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MCDOWELL’S ADVANCE TO BULL RUN.
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THE SUDLEY SPBINGS 3lOAl>, LOOKING NORTH FROM THE SLOPE OF THE HENRY HOUSE HILL.
In the middle-ground on the Warrenton turnpike dred and fifty yards from the right of the picture. Instands the Stone house, a central landmark in both the first battle the fighting began on the Matthews hill,battles of Bull Run. The bank in the right foreground seen in the background behind the Stone house, andwas a cover during the first battle for some of the sup- was most desperate on the Henry hill. Young’s Branchports of Griffin’s and Ricketts’s batteries that were (see map, page 180) crosses the Sudley road near its junc-on the Henry house hill, the crest of which is two him- tion with the turnpike, and flows near the Stone house.
The time of this repulse, as proved by so accurate an authority as Stone-wall Jackson , was before 11:30 a. m., and this is substantially confirmed byBeauregard’s official report made at the time. Sherman and Keyes hadnothing to do with it. They did not begin to cross Bull Run until noon.Thus, after nearly two hours’ stubborn fighting with the forces of Johnston,which General Scott had promised should be kept away, McDowell won thefirst advantage; but Johnston had cost him dearly.
During all this time Johnston and Beauregard had been waiting nearMitchell’s Ford for the development of the attack they had ordered by theirright upon McDowell at Centreville. The gravity of the situation upontheir left had not yet dawned upon them. What might the result have beenif the Union column had not been detained by Tyler’s delay in movingout in the early morning, or if Johnston’s army, to which Bee, Bartow, andJackson belonged, had not arrived ?
But the heavy firing on the left soon diverted Johnston and Beauregardfrom all thought of an offensive movement with their right, and decided them,as Beauregard has said, “ to hurry up all available reenforcements, includ-ing the reserves that were to have moved upon Centreville, to our left, andfight the battle out in that quarter.” Thereupon Beauregard ordered “ Ewell,Jones, and Longstreet to make a strong demonstration all along their front onthe other side of Bull Run, and ordered the reserves, Holmes’s brigade with