

167

Retreating in panic, disorganized

Union troops crowd the roads leading east from

Bull

Run to CentreviUe and Washington, D.C.

In this watercolor by William Trego,

168

^Cavalry horses without riders, wrecked baggage wagons and pieces of

artillery drawn by six horses without drivers, flying at their utmost speed and
whacking against other vehicles, produced a noise like a hurricane at sea."
COLONEL ERASMUS D KEYES, ITH U.S. INFANTRY
1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The

editors thank the following individuals

for their help in the preparation of the Civil

Alabama: Birmingham

Jay

and

War

institutions
series:

Birmingham Museum of Art.

The First National Bank of Mobile; CaJdwell Delaney, The Museum of the City of Mobile;
R. Erwin Neville. Montgomery Alabama Department of
Mobile

P. Altmayer;

Archives and History; First White House of the Confederacy.

Northport Mrs. Ellis F. Cannon. Tuscaloosa William

Stanley Hoole Special Collections, University of Alabama Library; Jack Warner.
Arizona: Mesa Jeffrey N. Brown.
Arkansas: Jonesboro Arkansas State University Museum. Little Rock Robert Serio, The Old State House.
Carey Bliss, Alan Jetsie, Brita
California: San Marino
Mack, H9rriet McLoone, Virginia Reuner, Huntingdon LiChris Brun, University of Cahfornia,
brary. Santa Barbara

Special Collections.

Bridgeport Public Library.

Tom Lopiano Hartford Connecticut State Library. New Haven Yale University Library. New Milford Norm Flayderman. Westport William Gladstone,
Ed VebeU.
Delaware: Wilmington Historical Society of Delaware.
Florida: Bradenton South Florida Museum. Pensaco John C. Pace Library, University of West Florida; PensaMuseum; T. T. Wentwonh
Museum; West
Florida Museum of History. Tallahassee Florida
ArConnecticut: Bridgeport

field

Fair-

Jr.

la

cola Historical

Jr.

State

chives; Florida State

Museum

Photo Archives; Florida State University

W. E. Groves; Patricia McWhorter,

Kenneth T. Urquhart, The Historic New Oriels Collection;
Mary B. Oalmann, Colonel Francis E. Thomas, Jackson Barracks; George E. Jordan; Vaughn Glasgow, Louisiana State
Museum; Wilbur E. Meneray, Tulane University Library.
Maine: Augusta Sylvia Sherman, Maine State Archives;
Hall; Charles Dufour;

Jane Radcliffe, Maine State Museum. Brunswick The

Hawthorne Longfellow Library; Ehzabeth Copeland, Pejepscot Historical Society. Portland
Ehzabeth Hamill, Maine

Historical Society.

Maryland: Annapohs Sigrid H. Trumpy, Alexandra H.

Welsh, The Beverley R. Robinson Collection, The United
States Naval Academy Museum; James W. Cheevers, The
United States Naval Academy Museum. Baltimore Donna
Ellis, Paula Velthuys, Maryland Historical Society. Bethes-

Lucy Keister, National Library of Medicine. Cumberland Allegany Historical Society,

Massachusetts: Boston Boston PubUc Library, Print Deda

Inc.

partment and Rare Book Room; Commonwealth of Massachusetts, State Library; Francis A. Countway Library, Harvard Medical School; Craig W. C. Brown, First Corps of
Cadets Military Museum; Massachusetts State House; Cynthia English, Sally Pearce, Library of the Boston Athenaeum;
Massachusetts Historical Society; Museum of Fine Arts;
Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities;
James Stametlos. Cambridge Houghton Library, Harvard
University; The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library,
Lewis Joslyn. Marblehead
Radcliffe College. Ipswich

of Georgia Libraries, Special Collections; Charles East, University of Georgia Press. Atlanta

Museum.

of Florida History.

Georgia: Athens

ciety;

Robert M.

Willingham

Jr.,

University

Atlanta Historical

So-

Tom Dickey; Beverly M. DuBose Jr. Wilham Erquitt;

;

Department of Archives and History;

Robert W. Woodruff Library, Special Collections, Emory
University. Augusta
Augusta-Richmond County Museum.

Gail Miller, Georgia

The Confederate Museum, Alexander H.

Stephens Memorial. Richmond Hill Fort McAllister.
Simons Island Museum of Coastal History. Savannah
Anthony R. Dees, Georgia Historical Society; United Daughof the Confederac Collection. Washington Washington-Wilkes Historical Museum.
Chicago Joseph B. Zywicki, Chicago Historical
Society. Springfield Camp Lincoln; Rodger D. Bridges,
HistoriJames Hickey, Mariana James Munyer,
Library, Old State Capitol. Wheaton Du Page County
Historical Museum.
Indiana: Bloomington The Lily Library, Indiana UniFort Wayne Mark E. Neely
Louis A. Warren
Lincoln Library and Museum. Indianapohs The Children's
Crawfordsville

St.

ters

Illinois:

Illinois State

cal

versity.

Jr.,

Museum; Indiana Historical Society; Indiana

Indiana War Memorials Commission.

State Library;

Museum.
Louisiana: Baton

Rouge

H. Parrott Bacot, Anglo-Ameri-

Museum, Louisiana

can Art

State University;

Beth Benton;

Fred G. Benton Jr.; Dr. Edward Boagni; Shelby Gilley;

M. Stone Miller, Main Library, Louisiana State University; Bill Moore. Natchitoches
Dr. John Price, Dr. Carol

Wells, Louisiana Archives, Northwestern University.

New

Barnard Eble, Pat Eymard, Confederate Memorial

Orleans

Springfield

Springfield Armory National Histor-

Higgins Armory; Worcester Art MuseMichigan: Ann Arbor Mary Jo Pugh, Bentley Historical
Library; John Dann, The William L. Clements Library,
The University of Michigan. Detroit Thomas Featheric Site.

Worcester

um; Worcester

Historical Society.

stone, Archives of

Labor and Urban

Affairs, Walter P.

Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Ahce Cook Dalligan, Noel VanGorden, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit
Public Library; Anita D. McCandless, Detroit Historical
Museum; William P. Phenix, Historic Fort Wayne. East
Lansing Frederick L. Honhart, University Archives, Historical Collections, Michigan State University; William J.
James Brady Jr., Paul DeHaan; Patricia
Prince. Kalamazoo

Gordon Michael, Mary Lou Stewart, Kalamazoo Pubhc Museum. Lansing Ruby Rogers, Michigan Historical Museum, Michigan Department of State; John C. Curry State
Archives, Michigan Department of State; Karl Rommel.

Minnesota:

St.

Minnesota Historical Society.

Wright. Jackson Department

Paul

Mississippi: Clinton

Bill

of Archives and History; Patricia Carr Black, State Historical

Iowa: Des Moines Iowa State Historical Society, MuseArchives Division.

Kansas: Topeka Kansas Stale Historical Society.
Kentucky: Frankfort Linda Anderson, Kentucky Historical Society; Nicky Hughes, Kentucky Military History

um and

The Historic Natchez Foundation; Wil Gordon A. Cotton, Old Courthouse Museum; Vicksburg National Mihtary Park.
Missouri: Columbia State of Missouri Historical Society;
University of Missouri.
Western Manuscript
ferson City Missouri Department of Natural Resources;
Louis Missouri Historical
Missouri State Musetm.
Society.
New Hampshire: Concord Mary Rose Boswell, New
Hampshire Historical Society.
New Jersey: Merchantville C. Paul Loane. Newark
Alan Frazer, The New Jersey Historical Society. PittsForgett. Woodbury
town John Kuhl. Ridgefield Val
Museum. Natchez

liam Stewart. Vicksburg

Jef-

Collectioifi,

St.

