MCDOWELL'S ADVANCE TO BULL RUN.
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would call up additional forces from all quarters, and added: “ If GeneralJ. E. Johnston’s force is kept engaged by Major-General Patterson, andMajor-General Butler occupies the force now in his vicinity, I think theywill not he able to bring up more than 10,000 men, so we may calculateupon having to do with about 35,000 men.” And as it turned out, that wasabout the number he “ had to do with.” For the advance, McDowell asked“ a force of 30,000 of all arms, with a reserve of 10,000.” He knew that Beau-regard had batteries in position at several places in front of Bull Run anddefensive works behind the Run and at Manassas J unction. The stream beingfordable at many places, McDowell proposed in his plan of operations toturn the enemy’s position and force him out of it by seizing or threateninghis communications. Nevertheless, he said in his report:
“ Believing the chances are greatly in favor of the enemy’s accepting battle between this andthe Junction and that the consequences of that battle will be of the greatest importance to thecountry, as establishing the prestige in this contest, on the one side or the other, —the more so asthe two sections will be fairly represented by regiments from almost every State,—I think it ofgreat consequence that, as for the most part our regiments are exceedingly raw and the best ofthem, with few exceptions, not over steady in line, they be organized into as many small fixedbrigades as the number of regular colonels will admit, ... so that the men may have asfair a chance as the nature of things and the comparative inexperience of most will allow.”
This remarkably sound report was approved, and McDowell was directedto carry his plan into effect July 8th. But the government machineryworked slowly and there was jealousy in the way, so that the troops to bringhis army up to the strength agreed upon did not reach him until the 16th.
Beauregard’s Army of the Potomac at Manassas consisted of the brigadesof Holmes, Bonham, Ewell, D. R. Jones, Longstreet, Cocke and Early, and of
3 regiments of infantry, 1 regiment and 3 battalions of cavalry, and 6 bat-teries of artillery, containing in all 27 guns, making an aggregate availableforce on the field of Bull Run of about 23,000 men. Johnston’s army fromthe Shenandoah consisted of the brigades of Jackson, Bee, Bartow, andKirby Smith, 2 regiments of infantry not brigaded, 1 regiment of cavalry(12 companies), and -5 batteries (20 guns), making an aggregate at Bull Runof 8340.!
McDowell’s army consisted of 5 divisions, Tyler’s First Division, containing
4 brigades (Keyes’s, Schenck’s, W. T. Sherman ’s, and Richardson’s); Hunter’sSecond Division, containing 2 brigades (Andrew Porter’s and Burnside’s);Heintzelman’s Third Division, containing 3 brigades (Franklin’s, Willcox’s, andHoward’s); Runyon’s Fourth Division (9 regiments not brigaded); and Miles’sFifth Division, containing 2 brigades (Blenker’s and Davies’s),—10 batteries ofartillery, besides 2 guns attached to infantry regiments, 49 guns in all, and 7
| Beauregard himself has said that on the 18th 30,000 men of all arms.” The figures are probablyof July he had along the line of Bull Bun about under the mark, as Hampton’s Legion, McRae’s17,000men; thatonthe 19 th General Holmes joined regiment, a North Carolina “regiment and twohim with about 3000 men; and that he “ received battalions of Mississippi and Alabama ” joinedfrom Richmond between the 18th and 21st about between the 17th and 21st. Beauregard’s force2000 more”; and that Johnston brought about 8000 may fairly be placed at 32,000; and the opposingmore, the advance arriving “on the morning of the armies, both in the aggregate and in the parts20th and the remainder about noon of the 21st,” engaged, were nearer equal in that than in anymaking his whole force, as he states it, “nearly other battle in Virginia.—J. B. F.