A Youth's History of the Great Civil War
Van Evrie, Horton & Co., ©1866
Revised edition, ©2006 www.ronie-mooney-encs.us
The views expressed in the following document do not necessarily represent the views of www.ronie-mooney-encs.us. This document, originally published in 1866, has been provided to the public based solely on its potential value as a historical document.
CHAPTER XVI, THE FIRST GREAT BATTLE
Before the great battle of Manassas, or Bull Run, as it is generally called, there were several smaller engagements between the Federal and Confederate soldiers. The first of these occurred at Bethel, in Virginia, on 10th of June, 1861. At that place Colonel Magruder was intrenched with a small force, when General Butler sent General Pierce, of Massachusetts, to engage them. You may be sure that General Butler did not go himself, for he made himself quite as remarkable for always keeping out of the range of bullets himself, as he did afterwards for his thefts and brutal treatment of all men or women who fell as prisoners into his hands.
This attack upon Colonel Magruder's force proved most disastrous to the assailing party. The Massachusetts troops met with a most ruinous defeat. At this engagement, Major Winthrop, a most gallant Federal officer and estimable gentleman, was killed. The Confederate Colonel Hill, of a North Carolina regiment, in his official despatch, referred to the daring bravery of Major Winthrop with terms of soldierly admiration for a brave enemy. Major Winthrop belonged to General Butler's staff, and was in all respects a most honorable contrast to his cruel and cowardly commander.
Immediately after this little battle of Bethel, a grand movement of the Federal army was made towards Richmond, which had then become the capital of the new Confederate Government. The main column of the army under General McDowell bore directly down upon the Confederate forces under General Beauregard at Manassas. In number and equipments it was a splendid army, and is supposed to have been at least four times as large as the Confederate force under Beauregard, which it was marching against. The abolitionists and all their sympathizers and supporters were flushed with the wildest ideas of a sudden and complete overthrow of the "rebellion," as it was called.
How sovereign States, which are in no sense subjects of any government, can rebel, I have never heard anybody attempt to explain. It is easy to see how the Federal Government, which exists only by the limited and defined powers delegated to it by the real and only "sovereigns," the States, of the people thereof, can rebel against its makers and owners, but that the makers, that is, the States, can rebel against its creature, that is, the Federal Government, is as foolish as to say that the Creator of the world can rebel against the creatures he has made. The word rebel is not applicable to sovereign bodies. States may be guilty of breaking the compact which they have made with each other, but that is simply a breach of compact, and not a rebellion, because they are equal sovereign communities. Least of all can the States rebel against the Federal Government, because that is not a party to the compact at all-but only an agent delegated by the compact.
But those who rushed in to swell the ranks of the tremendous abolition army did not reason so far as this. All that the Black Republicans cared about was the overwhelming and the destruction of the Southern States. They did not stop to ask whether their cause was just-whether the Constitution of our country gave to one section the right to raise such a tremendous army to destroy the other. Oh,no,such a thought never entered into their considerations. They had a splendid army, which they felt sure would march, almost without interruption, to the capture of Richmond, and thence on through the South to the Gulf of Mexico, if it pleased.
But when it reached Bull Run, a few miles from Manassas, it was suddenly confronted, on the 18th day of July, with the advance brigades of General Beauregard's army at Manassas. The engagement which took place resulted in the decided repulse of General McDowell; so much so, that it convinced him that Manassas could not be reached by his army on that line, and a new, or what is called a flank movement was at once resolved upon. So three days after this defeat at Bull Bun, General Scott gave his orders to General McDowell for a grand advance of the whole Army of the Potomac on Manassas.
So confident were the authorities at Washington of perfect success, that no secret was made in any circles of the grand movement. Congress adjourned to witness, as one of the members said, "the fun of the battle." All the roads between Washington and Manassas were literally jammed with noisy and jolly spectators going to witness the fight. Besides members of Congress, and high officials of the Administration, there were ministers of the Gospel, gay women, and merchants and editors from Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, all rushing, crushing, and joking along, as though they were going out to a horse-racing, instead of the awful slaughter of their fellow men. It was a grand and jolly picnic, with plenty of rum, whisky, brandy, and champagne along to be drunk at the general merrymaking and jollification which was to be held after the tremendous and triumphant slaughter of human beings. The idea of the defeat of this grand army seems never for an instant to have entered into the heads of these confident abolitionists.