J.

New York

State of

Division of Military and Naval Affairs;

Joseph Meany, Robert Mulligan, New York State Museum.

Fishers
J. Sheldon Fisher, Valentown Museum. Hudson

Museum of Firefighting; D.A.R. Museum. New

York The New-York Historical Society; Colonel Benjamin P. Fowler, USAF (Retired), Lieutenant William H.
American

County Historical Society. West Point Marie Capps,

Schmidt, Veterans of the 7th New York. Peekskill MemoriMuseum of the Field Library. Rochester Janice Wass,
Rochester Museum and Science Center. Troy The Rensseal

Marblehead Historical Society. Newburyport Historical

Society of Old Newbury. Northampton
The Sophia Smith
Collection, Smith College. Salem
Essex Institute; Peabody

Library;

Edith Hoelle, Gloucester County Historical Society.

New York: Albany Gene Deaton, The Military Museum,

laer

U.S. Military
Point

Academy Library; Michael

Museum.

North Carolina: Chapel Hill

Richard

Historical Collection, University of

E.

Moss, West

Shrader, Southern

North Carolina Library.

Robert Byrd, Wilham Erwin, Ellen

Dr.
Duke University.
Raleigh Dick Lankford, Division of Archives and Records;
Keith Strawn, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. Wilmington Susan A. Krause,
Reaves, Janet
Seapker, New Hanover County Museum.
Ohio: Cincinnati Cincinnati Historical Society; First
National Bank. Cleveland James B. Casey, Western Reserve Historical Society. Columbus Ohio Historical
Coolville Larry M. Strayer. Fremont Rutherford
B. Hayes Presidential Center. Hudson T. Price Gibson;
Thomas L. Vince, Hudson Library and Historical
Massillon Margy Vogt, Massillon Museum. Mechanicsburg Champaign County Historical
Pennsylvania: AUentown Lehigh County Historical
Carlisle Randy Hackenburg, Dr. Richard Sommers,
Winey, Military History
Gettysburg
Michael
D. Mark Katz. Gladwyne Terry O'Leary. Harrisburg
Bruce Bazelon, William Penn Memorial Museum. Kittanning Ronn Palm. Milford Pike County Historical SociNorth East Irwin Rider. Philadelphia Sandra Gross,
Durham

Gartell,

Mattie Russell, William Perkins Library,

Bill

Soci-

ety.

Society.

Society.

Soci-

ety.

Institute.

S.

ety.

Atwater Kent Museum; Free Library of Philadelphia; The

Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Manuel Kean, Kean Archives; The Library Company of Philadelphia; Craig Nannos,
First Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard Armory and
Museum; Philadelphia Maritime Museum; Russ A. Pritchard; The War Library and Museum of the Military Order of
Harry
the Loyal Legion of the United States. Whitehall
Roach, Military Images Magazine.
Rhode Island: Newport Colonel James V. Coleman,
Newport Artillery Company Armory. Providence Richard
B. Harrington, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection; Jennifer B. Lee, John Hay Library, Brown University; Brigadier
General John W. Kiely, Office of the Adjutant General; Providence Pubhc Library; Joyce M. Botelho, Tom G. Brennan,
The Rhode Island Historical Society Library and Museum.
South Carolina: Beaufort June Berry, Beaufort Museum;
Charleston Museum; Archives,
Joel Martin. Charleston
The Citadel; Confederate Museum; Warren Ripley, The
Evening Post; Martha Severns, Gibbes Art Gallery; Harlan
Greene, South Carolina Historical Society; Julian V. Brandt
Fort Jackson
III, Washington Light Infantry. Columbia
Museum; Dr. Francis Lord; Laverne Watson, South Carolina
Confederate Relic Room and Museum; Charles Gay, Alan
Stokes, South Carohniana Library, University of South Carohna; University of South Carohna McKissick Museums. Spartanburg Robert M. Hicklin Jr. Sullivan's Island David
Ruth, Forts Moultrie and Sumter. Union Dr. Lloyd Suth-

erland;

Union County Museum.

170

Chattanooga Museum of Re Fort Donelson National Military

Park. Franklin Carter House. Greeneville Andrew JohnHarrogate Edgar G. Archer, Abraham
son Historic
Tennessee: Chattanooga

Dover

gional Historv'.

Site.

Lincoln Library and Museum, Lincoln Memorial UniverKnoxvilleConfederate Memorial Hall "Bleak House."
Memphis Eleanor McKay, Mississippi Valley Collection of
Memphis State University; Nashville Belmont Mansion;
Fisk University Library Special Collections; Sarah and C.
William Green-Devon Farm; Nashville Room, Public Library
of Nashville and Davidson County; Herb Peck Jr.; Tennessee
Historical Society; Tennessee State Library and Archives;
sity.

Tennessee State Museum.

Eugene Barker Library, University of
Texas: Austin
Texas; Confederate Museum; Texas State Archives.
Ruth Lenin, Bennington Museum.
Vermont: Bennington
Montpeher Mary Pat Johnson, Vermont Historical Society;
PhiLp Elwart, Vermont Museum.
Virgxma: Alexandria Wanda Dowell, Fort Ward Park;
Boyhood Home of Robert E. Lee; Lee-Fendall House; Lloyd
House. Arlington Agnes Mullix, Arlington House, The

Robert E. Lee Memorial. Fort Belvoir John M. Dervan,

U.S. Army Engineer Museum. Fort Monroe R. Cody Philhps, The Casemate Museum, Department of the Army. Fredericksburg Robert Krick, Fredericksburg Spotsylvania
National Mihtary Park. Lexington
Robert C. Peniston, Lee
Chapel Museum, Washington and Lee University; Barbara
Crawford, Stonewall Jackson House; Virginia Military Institute Library; June F. Cunningham, Virginia Military Institute Museum; Washington and Lee University Library.
Manassas James Burgess, Manassas National Battlefield
Park. Marion
Marion-Smyth County Historical and Museum Society, Inc. New Market James G. Geary, New Mar-

Lois Oglesby, CharValentine, The Mariners Museum; John V. Quarstein,

The War Memorial Museum of Virginia. Petersburg Christopher M. Calkins, Petersburg National Battlefield Park.
Ponsmouth Alice C. Hanes, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Museum. Quantico Marine Corps Historical Center. Richmond Dr. Edward Campbell
Cathy Carlson, The Muket Battlefield Park.

Newport News

lotte

Library. Williamsburg

Library,

The

Margaret

Swem

Cook, Earl Gregg

College of William and Mary.

Washington, D.C.: Ohver Jenson, Jerry L.

Keams, Bernard
and Photographs Division; Washingtoniana Division, Martin Luther King Library;
James H. Trimble, Audio-Visual Archives, Still Pictures
Branch, National Archives and Record Service; National Portrait Gallery; Smithsonian Institution; Anne-Imelda Radice,
F. Riley, Library of Congress, Prints

Curator for the Architect of the U.S. Capitol.

