with each, and running back to the forest. Between the two hills is a brook, a tributary of Young's Branch. Upon the latter hill General McDowell directed Reynolds' division and a portion of Rickett's command, so as to check the flank manœuvre that menaced to seize the Warrenton turnpike, which was the line of retreat of the whole army.

The occupation of this position was judicious on the part of General McDowell; but the detachment of Reynolds from Porter's left for that purpose had an unfortunate result ;* for it exposed the key-point of Porter's line. Colonel G. K. Warren, who then commanded one of Porter's brigades, seeing the imminence of the danger, at once, and without waiting for orders, moved forward with his small but brave brigade of about a thousand men,† and occupied the important position abandoned by Reynolds; Porter then, as well to sustain Warren, as to fulfil his orders of pursuit, his column of attack being formed, made a vigorous assault on the Confederate position; but beyond driving back the advanced line so as to develop the Confederate array as formed behind the railroad embankment, he was able to accomplish nothing. Line after line was swept away by the enemy's artillery and infantry fire, and so destructive was its effect that Porter's troops finally were compelled to withdraw. Porter's attack had been directed against Jackson; but Longstreet, on Jackson's right, found a commanding point of ground, whence he could rake the assaulting columns with an enfilading fire of artillery. "From an eminence near by," says that officer, "one portion of the enemy's masses, attacking General Jackson, were immediately within my view, and in easy range of batteries in that position. It gave me an advantage I had not expected to have, and I made haste to use it. Two batteries were ordered for the purpose, and one placed in position immediately and opened. Just as this fire began, I received a message from

*Sigel's corps should have been taken in place of Reynolds' division, or anybody else rather than Reynolds.

teers.

Warren's command consisted of the Fifth and Tenth New York Volun

BRAR

OF THE

VERSITY

F

CALIFORNIA

POPE'S CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA.

191

the commanding general, informing me of General Jackson's condition and his wants. As it was evident that the attack against General Jackson could not be continued ten minutes under the fire of these batteries, I made no movement with my troops. Before the second battery could be placed in position the enemy began to retire, and in less than ten minutes the ranks were broken, and that portion of his army put to flight."* Warren occupying the important point he had seized, held on stoutly and against a fearful loss till all the rest of Porter's troops had been retired, and only withdrew when the enemy had advanced so close as to fire in the very faces of his men.

Such was the situation of affairs at five o'clock in the afternoon Porter's troops, fearfully cut up in repeated assaults of a position which it was hopeless to attempt to carry, were retiring from the field. Jackson immediately took up the pursuit, and was joined by a general advance of the whole Confederate line-Longstreet extending his right so as, if possible, to cut off the retreat of the Union forces. By an impetuous rush, the latter carried the "Bald Hill," held by Reynolds and Ricketts; and it then became doubtful whether even the "Henry House Hill" could be maintained so as to cover the retreat of the army over Bull Run, for Longstreet had thrown around his right so as to menace that position. This, however, was happily provided for by the firmness of some battalions of Regulars, which held the ground until relieved by the brigades of Meade and Seymour and other troops, that maintained the position and permitted the withdrawal of the army. Under cover of the darkness the wearied troops retired across Bull Run, by the stone bridge, and

Owing to the ob

took position on the heights of Centreville. scurity of the night, and the uncertainty of the fords of Bull Run, Lee attempted no pursuit.+

* Longstreet: Reports of the Army of Northern Virginia, vol. ii., p. 83. "The obscurity of the night, and the uncertainty of the fords of Bull Run, rendered it necessary to suspend operations until morning." Lee's Re port Reports of the Army of Northern Virginia, vol. i., p. 25.

V.

ЕХІТ РОРЕ.

