BIG BETHEL-HARPER'S FERRY. 531 ments; and another regiment was | Our total loss, in the advance and the ordered up to his support. Col. Dur- attack, was hardly less than 100 men; yea had already surprised and cap- while the Rebels reported theirs at tured a picket-guard of the enemy, 1 killed and 7 wounded. Gen. Pierce, consisting of thirty persons, who were whose inexperience and incapacity sent prisoners to the fort. had largely contributed to our misfortune, finally ordered a retreat, which was made, and in good order; the Rebels following for some miles with cavalry, but at a respectful distance. And, so conscious were their leaders that they owed their advantage to accident, that they abandoned the position that night, and retreated so far as Yorktown, ten miles up the Peninsula. No further collisions of moment occurred in this department that season. Gen. Butler was succeeded by Gen. Wool on the 16th of August. 5 Gen. Pierce, finding only a hastily deserted camp at Little Bethel, pushed on to Big Bethel, several miles further. Here he found a substantial, though hastily constructed, breastwork, protected from assault by a deep creek, with 1,800 Confederates, under Col. J. B. Magruder, behind it. Gen. Pierce, who, probably, had never before seen a shot fired in actual war, ordered an attack; planting his few small guns in the open field, half a mile from the well-sheltered Rebel batteries in his front. Our balls, of course, buried themselves harmlessly in the Rebel earthworks ;" while our men, though partially screened by woods and houses, were exposed to a deadly fire from the Rebels. For four hours, the action thus continued—necessarily with considerable loss on our side and very little on the other. Finally, a more Finally, a more determined assault was made by a part of our infantry, led by Major Theodore Winthrop, Aid to Gen. Butler, who was shot dead while standing on a log, cheering his men to the charge. His courage and conduct throughout the fight rendered him conspicuous to, and excited the admiration of, his enemies. Lieut. John T. Greble, of the 2d regular artillery, was likewise killed instantly by a ball through the head, while serving his gun in the face of the foe. 5 Pollard says: The only injury received from their artillery was the loss of a mule." 6 Col. (since, Major-Gen.) D. H. Hill, who commanded the 1st North Carolina in this affair, in 6 Reports of a contemplated Rebel invasion of the North, through Maryland, were current throughout the month of May, countenanced by the fact that Maryland Hights, opposite Harper's Ferry, were held by Johnston through most of that month, while a considerable force appeared opposite Williamsport on the 19th, and seemed to meditate a crossing. A rising in Baltimore, and even a dash on Philadelphia, were among their rumored purposes. Surveys and reconnoissances had been made by them of Arlington Hights and other eminences on the Virginia side of the Potomac, as if with intent to plant. batteries for the shelling of Washington. But the Union forces, in that State and Maryland, increased so rapidly, that any offensive movement his official report, after claiming a victory, says: "Fearing that heavy reënforcements would be sent up from Fortress Monroe, we fell back at nightfall upon our works at Yorktown." CROSSING INTO VIRGINIA.-VIENNA. in that quarter on the part of the Rebels would have been foolhardy in the extreme. Finally, on the night of the 23d-the day of her election aforesaid-Gen. Scott gave the order for an advance; and, before morning, 10,000 Unionists were planted on the 'sacred soil.' Gen. Mansfield superintended the crossing of the Long Bridge; while Gen. McDowell conducted that over the Chain Bridge at Georgetown; whence the 69th New York, Col. Corcoran, was pushed forward to seize the crossing of the Orange and Manassas Gap Railway, some miles westward. The NewYork Fire Zouaves, Col. Ellsworth, moved by steamers directly on Alexandria; but the Rebels in that city had either been warned by treachery, or were alarmed by the menacing appearance of the gunboat Pawnee, and had very generally escaped when the Zouaves landed. Some 300 of them, mainly civilians, were captured by the New York 69th, in their flight on the railroad aforesaid. No resistance was met at any point. But Col. Ellsworth, seeing a Secession flag flying from the 'Marshall House' at Alexandria, stepped in, with four followers, and took it down. Passing down the stairs, he was met by one Jackson, the hotel-keeper, who, raising a double-barreled gun, shot Ellsworth dead on the spot. He was himself instantly shot in turn by Francis E. Brownell, one of Col. Ellsworth's followers; and the two who, at one moment, confronted each other as strangers