West Virginia: Harpers Ferry Dennis E. Frye, Harpers
Ferry National Historical Park; Fonda Thomsen, National
Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center; Morgantown Ginger
Bevard, West Virginia and Regional History Collection, West

Weston Jackson's Mill Museum.

Madison Dr. Richard Zeitlin, G.A.R. Memo-

Virginia University.
Wisconsin:

rial Hall Museum; State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

Milwaukee Howard Madaus, Milwaukee Pubhc Museum;

Gary

S. Pagel.

Jr.,

seum of the Confederacy; Sarah

Museum;

Shields, Valentine

Rebecca Perrine, Virginia Historical Society; Virginia State

The index for this book was prepared by Nicholas

Anthony.

J.

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PICTURE CREDITS
Credits from

left to

nght are sepurdteJ by semicolons, from top

to

bottom by dashes.

no. lll-B-4676. 62:

The

.Meserve Collection of .Mathew Brady

115:

D.C. 63: Chicago Historical Society, neg. no.

1980.227. 64: Virginia State Library
National .Archives,
neg. no. 165-SB-l. 65: Chicago Historical Society, neg. no.
1920.1038. 66, 67: Library of Congress; the Huntington Library, San .Marino. California. 68. 69: The .Meserve Collection
of .Mathew Brady negatives. National Portrait Gallery, Smith-

chives, neg. no. lll-B-4448. 119. 120: .Militar\ Hisiorv In-

>X'ashington,

Cover:

From

Battles of the Civil

Allison pnnis. published by

War. the complete Kurz

Oxmoor House. Alabama.

&

2. 3:

by Peter .McGinn. 8, 9: New York State Historical AssoCooperstown. 12. 13: Burton Historical Collection of
the Detroit Public Libran.-. 14. 15: Library of Congress. 16:
from
Indianapolis .Museum of Art, James E. Roberts Fund

Map

ciation.

Birmingham .Museum of Art. gift of John

E. .Meyer, photographed by George Flemrmng. 17: The Peabody .Museum of Salem, neg. no. 22.010. 18. 19: Library of
Congress. 20, 21: The VC'estern Reserve Historical Society. 22,
23: Courtesy Seventh Regiment Fund, Inc.. photographed by
Al Freni. 24, 25: Pennsylvania Historical and .Art Commission
the .Meserve Collection ot .Mathew Brady negatives.
the collection of the

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Historical Society of Berks County. Reading.
Pennsylvania, copied by Robert Walch. 26. 27: Courtesy of
National Portrait Gallerv

The New-York

Historical Society

courtesy Gil Barrett.

28:

Courtesy Seventh Regiment Fund, Inc., photographed by

Freni. 30: The ^Xestern Reserve Historical Society. 32. 33:
Courtesy of The

mont

New-York

Historical Society. 34, 35: Ver-

Historical Society. 36, 37: Courtesy of the Cincinnati

Historical Society. 38, 39: Burton Historical Collection of the

Detroit Public Library. 40, 41: Courtesy of the

Rhode

Island

RHI-X3-1692. 42. 43: Library of

Congress. 45: Boston Public Library, Print Department. 47:
Courtesy Jay P. .Altmayer, photographed by Larry Cantrell:
Historical Society, neg. no.

Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks. Pennsylvania,

copied by Robert Walch. 49: .Military History Institute. Car-

Barracks, Pennsylvania, copied by Robert Vi'alch. 51:

United States .Militar>' .Academy Library, Vi'est Point, New
Freni
York, copied by
from Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics, published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1863.
52, 53: Drawings by William J. Hennessy. Jr. adapted from
Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics, published by J. B. Lippincott
& Co., Philadelphia, 1863. Photographs by Fil Hunter, courtesy .Marme Corps Museum. 54: The VC'estern Reserve Historical Society. 55: Courtesy ^Xllllam Gladstone. 58: Courtesy
Herb Peck Jr. 59: Courtesy Seventh Regiment Fund, Inc..
photographed by Al Freni. 60, 61: National .Archives, neg.
lisle

University of South Carolina. 112: Library of Congress. 114.

negatives. National Portrait Gallery. Smithsonian Institution,

soman
Naval

Institution. \X'ashington,

D.MN.A

.Affairs

State of

D.C;

Division of .Military

New York,

&

photographed by

Henry Groskinsky Chicago Historical Society ,2

courtesy Prmce Gibson & Associates. Inc., Hudson, Ohio ,2\ the
Harry T. Peters Collection. .Museum of the City of New York.
70, 71: National Rifle .Association, photographed by Leon
Dishman Fort VC'ard .Museum. City of .Alexandria. \'irginia. photographed by Henry Be\ille
courtesy Harris .Andrews, photographed by Fil Hunter
Fort ^'ard .Museum,
City of .Ale.xandria. N'lrginia, photographed by Henry Beville.
72, 73: Fort ^Xard .Museum, City of .Alexandria, \'irginia,
photographed by Henry Beville. 74, 75: National Rifle .Association, photographed by Leon Dishman. 77: Cairo Public Library, Cairo, Illinois. 78: Casemate .Museum, Fort .Monroe,

Virginia, photographed by

John Neubauer.

79: National .Ar-

chives, neg. no. lll-B-4533. 81: Collection of .Michael

J.

.McAfee, courtesy Brian Pohanka. 82: Department of Archives and Manuscripts, Louisiana State University Library,
Baton Rouge. 83: Confederate Imprints Collection, Universi-

Georgia Library. 84. 85: Courtesy of The New-York

Kent .Museum. 88: National
Archives, neg. no. lll-B-4385. 89: Vi'est N'lrginia Department of Culture and History. 90: Courtesy of The New-York
Historical Society. 91: Library of Congress. 92: Vi'est N'irginia
and Regional History Collection. ^Xest N'irginia University
Library. 94, 95: Library of Congress. 96. 97; The Vi'estern
Reserve Historical Society. 98: From the Collection of Kean
E. ^Xllcox. 99: The .Museum of the Confederacv. 100: Courtesy C.D.^X'. Nelson. 101: Courtesy Jeffrey Brown. 102: Courtesy L. .\i. Strayer. 103: The .Museum of the Confederacy.
104: \'alentine .Museum. 105: Courtesy Herb Peck Jr. 106:
Courtesy Jeffery Brown. 107: Courtesy Herb Peck Jr. 108:
ty of

Historical Society. 86: .Atwater

Courtesy of the Boston .Athenaeum. 116: National

stitute, Carlisle
VC'alch.

.Ar-

Barracks. Pennsylvania, copied by Robert

photographed bv

121: \'irginia Historical Society,

George Nan.
Service. 125:

123: Library of Congress.

The Washington Light

124: National

Park

Infantrv of Charleston.

