188

MCDOWELL’S ADVANCE TO BULL RUN.

on the field and joined in the pursuitof Bee’s forces across the valley ofYoung’s Branch. Keyes’s brigade, ac-companied by Tyler in person, followedacross the stream where Sherman ford-ed, but without uniting with the otherforces on the field, made a feebleadvance upon the slope of the plateautoward the Robinson house, and thenabout 2 o’clock filed off by flank to itsleft and, sheltered by the east frontof the bluff that forms the plateau,marched down Young’s Branch out ofsight of the enemy and took no furtherpart in the engagement. McDowelldid not know where it was, nor did hethen know that Schenck’s brigade ofTyler’s division did not cross the Runat all.

The line taken up by StonewallJackson upon which Bee, Bartow, andEvans rallied on the southern part ofThe ground was high and afforded thecover of a curvilinear wood with the concave side toward the Federal lineof attack. According to Beauregard’s official report made at the time, he hadupon this part of the field, at the beginning, 6500 infantry, 13 pieces ofartillery, and 2 companies of cavalry, and this line was continuously reen-forced from Beauregard’s own reserves and by the arrival of the troops fromthe Shenandoah Yalley.

To carry this formidable position, McDowell had at hand the brigadesof Franklin, Willcox, Sherman, and Porter, Palmer’s battalion of regular cav-alry, and Ricketts’s and Griffin’s regular batteries. Porter’s brigade had beenreduced and shaken by the morning fight. Howard’s brigade was in reserveand only came into action late in the afternoon. The men, unused to field ser-vice, and not yet over the hot and dusty march from the Potomac, had beenunder arms since midnight. The plateau, however, was promptly assaulted,the northern part of it was carried, the batteries of Ricketts and Griffin wereplanted near the Henry house, and McDowell clambered to the upper storyof that structure to get a glance at the whole field. Upon the Henry houseplateau, of which the Confederates held the southern and the Federals thenorthern part, the tide of battle ebbed and flowed as McDowell pushed inFranklin’s, Willcox’s, Sherman’s, Porter’s, and at last Howard’s brigades, andas Beauregard put into action reserves which Johnston sent from the rightand reenforcements which he hurried forward from the Shenandoah Yalleyas they arrived by cars. On the plateau, Beauregard says, the disadvantageof his “ smooth-bore guns was reduced by the shortness of range.” The

CAPTAIN CHARLES GRIFFIN, AFTERWARDMAJOR-GENERAL.

the plateau was a very strong one.