THE GREAT BATTLES AT BULL'S RUN

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1800, 4 December 1862, Page 4

THE GREAT BATTLES AT BULL'S RUN

' The 1 exciting news brought by the Europa 1 confirmed the brief announcement by a previous < arrival of a great battle at Bull's Run on the i 29th uit, but entirely contradicted the boast of i Creneral Pope that a Federal victory had been obtained ; for tbe Confederates, considerably reinforced, renewed the battle on the following morning completely routed Pope, and drove bim back to the shelter of the fortifications befoie Washington. On the sth instant "the Federals occupied precisely the same position round Washington tbat they held before their departure for the peninsula ;" the Federal authorities at Cincinnati were trembling for the safety of that city ; the legislative capital at Kentucky had been abandoned ; tbe Federal troops had retired from Baton Rouge ; and New Orleans was threatened by the Confederate Generals Breckeniidge and Van Dorn. The Federal General Buell was reported to. have gained a victory at Chattanooga, and to have captured 7,000 prisoners ; but later accounts declare the latter part ofthe story at least to be. unfounded. By the subsequent arrival of tbe Hibernn and the City of Washington we have most important intelligence, wbich enables us to carry on the narrative ofthe important Confederate operations which have resulted in imperilling the safety of Washington itself. A staff officer engaged in the battle at Bull's Bun, on Friday the 29th August, writes : — " Tbe battle commenced on Thursday, at 5 o'clock in the forenoon, and has lasted without intermission, except from darkness. Tbe conflict took place near the south Stone Bridge, on the old Manassas battle-field. Jackson's forces estimated at 30,000. On Friday morning Jackson undoubtedly succeeded iu effecting a junction with Longstreet. It is considered certain also tbat large portions of the rebels may succeed in uniting with their hardly-pressed forces, and either on Friday or Saturday probably its main columns arrived on the battle-field, either through Thoroughfare Gap or from the north, by a road leading from Aldie Gap. The battle ■was opened on Friday morning by our assailant, Sheiman's battery commencing the crntest. The enemy were pushed gradually but steadily back till about one in the forenoon. Our troop's rested atnight a mile in advance of tbe position where the battle bad begun in the morning. Tbe division of General Steinwehr, which had acted partly as a reserve, was engaged in support of Scburz, and most effectively handled." Another correspondent describes the. renewal of the conflict on the following (Saturday) morn. ! iog :•— j "The battle was renewed by us at 7 o'clock ori Saturday morning. The disposition of oui forces was about the same as on the previous day. Heintzelmann held the extreme right; Porter and M'Dowell the centre, and Banks the extreme left, Sigel was held in reserve in tbe rear of Porter's corps. Tbe fight was susstained on our part by Porter's force until afternoon, when the enemy concentrated his entire force upon M'Dowell. The engagement was - almost, entirely with the artillery until one o'clock in the afternoon. Up to this lime little damage had been sustained on either side. The rebels at length became desperate, and charged with solid columns upou Porter's men. They did not succeed in breaking the line, however, and were compelled to fall back to their original position. The result was in our favor, inasmuch as we drove back the enemy, although we suffered severely in so doing, The rebel loss must have been frightful, as our artillerists fired at excellent range. At 3 p.m. the enemy changed tactics, and moved the major part of his force towards M'Dowell, who was oh the left ofthe centre. At tbis point we bad stationed three batteries. For some reason Lapine's battery, which was in the extreme front, was unsupported by infantry. This was a great oversight on tbe part of M'Dowell. Then, again, the troops under M'Dowell were too much scattered to effectually resist an enemy's advance. The enemy charged at first upon Lapine's battery, and succeeded in capturing it. They then advanced eight columns deep, toward M'Dowell's force, but stranjre to say, instead of offering any opposition, M'Dowell ordered his men to fall back, wbich tbey all commenced doing. All three of tbe batteries were then left unsupported, and, of course, to fall into the hands of the enemy. It is reported, however, that three pieces out of the sixteen were drawn from the field by tbe artillerists. Soon as M'Dowell's troops commenced retiring the cowardly stragglers set up a shout and ran pell-mell to the rear. Teamsters and ambulance drivers were the next to follow, and it was feared that another Bull's Run fight was about to be inaugurated. The breaking of the line in tbe centre of course compelled the right and left to fall back. If the movement had been continued systematically all might have been well, but tbe fear of being tbe last man seemed to seize the troops, and they made a rush for Centreville. Befoie reaching Bull's Run tbey were partially rallied which had the effect to hold in check the advance of the enemy. Several attempts were made to arrest tbe flight of the men between Bull's Run and Centreville, but they all failed. Men, with loaded rifles and fixed bayonet3, behind a breastwork at Centreville, were* tbe only barrier sufficiently strong to keep back tbe troops. Darkness soon came on, and it being ascertained tbat tbe enemy were notrushiDg on tbem with the celerity of lightning, the men became calm and set about preparing something to eat. Franklin's entire corps had arrived two miles beyond Centreville when the stampede commenced. They drew up in line of battle at that point, and remained tbere during tbe night. Tbe battle of Saturday was a loss to us, on account of mismanagement somewhere. M'Dowell is blamed by both officers and men for not standing firm upon the approach of the enemy. His men assert that ihey will not fighl under bim again." The Richmond papers claim tbe result of Saturday's fighting as the greatest victory ofthe war, asserting they captured eighty pieces of artillery, 5000 prisoners, many stand of arms, colors, flags, &e. In all the fighting, since tbey dashed on Manassas, they claim to have captured waggon trains of supplies and amunition, arms and camp equipage sufficient to supply their whole army now on Bull's Run for many days. They admit all tbis was not ac complished without a fearful sacrifice of life ; and though the less in the battle of Saturday is stated to have been not more than 400 killed and 250 wounded, tbey acknowledge a total loss in, all the fighting of 10,000 killed and wounded, On the 31st uit. a correspondent writes from Alexandria ; — "The city presents the most exciting appearance. Such scenes are witnessed as can only be. seen in a city where the thunder boom and : discordant roar of battle is distinctly heard. It may be said Alexandria is on the verge of the battle field. Tbe cry of tbe agonised wounded and maimed is echoed along the whole road from the field to tbe oity, and is answered back by the angels of sympathy, hope and charity, who bring with them from the North a continuous stream of consolation and relief. More than one thousand volunteer surgeons and their assistants, nurses, &c, arrived here Jast nitrht, and were sent by special train to the battlefield. t - Another long train of surgeons and nurses arrived here to-day, at eleven o'clock ; they were also sent out immediately.. Those latter arrivals, lam informed, are mainly from Baltiwore and Philadelphia. The whole road from Alexandria to Washington is covered with one mass of army waggons and ambulances, as are rSS?'^? stre ftS.Mf this city nearly overcrowded. -:,.*fJ>M«» walks a»e thronged with straegline .i,pM9ew».6VldJOT9, and citizens, while eve^y Btreet