but as mortal foes, the next lay side by side in death.. Jack son's deed, which, at the North, was shudderingly regarded as assassination, at the South, was exulted over 533 as an exhibition of patriotic heroism; and a subscription was at once set on foot for the benefit of his family. This incident was rightly regarded by many as indicative of the terrible earnestness of the contest upon which the American people were now entering. Gen. McDowell, having firmly established himself on the right bank of the Potomac for several miles opposite to and below Washington, proceeded to fortify his position, but made no further offensive demonstrations for several weeks; whose quiet was broken only by a brisk dash into and through the village of Fairfax Court-House by Lieut. C. H. Tompkins, of the 2d regular cavalry-resulting in a loss of six on either sideand by an ambuscade at Vienna. Late on Monday, June 17th, Gen. Robert C. Schenck, under orders from Gen. McDowell, left camp near Alexandria, with 700 of Col. McCook's 1st Ohio, on a railroad train, and proceeded slowly up the track toward Leesburg, detaching and stationing two companies each at Fall's Church and at two road-crossings as he proceeded. He was nearing Vienna, thirteen miles from Alexandria, with four remaining companies, numbering 275 men, utterly unsuspicious of danger, when, on emerging from a cut and turning a curve, eighty rods from the village, his train was raked by a masked battery of two guns, hastily planted by Col. Gregg," who had been for two or three days scouting along our front, with about 800 Rebels, mainly South Carolinians, and who, Jack-mainly starting that morning from Dranesville, had been tearing up the track at Vienna, and had started to return * Afterward, Gen. Maxcy Gregg; Governor elect of South Carolina; killed at Fredericksburg. to Dranesville when they heard the whistle of Gen. Schenck's locomotive. Several rounds of grape were fired point-blank into the midst of the Ohio boys, who speedily sprang from the cars, and formed under the protection of a clump of trees on the side of the track. The engineer, who was backing the train, and, of course, in the rear of it, instantly detached his locomotive, and started at his best speed for Alexandria, leaving the cars to be burnt by the Rebels, and the dead and wounded to be brought off in blankets by their surviving comrades. The Rebels, deceived by the cool, undaunted bearing of our force, did not venture to advance, for fear of falling into a trap in their turn; so that our loss in men was but 20, including one captain. The Rebels, of course, lost none. Each party retreated immediately-the Rebels to Fairfax Court House. As very much has since been said, on both sides, with partial justice, of outrages and barbarities, devastation. and rapine, whereof 'the enemy' is always assumed to be guilty, the following manifesto, issued by a Confederate chief at the very outset of the contest, and before it could have had any foundation in fact, casts light on many similar and later inculpations: ‘HEAD-QUARTERS, DEP'T OF ALEXANDRIA, "To the people of the Counties of Loudoun, Fairfax, and Prince William : "A reckless and unprincipled tyrant has invaded your soil. Abraham Lincoln, regardless of all moral, legal, and constitutional restraints, has thrown his Abolition hosts among you, who are murdering and imprisoning your citizens, confiscating and destroying your property, and committing other acts of violence and outrage, too shocking and revolting to humanity to be enumerated. "All rules of civilized warfare are aban doned, and they proclaim by their acts, if not on their banners, that their war-cry is 'Beauty and Booty." All that is dear to man---your honor, and that of your wives and daughters-your fortunes and your lives, are involved in this momentous contest. "In the name, therefore, of the constituted authorities of the Confederate States—in the sacred cause of constitutional liberty and self-government, for which we are contending-in behalf of civilization itself—I, G. T. Beauregard, Brigadier-General of the Confederate States, commanding at Camp Pickens, Manassas Junction, do make this my Proclamation, and invite and enjoin you, by every consideration dear to the hearts of freemen and patriots, by the name and memory of your Revolutionary fathers, and firesides, to rally to the standard of your State by the purity and sanctity of your domestic and country; and, by every means in your power, compatible with honorable warfare, to drive back and expel the invaders from your land. I conjure you to be true and loyal to your country and her legal and constitutional authorities, and especially to be vigilant observers of the movements and acts of the enemy, so as to enable you to give the earliest authentic information at these headquarters, or to the officers under my command. "I desire to assure you that the utmost protection in my power will be given to you all. G. T. BEAUREGARD, “Brigadier-General Commanding.” Three days before, and in utter unconsciousness of the fulmination which Beauregard was preparing, Gen. McDowell, in command of our forces in his front, had issued the following: "HEAD-QUARTERS DEP'T OF N. E. VIRGINIA, ARLINGTON, June 2d, 1861. "GENERAL ORDER No. 4.