South Carolina, photographed by Harold H. Norvell; .Arkansas

Commemorative Commission. Old

State

House .Muse-

um the

Confederate .Memorial Hall. New Orleans. Louisiana, photographed by John R. .Miller; the .Museum of
the Confederacy, photographed by Henry Beville
\'irginia
.Military Institute .Museum, photographed by Henry Beville;
Smyth County Historical and .Museum Society Inc.. .Marion,
X'irginia, photographed by Eddie Le Sueur. 126: Courtesy H.
.Armstrong Roberts, Inc. 127: Librarv of Congress. 128: .Map
by Vt'alter Roberts. 129: N'alentine Museum. 130. 131: Library of Congress. 132: South Caroliniana Library. University
of South Carolina. 133: .Map by Walter Roberts. 134: Library
of Congress. 137: Division of .Military & Naval .Affairs
,D.MNA\ State of New York, photographed by Henry Groskinsky. 138: Courtesy Brian Pohanka. 139: South Caroliniana
Library. University of South Carolina. 140: From Battles and
Leaders of the Civil War, \o\. 1, published by the Century
Company. 1884-1887. 141: .Map bv Walter Roberts. 142: Library of Congress
from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,
Vol. 1, published by the Century Company, 1884-1887. 144:
Library of Congress. 146: .Map by Walter Roberts. 148: Library of Congress. 149: The .Museum of the Confederacy,
photographed by Henry Beville. 150, 151: National .Archives.
neg.no. lll-B-5148. 152: From the Collections of the Louisiana State .Museum. 153. 154: Library of Congress. 156, 157:
.McLellan Lincoln Collection. John Hay Library. Brown L'niversity. 158. 159: Courtesy Frank W. Vi'ood, inset Library of
Deeds of \'alor, \'ol. 1, published
Congress. 160, 161:
by the Perrien-Keydel Company, Detroit. .Michigan, 1906.
162, 163: Courtesy Sidney King. 164, 165: Courtesy Dr.
Larry Freeman. American Life Foundation, Watkins Glen,
New York, photographed by Lon .Mattoon. 166. 167: The

Fwm

Confederate .Memorial Hall,

New

Orleans. Louisiana. 168.

United States Naval Academy Beverley R. Robinson

Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks. Pennsylvania,

169:

copied by Robert VC'alch. 109: South Caroliniana Library,

Collection.

INDEX
Sumerals

italics indicate

an

illustration

of

the subject mentioned.

Abingdon

Adams

(Virginia) Democrat, 28

revolver, 75

Alabama

troops: 4th Infantrv Regiment,

132-135, 138-140; at Bull

Arkansas troops: 8th Infantrv Regiment,

flag of, / 25
Arlington, Virginia, 59, 60-6/. 116
Army of Northern Virginia battle flag, 124
Artillery: ammunition and guns, 5 1
organization, 44; personal arms, 72-73;
range and effectiveness, 51 seacoast guns,
;

Run, 132-135.

6<?-6/,- tactical

138-140

Alexander, E. Porter, 113, 129

Alexandria, Virginia, 57-59, 61, -65,

10

Anderson, Robert, 32
Andrew, John, 21
Annapohs, as troop-staging area, 26, 29
Annapobs & Elk River Railroad, 29
Annapolis Junction, .Maryland, 28
Appomattox Court House, Virginia, 127
Arkansas, joins Confederacv, 18

& Ohio Railroad:

149. 152. l66;vanitvof. Ill

bridges

sabotaged, 94-95; safeguarding, 23, 29-31,

Bennett, James Gordon, 10

102

Barlow, Francis, 42^3

Barrv. William F., 141-144
Bartow, Francis S., 123-124, 132-136, 138,
li9.140, 145, 152,/5-/59
decline of. 50
Beauregard. Pierre Gustave Toutant. /26,
/52,- appointed .Army commander. 57;
on Bull Run campaign. 1 10; Davis.

162

Ayres' battery, 118

relations with, 152; Johnston, relations

with, 152; Johnston yields

Back River, 79, map 83

123, 129. 136; joins Confederacy. 27;

Ballou. Sullivan, //9

personal leadership. 121. 126. 139, 141,

Balumore: attacks on Union troops, 21-25,

26-27; Confederate sympathizers" actions,
20-2 1 29-30; Union occupation of. 3 1 77

tactical plans

Bee. Barnard E.. 123-124, 132-138, 139.

\52. 158-159

85,87-88
Barker, James G.

Bayonet: assaults by. 51, 130. 143. 153;

Ashby, Turner, 15-16

Augusta, Georgia, 18-19, 44

AvereU,WiUiamW.,

150

Anaconda Plan, 44-45, 48,

doctrine, 49, 51, 54-55;

training program, 54

Baltimore

command

to.

145, 148, 166-167; popularity, 152;

and orders 111-113. 117.

118, 123-124. 132. 136. 140-141. 144. 146.

Beverly. Virginia ^western\ 86-87. 91-92

Big Bethel, battle

at,

map

3, 78-82.

mup

83.

84-85,86, 110
Blackburn's Ford. 113. 118,mj/>121, 122.
124.126. 135. 149
Blackford. William

W.. 160

Black Horse Troop Virginia'. 153

Black people: and Fugitive Slave Law. 78;

number enslaved,

45; slaves, value of.

144; slaves as contraband. 77-78. 81; in

Union

service. /2-/i, 78. S/

Blockade proclaimed. 13, 44-45

Blue Ridgc .Mountains. 44. 57. 76
Bonham..MilledgeL.. 113. 124. 136. 140.
147. 149

Boston patriotic demonstrations.

10. 13

173

Brady, Mathew, 122

Camp Baxter,

Brigades, organization and tactics, 55

Carnegie, Andrew, 29

and

Brooklyn Chasseurs, 141, 142, 143, 168-169

Brown, George W., 26
Brownell, Francis E., 64, 65, 68
Buchanan, James, 13
Buckhannon, Virginia (western), 89

Carrick's Ford, 92

plans, 45-48;

Bull

Run,

map 3, 13, map

map 133, map 141, map

Battle of,

128, 130,

121,

map

Bull
152;

and fords,

11 1-1 13; casualties, 150-151, 152; cavalry

action, 110, 118, 129, 140-141, 143, 148-

159, 153; civilian spectators, 122;

cominunicationsin, 113, 122, 129, 132;

Confederate assaults, 121, 130-133, 144145, 147-148, 160-163, 166-167;

Confederate casualties, 122, 131, 133-134;

Confederate reinforcements, 122, 123,
126, 131-133, 135, 137, 141, 166-167;
Confederate withdrawals, 135-139, /5^759; disciphne breakdowns, 116-117, 136,
157, 162-163, 168-169; intelligence
operations in, 113, 122; Johnston yields

command,

123, 129, 136; lessons from,

maps, deficiencies in, 1 10; medical

services, 131; opposing strengths. 111;
155;

personal-experience accounts, 156;

railroads in, 122, 72J,- road system in, 112,

122, 129; telegraph use in, 122; terrain

features, 111-113, 116, 118, 120; troop
identification, 138; turning point in,

141, 144,

map

146, 152, 762-76J,-

Run, 122, 131, 133-134, 750-757,

war total, 54

Sppqintments, 57, 93; strategic

and Union mobilization,

District of Columbia troops: Clav BattaUon,

26-27

Greeley, Horace, 63; criticism of Scott plans,

55

Drummers, 49
Dumont, Ebenezer, 93
Duryee, Abram, 80

Griffin, Charles, 137, 7-^2, 143-145, 155,

Cheat River, 92
Chesapeake Bay, strategic value
Chittenden, Lucius E., 18-20
Cincinnati, Ohio, 36-31
Clay, Cassius Marcellus, 26-27

of,

Early,JubalA., 113, 121-122, 136, 140, 146,

148-149

map

Cocke, Philip

Ellsworth, Elmer E. 62, 6S-69,-

St.