At Centreville, Pope united with the corps of Franklin and Sumner, and he remained there during the whole of the 31st. But Lee had not yet given up the pursuit. Leaving Longstreet on the battle-field, he sent Jackson by a detour on Pope's right, to strike the Little River turnpike, and by that route to Fairfax Courthouse, to intercept, if possible, Pope's retreat to Washington. Jackson's march was much retarded by a heavy storm that commenced the day before and still continued. Pope, meantime, fell back to positions covering Fairfax Courthouse and Germantown; and on the evening of the 1st of September, Jackson struck his right posted at Ox Hill, near Germantown. He immediately engaged the Union force with Hill's and Ewell's divisions in the midst of a cold and drenching rain. The attack fell upon Reno, Hooker, a part of McDowell, and Kearney. A firm front was maintained till Stevens' division of Reno's corps, owing to the exhaustion of its ammunition, and the death of its general, was forced back in disorder. To repair this break, Kearney, with the promptitude that marked him, sent forward Birney's brigade of his own division; and presently, all aglow with zeal, brought up a battery which he placed in position. But there still remained a gap on Birney's right, caused by the retirement of Stevens' division. This Birney pointed out to Kearney, and that gallant soldier, dashing forward to reconnoitre the ground, unwittingly rode into the enemy's lines and was killed. In his death, the army lost the living ideal of a soldier-a preux chevalier, in whom there were mixed the qualities of chivalry and gallantry as strong as ever beat beneath the mailed coat of an olden knight. Like Desaix, whom Napoleon characterized as "the man most worthy to

be his lieutenant," Kearney died opposing a heroic breast to disaster.

On the following day, September 2d, the army was, by order of General Halleck, drawn back within the lines of Washington, and Lee, abandoning direct pursuit, began to turn his eyes towards the north of the Potomac.

Within the fortifications of Washington the army now rested from the labors, fatigues, and privations of this trying campaign, in which, from the Rapidan to the front of the capital, it had fought and retreated, and retreated and fought. It had passed through an experience calculated to dislocate the structure of most armies; and if it reached the lines of Washington in any military order whatsoever, it was because the individual patriotism of the rank and file supplied a bond of cohesion when the bond of military discipline failed. Of the losses in killed and wounded during this campaign, no official record is found; but the Confederate commander claims the capture of nine thousand prisoners, thirty pieces of artillery, and upwards of twenty thousand stands of arms in the engagement on the plains of Manassas alone. Untold thousands had straggled from their commands during the retreat.

out.

As for Pope, it is hardly possible to feel for him less than pity, in spite of the bombastic pretensions with which he set The record already given does not justify the assertion that he was not obeyed by his subordinates; but it cannot be denied that the estimate of his character held by the officers under his command was not of a kind to elicit that hearty and zealous co-operation needed for the effective conduct of great military operations. He had the misfortune to be of all men the most disbelieved. General Pope took the first opportunity on his return to Washington to vacate the command; the Army of Virginia passed out of existence, and its corps, united with the Army of the Potomac, fell back into the arms of McClellan.

VI.

THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN.

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1862.

I.

MANEUVRES PREVIOUS TO ANTIETAM.

WHEN Lee put his columns in motion from Richmond, it was with no intent of entering upon a campaign of invasion across the great river that formed the dividing line between the warring powers. But who can foretell the results that may spring from the simplest act in that complex interplay of cause and effect we name war? A secondary operation, having in view merely to hold Pope in check, had effected not only its primal aim, but the infinitely more important result of dislodging the Army of the Potomac from the Peninsula. Thus relieved of all care touching Richmond, Lee was free to assume a real offensive for the purpose not merely of checking but of crushing Pope. The success of the campaign had been remarkable. From the front of Richmond the theatre of operations had been transferred to the front of Washington; the Union armies had been reduced to a humiliating defensive, and the rich harvests of the Shenandoah Valley and Northern Virginia were the prize of the victors. To crown and consolidate these conquests, Lee now determined to cross the frontier into Maryland.

The prospective advantages of such a transfer of the theatre of war to the north of the Potomac seemed strongly to invite it; for, in addition to the telling blows Lee might