MCDOWELL’S ADVANCE TO BULL RUN.

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WHITE HOUSE. CANAL. WASHINGTON MONUMENT .

VIEW OF WASHINGTON FROM THE SIGNAL CAMI% GEORGETOWN HEIGHTS.—I.

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companies of regular cavalry. Of the foregoing forces, 9 of the batteries and 8companies of infantry were regulars, and 1 small battalion was marines.The aggregate force was about 35,000 men. Runyon’s Fourth Division was6 or 7 miles in the rear guarding the road to Alexandria, and, though countedin the aggregate, was not embraced in McDowell’s order for battle.\

There was an ill-suppressed feeling of sympathy with the Confederacy in theSouthern element of Washington society; but the halls of Congress resoundedwith the eloquence of Union speakers. Martial music filled the air, and warwas the topic wherever men met. By day and night the tramp of soldiers washeard, and staff-officers and orderlies galloped through the streets betweenthe headquarters of Generals Scott and McDowell. Northern enthusiasm wasunbounded. “ On to Richmond ” was the war-cry. Public sentiment wasirresistible, and in response to it the army advanced. It was a gloriousspectacle. The various regiments were brilliantly uniformed according tothe aesthetic taste of peace, and the silken banners they flung to the breeze wereunsoiled and untorn. The bitter realities of war were nearer than we knew.

McDowell marched on the afternoon of July 16th, the men carrying threedays’ rations in their haversacks; provision wagons were to follow fromAlexandria the next day. On the morning of the 18th his forces were con-centrated at Centreville, a point about 20 miles west of the Potomac and

\ The average length of service of McDowell’s men prior to the battle was about sixty days. Thelongest in service were the three-months men, and of these he had fourteen regiments.— J. B. F.