George,

12, 124

2-3
,

first officer

killed, 63-64, 65; in invasion of Virginia,

122, 129,

61; Lincoln, relations with, 63, 66-67; as

national hero, 66-69. See also

132

Communication

144, 760-767

Guthrie Grays (Ohio), 56-57

H
Eastern theater,

Dragoon revolver, 14
Communications, combat, 113,

New York

Fire Zouaves

services, 55-56

Companies. See Artillery; Cavalry; Infantry

Confederate Armv: arms supply, 46;
casualties, 122,131, 133-134, 152;
discipline breakdown, 157; enemy
disparaged by, 96; flags of, 124-125; hnes
of communication, 46; military heritage,
46; morale, 46; Napoleonic principles'
influence on, 48-49, 56; officer and soldier

Enfield 1853

70-77

rifle,

Engineer troops, 55
Evans, Nathan, 112, 127-131,752, 133-135,
139-140,152,756-759
E well, Richards., 113, 124, 136

Flags: Confederate, 124-125; Union, 25

election of, 96; personal-experience

Florida Independent Blues flag, 725

Florida troops: Independent Blues (3rd

in, 56; prisoners lost, 61, 92; state

taken, 149,

affiliation of units, 54-55;

Infantry Regiment), 725

supply

Forrest,

Nathan Bedford, 48

rout, 121-122, 143-144, 146-147, 148,

operations, 46; training programs, 52, 57,

Fort Corcoran, 60-67

H9-150, 153, 168-169. See also

Beauregard, Pierre Gustave Toutant;
Johnston, Joseph E.; McDowell, Irvin

93; uniforms, 58, 99-100, 103-104, 106,

Fort

109; unit organization, 54-55. See also

Fort Monroe, 78; as slave refuge, 81;

strategic value of, 77; as troop-staging

Burnside,

Ambrose

Beauregard, Pierre Gustave Toutant;

Johnston, Joseph E.
Confederate States: agricultural resources,
46; arsenals seized by, 46; foreign

E., 40, 750, 131, 133,

134, 135,137,756-757

Benjamin F., 79; appointed

department commander, 77; and

Butler,

Bethel, 78-80, 84;

Cameron,

and slaves

as

contraband, 77-78, 81; and Washington

reinforcements, 29
Butler,

Camp Anderson, 42-43

174

Heintzelman, Samuel P., 117, 126-128, 132,

135,137,147, 149
Henrv, Judith, 142-143

map

Hill, 132, 135,

141, 7^2,

147, 75S-765

Hicks, Thomas H., 21, 24, 29

Highland County Companv (Virginia), 86-87
Hill, Daniel Harvey, 79-82
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. 16
Holmes, TheophilusH., 123-124, 136
Hope, James, 164-165
House, Edward H. 64
,

Howard, McHenrv, 156

Howard, Oliver O., 117,

126, 146-149, 164-

Hubbard, A.

Fort Pickens, 17

Hunter, Alexander, 121

Hunter, David, 1 17, 126-127, 129-130, 135,

P., 149; Bible of, 7-^9

Huske, Benjamin, 80, 84

intervention sought by Confederacy, 46

Front Royal, Virginia, 76

Corcoran, Michael, 60-61

Cub Run, 127, 149
Cummings, Arthur, 143-144

Fry, James B., 776, 118, 148

Fugitive Slave Law, 78

Indiana troops: 7th Infantry Regiment, 93;

in western Virginia operations, 87-93

Curtin,

W.M.,

Garibaldi Guards

at

111, 150; call for troops, 11;

Bull

and

Richmond, 18; and

foreign intervention, 46; and Fort Pickens
reinforcement, 17-18; on independence,
capital transfer to

Infantry: arms, 70-77,- defensive power, 5154; regimental organization, 54; tactical

'

Run,

Imboden,JohnD.,132,138

doctrine, 49-52, 55; training programs,

Andrew G.,24
133

2-^-25, 34-35, 49, 52, 57, 87;

(New York), 96-97

effect

Garnett, Robert Selden, 97; death of, 92-93;

in western Virginia operations, 87-93

on

tactics,

weapons'

48-50

Intelligence operations, 113, 122

Georgia troops: 4th Infantry Regiment, 1819; 7th Infantry Regiment, 145; 8th
Infantry Regiment, 132-133, 156; at Bull
Run, 122-123, 132-134, 140, 145, 156;

Jackson, James W., 64-65

Jackson,
Bull

\
''

149

Coppens, Gaston, 21

Beauregard, relations with, 152;

reconstruction, 29

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 21
Hart, David, 89-91

Fort Morris, 31

Gardner,

Run, 122;
and railroad

Harper's Weekly, 89

Davis, Jefferson: arrival in Richmond, 18;

at Bull

15-17,

Franklin, William, 137, 143

Frederick, Maryland, 29-31

Butler, relations with, 77;

at,

165

France: influence on uniform design, 21, 63;

Edward K.,70

Cameron, James, 145

Cameron, Simon, 27;

Carolina), 709,

123,137,139, 144
Hampton Roads, 21-23, 78
Hardee, William J., 57
Harpers Ferry, 94-95; operations

area, 21-23, 77

76; patriotic demonstrations in, 13-14, 76,

movement in, 10, 15, 18, 27-28; slaves,

number in, 45; transportation faciUties, 46

ineptness, 84; in invasion of Virginia, 77;

Lincoln, relations with, 77; militia

service, 2 1 and railroad security, 29-3 1

31

Fort Sumter, S-9, 10-11, 17,57

Fort Wayne, 5-5

18; railroad systems, 46, 57; secession

relations

with, 77; Chase, relations with, 77;

Scott, relations with, 31, 77;

manpower

McHenry,

resources, 45-48; mobihzation, 11, 14, 18,

intervention sought, 46;

Baltimore Confederate sympathizers, 30;

Baltimore occupied by, 3 1 77; at Big

Hampton Legion (South

Henrv House

officers, efficiency of, 56-57; officers,

accounts, 156; pohtical appointments

Hampton, Virginia, 81-82

Hampton, Wade, 123, 137, 144

93, 95; strategic value of, 29-31, 85

Fairfax Court House, Virginia, 110-111, 117

130, 134-135, 137, 164-165;

Halleck, Henry W., 56

Hamblin, Joseph, 81

Elzev, Arnold, 147

types, 5, 99-100, 103-104, 106, 109;

casualties, 122, 152;

13

157, 163

76

Colt

Griffin's batterv, 137, 139, 141, 7^2, 143-

Duryee's Zouaves, 80, SI, 84-85

D'Utassy, Frederic, 96-97
Duval, Bettie, 113

Clay BattaUon (District of Columbia), 26-27

Union
Union prisoners
154; Union withdrawals and

45

Greenhow, Rose O'Neal,

Chase, Salmon P.: Butler, relations with, 77;

and officer appointments, 58

Union

Greble,JohnT.,S6

Douglas, Stephen A., 13

122,124-128,136-137, 148-150

approach march, 116-117; Union assaults,

Grafton, Virginia (western), 85-86, 88-89

organization, 55; tactical doctrine, 50-51,

Centreville, Virginia, 111-112, 117-118,720,

map

13-

See also Confederate States

Detroit, Michigan, 72-75, 38-39

Sumter Light Guards (Company), 7S-79

Goldsboro, North Carolina, 10
Goldsby, Thomas, 133, 139
Gosport Navy Yard evacuated, 77

Divisions, organization and tactics, 55

Cavalry; arms, 12-15; decline of, 39;

133, 137-139, 141-157, /62-/65,- bayonet

officer

14.