corner has its own excited crowd who, regardless of the drizzling rain which has been coming down all dny, and wbich is better lor the poor sufferers on the field than heat, are discussing the latest news from the conflicting armies." I he special conespondeut of the Philadelphia Inquirer of the 2nd says : — " All our trains, waggons, &c, are now safe in Washington, or near tbere. The bridge over Bull's Run, was rebuilt last night. The five engiues and 185 cars, supplies, ammunition, &c, which M'Dowell had near Warrenton were all burnt by him on Sunday morning. Most of our wounded are still in the bauds of tbe enemy. They sent word to Pope that he might send surgeons, &c, if he would own up he was whipped. He refused. The special correspondent of the Times at New York thus describes tbe excitement in tbat city and at Washington on the receipt of the intelligence of the results of the two battles: — " When, on Saturday, an official dispatch was published from General Pope announcing that be had won a great battle on Friday, in which he had lost 8,000 men, and his opponents double the number, it is hard to say whether belief or. disbelief was the prevalent temper of the multitude. General Pope is as loose in the matter of numbers as an Arab or a Persian,, and talks as readily of thousands as of hundreds, seeming to care but little which of the two estimates proves to be correct ; but when he positively announced that he bad won a victory, that he remained in possession of the field, and that the ground was no otber tban the old historic battlefield of Bull's Run — where tbe North suffered its first great humiliation nearly fourteen years ago— the publicrecovered a little from its bewilderment, and the sanguine began to rejoice that Bull's Run was no longer a name to call a blush into tbe face of an American. The news was partially corroborated by a telegram from General M'Dowell to his wife. On Saturday thc capital was in the extremity of danger ; and amid the countless rnmours that flew from mouth to moutb, and from street corner to street corner, one of the most pertinacious was lhat the President and all his Ministers had packed up their documents and other valuables, ready to leave Washington at a moment's notice, and tbat apartments had been engaged for them in the principal hotels of New York. No authentic news arrived during the day, nothing being known except the fact that the rival hosts were once more at their bloody work, that both bad been largely reinforced ;that if the South won, the stake to be snatched from the field would be nothing less than independence; and that if, on tbe contrary, the victory remained witb the Noith, tbe only result would be to protract and envenom still further a war that has already lasted too long for Northern liberty and happiness, and that threatens to be the most rancorous and fiendish conflict recorded in the history of the world. On Sunday the town was startled— it can scarcely be said to have been surrrised — by a second dispatch from General Pope, announcing tbat he bad been driven back eight miles nearer to Washington by tbe victorious enemy, and that he was in strong position at Centreville. That such a man as Pope should confess to a reverse, was enough to excite the imagination of the impulsive people of the city of New York to the point of believing that the reverse had been overwhelming, and that the audacity and genius of Lee and Stonewall Jackson had been rewarded with success. TheWar Department, shamed for once into propriety, for the sake of the painful anxieties of the countless mothers and fathers who had sons in the army, removed the interdict against the transmission of telegraphic news from Washington, and against the presence of newspaper correspon dents within the lines; and on Sunday after* noon all the great cities of the North were infoimed of Pope's retreat to Centreville. The clergymen in hundreds of pulpits wound np the services of the day by earnest entreaties to the women and children lo busy themselves, as soon as they got home, in scraping lint for the relief of the wounded or dying soldiers in Virginia. In Washington, the women, the clerks aud employes ofthe Government, the citizens who were beyond tbe fighting age, were severally and collectively requested to proceed to Centreville to aid the surgeons in attention to the wounded. Men aud women in large numbers obeyed the call, and hurried to the scene of suffering. Nor was Monday less anxious than Sunday. The morning journals teemed with details of the two days' battle at Bull's Run ; for the Federal victory of Friday, and the Federal reverse of Saturday both concurred on tbat classic ground — thus rendered trebly memorable in the annals of the Republic.