-Statements of the amount, kind, and value, of all private property taken and used for Government purposes, and of the damage done in any way to private property, by reason of the occupation of this section of the country by the United States troops, will, as soon as practicable, be made out and transmitted to department head-quarters of brigades by the commanders of brigades, and officers in charge of the several fortifications. These statements will exhibit : "First. The quantity of land taken possession of for the several field-works, and the kind and value of the crops growing thereon, if any. GEN. PATTERSON CROSSES THE POTOMAC. "Second. The quantity of land used for the several encampments, and the kind and value of the growing crops, if any. "Third. The number, size, and character of the buildings appropriated to public purposes. Fourth. The quantity and value of trees cut down. Fifth. The kind and extent of fencing, etc., destroyed. 535 | insisted on for the honor of our country and her people. "These statements will, as far as possible, give the value of the property taken, or of the damage sustained, and the name or names of the owners thereof. Citizens who have sustained any damage or loss as above will make their claims upon the commanding officers of the troops by whom it was done, or, in cases where these troops have moved away, upon the commander nearest them. "These claims will accompany the statement above called for. The commanders of brigades will require the assistance of the commanders of regiments or detached companies, and will make this order known to the inhabitants in their vicinity, to the end that all loss or damage may, as nearly as possible, be ascertained while the troops are now here, and by whom, or on whose account, it has been occasioned, that justice may be done alike to the citizen and to the Government. The name of the officer or officers, in case the brigade commanders shall institute a board to fix the amount of loss or damage, shall be given in each case. "By order of Brig. Gen. MCDOWELL. "JAMES B. FRY, Ass't Adj't-General.” Of course, this order does not prove that no outrage was committed, no wanton injury inflicted, by our soldiers, in this or other portions of the Confederacy. War cannot afford to be nice in the selection of its instruments; and probably no campaign was ever prosecuted through a friendly, much more a hostile, region, wherein acts of violence and spoliation were not perpetrated by soldiers on the defenseless inhabitants of the country. But that the commanders on our side, and, in fact, on both sides, were generally earnest and vigilant in repressing and punishing these excesses, is the simple truth, which should be asserted and Gen. Robert Patterson, with about 20,000 men, broke camp at Chambersburg, June 7th, and advanced to Hagerstown, while Col. Lew. Wallace, on his right, took quiet possession of Cumberland, and made a dash upon Romney, which he easily captured. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Rebels, burned the bridge at Point of Rocks on the 7th, and evacuated Harper's Ferry on the 14th, destroying the superb railway bridge over the Potomac. He retreated upon Winchester and Leesburg, after having destroyed the machinery having been already sent armory and shops at the Ferry-the off to Richmond. The Chesapeake Canal and the several railroads in this region were thoroughly dismantled. The Potomac was crossed at Williamsport, by Gen. Thomas, on the 16th. But, for some reason, this advance was countermanded, and our troops all recrossed on the 18thGen. Patterson remaining at Hagerstown. The Rebels at once returned to the river, completing the work of destruction at Harper's Ferry, and conscripting Unionists as well as Confederates to fill their ranks. Patterson recrossed the Potomac at Williamsport on the morning of July 2d, at a place known as 'Falling Waters,' encountering a small Rebel force under Gen. Jackson (afterward known as 'Stonewall'), who, being outnumbered, made little resistance, but fell back to Martinsburg, and ultimately to Bunker Hill. On the 7th, an order to advance on Winchester was given, but not executed. Finally, on the 15th, Patterson moved forward to |