General McDowell ordered his army to be in motion at two o'clock on the morning of the 21st of July. By nine o'clock the work of death commenced. The slaughter was terrible on both sides. The surging masses, now rushing forward and now falling back on each side, showed that the fight was intensely desperate. The terrible and ceaseless roar of the cannon,together with the clouds of smoke and dust which obscured the heavens, clothed the whole scene with a woe as terrible as the judgment day of the ungodly. It was Sunday. A strange time and a strange occasion to be used as a gala day by so many distinguished officials, ministers of the Gospel, and other professed Christian people!
At mid-day it seemed that the Confederate forces were surely being crushed by the vastly superior numbers that were constantly massed and hurled against their shattered and mangled columns. There was a moment when the Confederate commanders evidently thought they had lost the day, but their troops fell back sullenly, as if they preferred to die on the field of battle rather than yield to the foot of the invader. General Bee, whose command seems to have been entirely overwhelmed by vastly superior numbers, rode up to General Jackson and in despairing accents said: "General, they are beating us back." "Sir," coolly replied the invincible Jackson, "we'll give them the bayonet." At these determined words, General Bee appealed to his overwhelmed and disheartened soldiers to stand their ground and meet death rather than yield to the foe, and pointing to General Jackson, he said: "See! there is Jackson standing like a stone wall!" It was from this circumstance that General Jackson obtained the name of "Stonewall," a name which he will wear as long as the fame of his heroism survives; and that will be as long as the memory of man lasts.
The example set by General Jackson and his men, of standing like a stone wall, under the most terrible and deadly fire, together with his cool and determined words, "Sir, we'll give them the bayonet," acted like magic upon the discouraged and yielding men under General Bee's command. Again the Confederates, it could be seen, were gaining ground inch by inch, and at three o'clock, reinforcements having arrived under General J.E.Johnston, decided the fate of the day.
General Bee fell mortally wounded at the head of his command while gallantly leading it through an open field.
The defeat of the Northern troops was complete. It was more than a defeat,, it was a route. An army that an hour before was displaying the greatest confidence and heroism in battle was flying in the wildest confusion and dismay. Panic-stricken soldiers, and still more frightened members of Congress, merchants, ministers, gay ladies, heads of departments,teamsters, and loafers of every description, were all rushing, scrambling, dashing and tumbling along together in frantic confusion. The very horses seemed to partake of the general fright. Wounded soldiers imploringly caught hold of the carriages of members of Congress and others, with grasps of despair, and were actually beaten off with heavy blows upon their fingers. Confederate cannon were roaring behind them. Shot and shell hissing over their heads; while Stuart's cavalry was hotly dogging the rear of the flying legions.
Thus the defeated army not only ran back to Washington, but great numbers actually ran through Washington, and kept up the flight until the plains of Maryland and the hills of Pennsylvania were reached as asylums of safety. Hundreds of soldiers exchanged clothes with the negroes, in order the more easily to effect their escape.
All the champagne and other expensive wines and liquors, taken out for the Congressional picnic, fell into the hands of the Confederates. So might Washington have easily fallen into their hands, too, had they kept up the pursuit. For there was nothing to prevent the capture of Washington after this deplorable rout at Manassas. And why the Confederates did not follow up their great victory, and render it complete by the capture of Washington, remains the great mystery of the war. Rumor says that it was the wish of Gen. Beauregard, and also of General Jackson and General Johnston, to push right on and take the capital, but that they were withheld by the orders of President Davis.
It is said, by those who may be supposed to be well posted, that this refusal on the part of President Davis to allow the Confederate army to advance upon Washington, caused ill feeling between him and Generals Beauregard, Jackson and Johnston. So far did General Jackson carry his feeling of disappointment and mortification at what he denounced as "a fatal policy," that he actually tendered his resignation, but was induced to reconsider that determination by the entreaty of friends, aided by his religious conviction of the justice of their cause.
