192
MCDOWELL’S ADVANCE TO BULL RUN.
from about 10 A. M. Until 4 p. m. on a hot and dusty day in July. McDowellin person reached Centreville before sunset, | and found there Miles’s divisionwith Richardson’s brigade and 3 regiments of Runyon’s division, and Hunt’s,Tidball’s, Ayres’s, and G-reene’s batteries and 1 or 2 fragments of batteries,making about 20 guns. It was a formidable force, but there was a lackof food and the mass of the army wascompletely demoralized. Beauregardhad about an equal force which hadnot been in the fight, consisting ofEwell’s, Jones’s, and Longstreet’s bri-
gades and some troops of other brigades.
McDowell consulted the division andbrigade commanders who were at handupon the question of making a stand orretreating. The verdict was in favor ofthe latter, but a decision of officers oneway or the other was of no moment;the men had already decided for them-selves and were streaming away to therear, in spite of all that could be done.
They had no interest or treasure inCentreville, and their hearts were notthere. Their tents, provisions, baggage,and letters from home were upon thebanks of the Potomac, and no power could have stopped them short ofthe camps they had left less than a week before. As before stated, mostof them were sovereigns in uniform, not soldiers. McDowell accepted thesituation, detailed Richardson’s and Blenker ’s brigades to cover the retreat,and the army, a disorganized mass, with some creditable exceptions, drifted
4 .1 left the field with General Franklin. Hisbrigade had dissolved. We moved first northerly,crossed Bull Run below the Sudley Spring Ford,and then bore south and east. Learning by inquir-ies of the men I passed that McDowell was aheadof me, I leftFranklin and hurried on to Centreville,where I found McDowell, just after sunset, re-arranging the positions of his reserves.— J. B. F.
j) Colonel Louis Blenker , commanding the FirstBrigade of Miles’s division, covered the retreat ofthe army from Centreville, which he describes asfollows: “In this position the brigade remaineduntil about 4 o’clock P. M., when I received ordersto advance upon the road from Centreville to War-renton. This order was executed with great diffi-culty, as the road was nearly choked up by theretreating baggage-wagons of several divisions,and by the vast numbers of flying soldiers belong-ing to various regiments. . . . The 8th [New
York Volunteer] Regiment took position one and ahalf miles south of Centreville, on both sides of theroad leading to Bull Run. The 29th [New York]Regiment stood half a mile behind the 8th, enichiquier by companies. The Garibaldi Guard stood
as reserve in line behind the 29th Regiment.The retreat of great numbers of flying soldierscontinued till 9 o’clock in the evening, the greatmajority in wild confusion, but few in collectedbodies. Soon afterward several squadrons of theenemy’s cavalry advanced along the road andappeared before the outposts. They were chal-lenged by ‘ Who comes there ? ’ and remainingwithout any answer, I, being just present at theoutposts, called, ‘Union forever.’ Whereupon theofficer of the enemy’s cavalry commanded, ‘ En avant; en avant. Knock him down!’ Now theskirmishers fired, when the enemy turned around,leaving several killed and wounded on the spot.About nine prisoners, who were already in theirhands, were liberated by this action. Afterwardwe were several times molested from various sidesby the enemy’s cavalry. At about midnight thecommand to leave the position and march toWashington was given by General McDowell.The brigade retired in perfect order, and readyto repel any attack on the road from Centre-ville to Fairfax Court House, Annandale to Wash-ington.”— Editors.