Casualties: at Big Bethel, 80, 82-85, 86; at

153, 156-169; artifact, 149; artillery

assaults, 130, 143, 755,- bridges

10-11, 18; Johnston, relations with, 152;

Castle Pinckney, South Carolina, 154

146,

action, 118, 120-121, 127, 129-130, 132-

34-35

Thomas Jonathan

Run,

(Stonewall): at

122, 124, 136-138, 140-141,

143-144, 152, 158-159; nickname

Louisiana troops:

bestowed on, 139; training program, 93

James River, strategic value of. 76-78
Johnston, Joseph E., 129; appointed Army
commander, 57, 93; appointed general.
93; Beauregard, conflict with, 152; at
Bull

Run, 122-124, 136,

\i9. 140. 141,

commands

147. 149-150, 152, 166-167;

Army

of the Shenandoah, 93; Davis,

conflict with, 152;

and Harpers Ferry

evacuation, 93, 95; joins Confederacy,

27, 93; in

93,

HI;

Shenandoah Valley operations,

yields

command

to

123, 129^ 136. 5^f a/so Bull

1st

Regiment,

Special Infantry

Battalion Wheat's Tigers\ 125, 129-132.

Run,

143; at Bull

12, 129-132;

Coppens'

Zouaves, 20-21

Jones,

Edward

promoted

in

Jones,

J.

McDowell, Irvin, 1 16; appointed Army

commander, 58; on discipline breakdown,
and invasion of Virginia, 61; personal

148;

leadership. 144-145; personal traits.

B., 134

relieved of

Jones, John B.. 18

command,

10;

155; tactical plans

and orders. 110, 112-113, 116-117, 121-

122, 124-129, 135, 137, 141-142, 145, 150.

Kane, George
Kelley,

p., 26, 29

Bemamin, 85-87

Kemper's battery .Virginia^ 149

Kentucky: strategic value of, 76; Union
troops quota, 14

Kershaw, Joseph B., 147

Keves, Erasmus D., 133, 135, 137, 145, 149,
169

155; victory presumed, 135. See also Bull

Run, Battle of
McLean, Wilmer, 113, 127
McLean's Ford, 1 13
Magruder, John Bankhead, 78-79, 82
Mahan, Dennis Hart, 48
Maine troops: 3rd Infantry Regiment; at
Bull Run, 145-147,76^-/65
Manassas, Battle of See Bull Run, Battle of

Manassas Gap Railroad. 57, 95, 122, /2i,

Ladd, Luther, 26
Laurel Mountain, 87-92
Lee, Robert E. and Bull Run, 111; home
occupied by Union troops, 61 joins
Confederacy, 27-28; and officer
:

appointments, 57; Scott, relations with,

27-28
Lefferts, Marshall, 59

Lewis, Francis, 141

Lincoln Abraham arrests ordered by 3 1

blockade proclaimed by, 13, 44; and Bull
,

Run,

126, 135

Manassas Junction,

110, 152, 155; Butler, relations with,

and
emergency measures

map 3,57,

\'irginia,

113, 117, 122-123, /27, 135

Marine Corps, United

States, 141, 143-144,

Artillery

i,

South Carolina^

flag of,

24-26, 29-3

in, 20-

Lincoln's measures

against, 31; railroads sabotaged in, 29;

telegraph sabotaged in, 29; threat to

Ellsworth, 63, 66-67,-

Virgmia, 76; threat

18;

habeas corpus suspended by, 31; and

Lee as Union commander, 27-28;

Maryland, measures against, 31; on
Mississippi River's strategic value, 45;

newspaper pressure on, 1 10; officer

appointments by, 57-58; on secession, 10;
and slaves as contraband, 78; and strategic

on Union preservation, 11;

and Washington security, 24-27, 29, 31;
and western Virginia loyalists, 85, 87. See
plans, 45, 110;

also

United States

80
Logan, John A., 122
Logan, Thomas M. 109
LongBridge, 59, 61, 150
Longstreet, James, 113, 121-122, 124, 136Little Bethel, Virginia, 78,

137. 149

to

Washington, 20-26,

29; Union troops quota, 14

Maryland Confederate troops:
Regiment, 147, 156

Massachusetts troops:

1st

Infantry

musket, 70-7/
Montgomery, Alabama; capital moved from,
18; patriotic demonstrations in, 10
Morgan, William, 120
.Morgantown, N'irginia .western, 92
.Model 1855

rifle

Thomas, 85-86, 88-89, 92

.Muskets and rifles: ammunition loads,
.Morris,

52,- effect

on

North Carolina, joins Confederacy,

North Carolina troops: 1st Infantry
Regiment, 79-80
Northern states. See United States
Norwich University Cadets. 102

10, 18

Ohio, strategic value of 16, 44-45, 76

Ohio troops: 1st Light .Artillery, 54; Guthrie
Grays, i6-i7.- training program. 87; in
western Virginia operations, 85-93

Old Dominion Rifles .Virginia 5*

Orange & Alexandria Railroad ,61, 113, 117,
i,

50,

tactics, 48-50; excessive

loading, 52; loading and firing procedure.

135

Ott, William

B.,/W

Overton, William, 103

48-50, 52-5J,- models used, 70-71; range

and effectiveness, 50, 71

Parkersburg, X'irginia w-estern\ 85

Parrott, Robert P., 51

Napoleon Bonaparte, influence on tactics,

48-50,54
Navy, United States: in invasion of X'irginia,
officers joining

New Hampshire

troops:

18

Patterson, Robert, 58; and Harpers Ferry

Sew York Herald, 10

New York State, industrial

seizure, 95; Scott, relations with, 95; in

Shenandoah \'allev operations, 95, 111,

122,126
Pegram, John, 87, 89-91
Pendleton, William N., 138. 141
Peninsula, The, 76, 78-79, 84
Pennsylvania troops:

22-23; patriotic

demonstrations in, 10, 21,32-33

New- York Fire Zouaves, 59, 61, 64, 141,
142, 143-144, /5i, 160-163

\'eu'

Patriotic demonstrations, 10, 12-13, 14, 16,

Confederacy, 27;

2nd Infantry
Regiment, 137; at Bull Run. 137, 155
New- Jersev troops: 2nd Infantrv Regiment,

Ringgold Light
program. 2-^-25

2nd

Philadelphia, ^'ilmington

&

Baltimore

Railroad, 23

Tribune, 63-64; criticism of

PhUippi, Virginia western), 85-86. 88, 89

Wendell, 13
Piedmont Station, Virginia, 122
Phillips,

troops: 1st Infantry Regiment.

Infantry-

furnished, 21;

24-25; training

Philadelphia. 23. 33

resources of, 46

Scott's plans, 45

80;

number

.Artillery.

