THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN.

BY G. T. BEAUREGARD, GENERAL, C. S. A.

. LOUISIANA ‘TIGER.’ 1

IOON after the first conflict between the authorities of theFederal Union and those of the Confederate States hadoccurred in Charleston Harbor, by the bombardment of FortSumter,—which, beginning at 4:30 a. m. on the 12th of April,1861, forced the surrender of that fortress within thirty hoursthereafter into my hands,—I was called to Richmond , whichby that time had become the Confederate seat of government,and was directed to “ assume command of the Confederatetroops on the Alexandria line.” Arriving at ManassasJunction, I took command on the 2d of June, forty-ninedays after the evacuation of Fort Sumter.

Although the position at the time was strategically ofcommanding importance to the Confederates, the mere- terrain was not only without natural defensive advan-tages, but, on the contrary, was absolutely unfavorable.Its strategic value was that, being close to the Federalcapital, it held in observation the chief army then beingassembled near Arlington by General McDowell, under the immediate eye ofthe commander-in-chief, General Scott, for an offensive movement againstRichmond ; and while it had a railway approach in its rear for the easy accu-mulation of reenforcements and all the necessary munitions of war from thesouthward, at the same time another (the Manassas Gap) railway, diverginglaterally to the left from that point, gave rapid communications with the fer-tile valley of the Shenandoah, then teeming with live stock and cereal subsist-ence, as well as with other resources essential to the Confederates. There wasthis further value in the position to the Confederate army: that during theperiod of accumulation, seasoning, and training, it might be fed from the fatfields, pastures, and garners of Loudoun, Fauquier , and the Lower ShenandoahValley counties, which otherwise must have fallen into the hands of the enemy.But, on the other hand, Bull Run, a petty stream, was of little or no defen-sive strength; for it abounded in fords, and although for the most part itsbanks were rocky and abrupt, the side from which it would be approachedoffensively in most places commanded the opposite ground.

At the time of my arrival at Manassas, a Confederate army under GeneralJoseph E. Johnston was in occupation of the Lower Shenandoah Valley, alongthe line of the Upper Potomac, chiefly at Harper’s Ferry , which was regardedas the gateway of the valley and of one of the possible approaches to Rich-mond ; a position from which he was speedily forced to retire, however, by aflank movement of a Federal army, under the veteran General Patterson,thrown across the Potomac at or about Martinsburg. On my other or rightflank, so to speak, a Confederate force of some 2500 men under General

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