The effect of the humiliating defeat at Manassas was fearful indeed. Disappointment and mortification, however, are not the words to express the state of the Black Republican sentiment and feeling at the North. Rage is the word. Every man in the streets who did not join in swearing eternal vengeance against the South, was "spotted" as a "rebel sympathizer." Bands of noisy bullies paraded the streets, insulting and threatening every man whose conversation was not as violent as the rest. It was almost dangerous for a man to wear the manners of a gentleman. Everybody was expected to rave. Black Republican sentiment was especially severe on General Scott. It was declared that he was too old to manage such a campaign. Some went so far as to accuse him of being at heart a "rebel," and of "wanting the South to succeed." There was, of course, not the slightest justice in such a charge.
General Scott was not capable of comprehending the real design for which the war was waged, nor of measuring the political magnitude of the bloody events upon which the country was entering. He viewed the whole matter only with the eye of a soldier, which is not often the eye either of statesmanship or justice. But there was truth in the complaint that General Scott was to old. General McDowell also came in for his full share of abuse. He was denounced as "incompetent;" and the command of the Army of the Potomac was conferred upon General George B. McClellan, who had just won laurels in a small battle at Rich Mountain, in Western Virginia, and who was probably the ablest general connected with the Black Republican army. General McClellan at once set himself to the work of repairing the broken and utterly demoralized Army of the Potomac. It was a long and laborious task, as this history will show.
Mr.Lincoln, in order to give a flourish of patriotism to his war, had called Congress to meet together in special session on the national anniversary of the Fourth of July. The result of the battle of Manassas had shown that the South was not to be subjugated in "sixty days," as many shallow people had predicted. The army, or what was left of it, was mostly three months' men, who had volunteered to defend the capital. It was now necessary to raise a large army for longer terms of enlistment. But under the general belief existing that the Black Republican party intended to carry out their negro equality principles, it was difficult to induce men to enlist.
Some assurances on this point were absolutely necessary, or else it was doubtful whether the Northern masses could be got into the war. Accordingly Congress, immediately after the battle of Manassas, passed the following resolution defining the objects of the war:
"Resolved, That this war is not waged on our part in any spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest, or for interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity and rights of the several States unimpaired-and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease."
Upon the solemn promise embraced in this resolution, an army of 500,000 men was called for, and a expenditure of $500,000,000 authorized by Congress to carry on the war. That this pledge was shamefully broken after the men had been got into the army, will surprise no one when it is remembered by what a mean trick Mr.Seward and Mr.Lincoln had inaugurated the war itself.
To show still further how shamefully Mr.Lincoln deceived the people, we will quote from a letter written by Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, in August, 1861, to General Butler, at Fortress Monroe, wherein he says: "It is the desire of the President that all existing rights in all the States be fully respected and maintained. The war now prosecuted on the part of the Federal Government is a war for the Union, for the preservation of all the constitutional rights of the States and the citizens of the States in the Union." All intelligent people knew that this was false, and that the war was prosecuted for no such purpose. Yet it served the object for which it was intended. It deceived thousands and tens of thousands of ardent young men, and thus got them into the army. After the object of the war was changed, they were shot down for mutiny if they refused to fight to free negroes!
Return to History of the Great Civil War
RELATED ARTICLES
The Battle of Bull Run (1st Manassas) Official Records and Battle
JEB Stuart at 1st Manassas (Bull Run), Taken from the book "The Life and Campaigns ... The First Battle of Bull Run, Written after the war, this article was ...
Confederate States of America - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shortly before the end of the war, the Confederate government evacuated Richmond ... During its existence, the Confederate government conducted negotiations ...
Bull Run
PGT Beauregard looked through his field glasses at a column of soldiers advancing toward the battlefield at Bull Run, where fighting had raged since early ...
George Brinton McClellan Biography
McClellan, George Brinton, McClellan's Own Story; Hassler, Warren W., Jr., General George B. McClellan: Shield of the Union; and Myers, William Starr,...
General PGT Beauregard - Jun 7
You Found It! A stunning picture, portrait and biography of Confederate General PGT Beauregard.
Official Records of the Civil War - Battle Reports
Subsequently ascertaining that General Bee, who was on the left of our line, ... General Bee, with his rallied troops, soon marched to my support and as ...
Stonewall Jackson Resources. VMI Archives
.Stonewall Jackson Resources. Biography, FAQ, papers, images, and other information from the VMI Archives