Pensacola. Florida. /5. See also Fort Pickens

York Times. The. 10, 153

New York

Infantry

Navy Yard

.Model 1855 pistol carbine, 75

New York
1st

Scott's plans, 45

Norfolk, N'irginia. 5^^Gosport

North & Savage revolver, 75

Model 1842 musket, 70-7/

114-115

Confederate sympathizers' actions

2

MitcheU's Ford, 112-113, 118, 121, 124,

128,132, 136, 138, 149

New York City,

in, 24-26, 28;

N'irginia, 77-78, 81

Newspapers: pressure on Lincoln, 110; and

strategic plans for, 45

162

Marion

Newport News,

in, 21

E., 50

Run,/26. 132
Missouri, Union troops quota, 14

61

77; call for troops, 13-14, 21, 24, 32;

by, 11, 13; Fort Pickens reinforced by, 17-

111-

Mansfield, Joseph K. F.. 58-59

/25
Marshall House, 64
Maryland: bridges sabotaged

Letcher, John, 15,28,85

169; Ellsworth's .Avengers, 68; Garibaldi

Regiment, 132; 9th Infantry Regiment.

/5, 11th Infantrv Regiment, 132; at Bull

designed by, 89; Scott, relations with, 93;

118, 120-121,

Guards, 96-97; in invasion of \'irginia, 5961,64, //^-//5. prisoners lost, 154

Mississippi troops, /26,- 2nd Infantry-

Regular Army, 58; saddle

U\.142.

143-145, 148, 153, 156-157, 160-163, 168-

Mississippi River, strategic value of, 44-45

armies. 155; credit claimed by. 93;

Run, 116,

32; prisoners lost, 154; training program,

appointments

93; training program. 87; in western

P., 23-24

137. 145; at Big Bethel, 80-82, 84-86; at

Bull

Mime, Claude

Run,

Jones, David R., 113, 136

118, 121- 122;

Militia units: ineptness in, 37; political

McCauley, Charles S.. 17

McClellan, George Brinton, 88; becomes
national hero, 93; commands Union

strategic plans. 44; tactical plans. 88-90,

14

Run.

38-39

Virginia operations, 85-93

C,

Jones, Charles

18; at Bull

Miles, Dixon S., 117, 126

Beauregard,

Battle of

in invasion of Virginia. 61; mobilization,

Regiment. 80. 86; 3rd

Pierce, Ebenezer, 80-82, 84

Regiment, 118, 121; 4th Infantry

Regiment, 80-82; 6th Infantr\- Regiment,

Infantry Regiment, 80-82; 5th Infantry

Pierpont, Francis H., 87

Regiment vDuryee's Zouaves\ 80, S/, 82,

Pistols.

21-25, 26-27, 29, 31; 8th Infantry

84-85; 7th Militia Jnfantrv Regiment,

Pohle,C.R.M.,99
Porter, Andrew, 128, 130-131. 133, 135-137
Porterfield. George A. 85-87
Potomac River, strategic value of. 76. 1 13,

Regiment, 23, 28. 29; 1th Infantry

Regiment, 157; at Big Bethel. 80-82;

'

22-23. 26, 28. 29, 55, 59, 80;

Bull

Run,

at

18, 121, 157; in invasion of

Hill, 130-137.

/56-/57

Medical services, 54, 131

Al fmmacfe salvaged, 17

Mexican War:

i,Fire

1th Infantry

Zouaves\ 59, 61, 64, 141.

142, 143-144. 153, 160-163; 12th .Mihtia

Jnfantry^ Regiment, ;2-/J, 118, 120-121;

Virginia, 77

Matthews

Regiment

tactics in, 89;

troop strength

in. 111

Michigan troops: 1st Infantry Regiment, 61;

2nd Infantry Regiment, 118; 3rd Infantry

14th Brooklvn Chasseurs (.Infantrv^

Regiment, 141. 142. 143, 168-169; 23rd

Infantry Regiment, 114-115; 38th
Infantry Regiment, 145; 69th .Militia
vinfantryl Regiment Jrish\ 60-61, 108;
71st Infantry Regiment, 156-157; 79ih
Infantry Regiment ,Highlanders\ 116,

See Revolvers

114-115
Providence, Rhode Island, 40~tl

R
Radford, R.C.W., 149
Railroads: in Bull

Run campaign,

122, 123;

influence on military operations, 2, 56;

national system, 46, 57, 59; sabotaged.

175

Rappahannock River,

strategic value of, 76,

111

Regiments. See by type

Regular Army, United States: Battery

disparagement of enemy, 96, 155; lines of

comniunication, 46; morale, 33-34;
Napoleonic influence on, 48-49, 56;

Sheffee, John, 86-87

officer

Shenandoah Valley, map

2-3, 57; operations

in, 93, 95, 111, 122, 126; strategic

I, 1st

Artillery (Ricketts), 137, 139, 141,'/42,

value

87

of, 31, 44, 76,

Sherman, WiUiamT.: at BuU Run, 121-122,

126, 133,135,137, 145, 155; and
McDowell's plan, 155

144, 160-161; Battery E, 3rd Artillery

D, 5th

and

Washington defense, 29
Sharps model 1859 rifle, 70-71

strategic plans, 44-45, 48, 110;

29; safeguarding, 28, 29, iO, 31, 85

Randolph, George Wythe, 80

and soldier types, 96-98, 101-102,

104, 107-108; officers, efficiency of, 56-

Regiment, 141; at Big Bethel, 79-80;

Black Horse Troop, 153; brigade flags,
725; at

map

BuU Run,

120-122, 124, 137-140,

141, 143-145, 149, 152-153, /5S-/6/

57; officers, election of, 96; prisoners lost,

Highland Coimty Company, 86-87;

Kemper's battery, 149; mobilization, 14;

149, 154; "seeing the elephant" origin,

Old Dominion

156; state affiliation of units, 54-55;

Howitzers, 79-80; in Shenandoah Valley

operations, 93;

Rifles, 58;

Richmond

Smyth Dragoons

160-161; 3rd Cavalry Regiment, 162;

1th

Signal troops, 55-56

supply operations, 32-33, 40-41, 44-45,

54; training programs, 24-25, 34-35, 49,
52, 54-55, 57, 87, 110; uniforms, 96-9,

Run,

18,

Skirmishers, role in assault, 50

101-102, 104, 107-108, 137; unit

76, 103; in western Virginia operations,

Slocum, John, 130

Smith, Edmund Kirby, 76, 123, 146-147,

organization, 54-55. See also individual

85-93

(Ayres), 118; Batterv

Artillery

(Griffin), 137, 139, 141, 142, 144, 157,

Infantrv Regiment, 169; at Bull

141, ;/2, 148-149, 157,162-169;

officers joining

Confederacy, 27-28;

seniority system, 56;

and

164-165

state

appointments, 56-57; troop strength, 20

Relay House, Maryland, 30, 31
Revolvers, models used, 74-75
Rhett,

Thomas, 139

Rhode

Island troops: 1st Infantry Regiment,

19, 130, 134, 156-157; in

Smyth Dragoons

United

(Virginia) flag, 125

South Carolina secedes, 27

South Carolina troops: 2nd Infantry
Regiment, 147; 4th Infantry Regiment,
129-130, 149; at Bull Run,

Run,
Washington

130, 135, 137, 147-148;

at Bull

109, 123, 137, 139;

12, 123, 129-

Hampton Legion,

Marion

Artillery flag,

125
See Confederate States

Richardson, Israel, 117-122, 149, 155

Southern

Richmond, map 3; arms production in, 46;

becomes Confederate capital, 18; plans for

Spies, Confederate, 113

states.

capturing, 44, 77; as troop-staging area,

Stone Bridge, 112-113, 122, 124, 127-129,

132, 135,137, 145, map 146, 149

18

Stuart, J.E.B. (Jeb),93, 140-141, 143, 149,

Richmond Howitzers

153, 160-161

17

(Virginia), 79-80

Rich Mountain, 87-89, 90, 91

Ricketts,

James B., 137, 142-144, 155

Ricketts' battery, 137, 139, 141, 142, 143144, 160-161

and Light Infantry Tactics (Hardee), 5/

Rifles. See Muskets and rifles
Ringgold Light Artillery (Pennsylvania), 24-

Rifle

Sudley Church, 131

Sudley Ford, 112, 122, 124, 126-130, 131,
132, 144, map 146, 147, 149

Sumner, Charles, 44
Sumter Light Guards (Georgia), 18-19
Supply operations, 32-33,40-41, 44-45, 54
Sussex Light Dragoons (Virginia), 104
Swords and sabers, 72-73

Edmund, 149
Russell, Wilham Howard,

Tactics: effect of weapons on, 48-50;

Ruffin,

Napoleonic influence on, 48-50, 54

Telegraph services, 29, 56, 122
Tennessee joins Confederacy, 18
Terrett, George H. 61
Thomas, George H., 28

10

Swords and sabers

Johnsbury, Vermont, 34-35

Sabers. See

Sandford, Charles, 59-61

Townsend, Frederick, 82

Savannah, Georgia: patriotic demonstrations

in, 14; Union plans for capturing, 44
Schenck, Robert C, 127, 137, 145

Training programs: Confederate, 52, 57, 93;

Union, 24-25, 34-35, 49, 52, 54-55, 87,

Thomas

A., 29-31

Scott, Winfield, 47;

48,

States: agricultural resources, 46;

sales to

Southern

states, 46;

46;

Eastern
45-

map 2-3; industrial resources,

manpower resources, 45-48;

theater,

10; as

Anaconda Plan, 44-45,

Army commander,

110

Transportation systems, 33, 46

Tyler, Daniel, 117-121, 124, 126-127, 129,

Id-TI; and

defenselessness, 18-20; fortifications, 25,

demonstrations, 13, 16, 20, 32-33;

61; population, 18; safeguarding, 24, 27,

29, 31; troop units' arrivals in, 21-29, 40-

railroad systems, 46; transportation

41,42-43. See also District of Columbia

systems, 33; and Union preservation. See

also Lincoln,

Abraham

United States Army. See Militia imits;

Regular Army, United States; Union

Army
United States Marine Corps. See Marine
Corps, United States
United States Navy. See Navy, United States
United States Volunteers. See Union Army;
see also names of commanders and under

Vermont troops: 1st Infantry Regiment, 8082; 2nd Infantry Regiment, 164; at Big
Bethel, 80-82; at Bull Run, 145-147, 164165; Norwich University Cadets, 102;
training program, 34-35
Virginia, conversion

17

Virginia: defensive plans for, 57; invaded

by
Confederacy,

Union, 58-61, 64, 77; joins

15, 28, 58; minor actions in, 76, 78-93;
provisional Union government in, 85;
railroad system, 59; secession referendum,
76-77; topography, 76; vulnerability, 7677; waterways, 76. See also Western

French influence on, 21,

27-28; loyalty to Union, 28, 45;

63; Union, 96-98, 101-102, 104, 107-108,

Cavalry Regiment, 149;

McClellan, relations with, 93; McClellan

137

Regiment, 99, 121; 3rd Infantry

Regiment, 79; 4th Infantry Regiment,
100; 5th Infantry Regiment, 145; 1 1th
Infantry Regiment, 120; 17th Infantry
Regiment, 121; 33rd Infantry Regiment,
138, 141, 143-144, 762-/65; 49th Infantry

officer

appointments by, 57-58, 95,

155; Patterson, relations with, 95;

176

number

in

Union

in local operations

service, 92

\miee\ing Intelligencer, 84, 87

Whitman,Walt, 10, 150

Whimey Navy revolver, 74
WUlcox, Orlando B., 61, 137
Wisconsin troops: 2nd Infantry Regiment,
135, 145

York Peninsula, 76, 78-79, 84

York River, strategic value of, 76-77
Yorktown, Virginia, Union advance on,

78-

79
143, 145, 147

Virginia troops: 1st Cavalry Regiment, 93,

104, 106, 109;

87;

Young's Branch, 132, 134-135, 137-138,

Virginia

Virginia, 58-59, 77; Lee, relations with,

1 1 1

operations in, 85-93

Western Virginia troops:

Winchester, Virginia, 93-95, 122

ixomMemmack,

140-141, 143, 149, 153, 160-161 ;Axh

Mexican War, 89,

2-3; admitted as

state, 93; loyalists in, 76, 77, 84, 92;

120-132, 143; flag of, /25

Cavalry Regiment, 153; 8th Cavalry

Regiment (Smyth Dragoons), 125; 30th

relieved by, 155; in

Alfred, 153

Weapons. See by type

WeUs, George D., 118
Western Virginia, map

Wheeling, Virginia, 85

Uniforms: Confederate, 58, 99-100, 10?-

and

Waud,

Wheat, Roberdeau, 129, 131-132, 143

Wheat's Tigers (Louisiana): at Bull Run,

states

United States Zouave Cadets, 63

Utica, New York, 63

McDowell

troops

^zshington Evening Star, 61

112, 155; Butler, relations with, 31, 77;

155;

troops' arrival in, 150-152;

officers loyal to, 28; patriotic

Greeley's criticism of, 45; and invasion of

McClellan's strategic plans, 44;

137, 141,149, /5-/59

Washington, 8-9, 24-25, 114-115; defeated

mobUization, 11, 13-14,21,24,32-33;

Virginia MiUtary Institute, 76, 103

135,145

blockade, 44-45; and Bull Run, 110-111,

named Army commander by,

Walker, Leroy Pope, 10

Warrenton Turnpike, 111-112, 127, 135-

Wheeling convention, 84-85

Scott,

117, 122, 124, 149

Sykes, George, 148

25

Robinson house, 137, 139, 158-159

Rosecrans, William S. 88-93

St.

arms

allotted, 15; Virginia Military Institute,

United States

Union MiUs Ford, 113,

defense, 26

^chmond Daily Enquirer,

Regular Army,

Smith, William, 141

40-41, 134, 156-157; 2nd Infantry

Regiment, 119, 130, 156-157;

states; Militia units;

flag, 12t

Sussex Light Dragoons, 104; Union quot

Union Army: arms, 48-50, 52-53, 70-75;

casualties, 80, 82-85, 86, 122, 152; flags,

25;

command and leadership deficiencies,

155; discipline

breakdowns, 116-117, 136,

148-149, 157, 162-163, /69-/70,-

1st

Infantry

Zouave

units, 59, 61, 6J, 64, 68, 80, 81, 82,

84-85, 101, 141-144, 153, 160-161

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