THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN.
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Holmes occupied the position of Aquia Creek on the lower Potomac , uponthe line of approach to Richmond from that direction through Fredericks-burg. The other approach, that by way of the James River, was held byConfederate troops underGenerals Huger and Ma-gruder. Establishing smalloutposts at Leesburg to ob-serve the crossings of thePotomac in that quarter,and at Fairfax Court Housein observation of Arlington,with other detachments inadvance of Manassas towardAlexandria on the southside of the railroad, fromthe very outset I was anx-iously aware that the solemilitary advantage at themoment to the Confeder-ates was that of holding theinterior lines. On the Fed-eral or hostile side were all material advantages, including superior numbers,largely drawn from the old militia organizations of the great cities of theNorth, decidedly better armed and equipped than the troops under me, andstrengthened by a small but incomparable body of regular infantry as wellas a number of batteries of regular field artillery of the highest class, and avery large and thoroughly organized staff corps, besides a numerous bodyof professionally educated officers in command of volunteer regiments, J —all precious military elements at such a juncture.
Happily, through the foresight of Colonel Thomas Jordan,—whom GeneralLee had placed as the adjutant-general of the forces there assembledbefore my arrival,— arrangements were made which enabled me to receiveregularly, from private persons at the Federal capital, most accurate infor-mation, of which politicians high in council, as well as War Department clerks, were the unconscious ducts. On the 4th of July, my pickets hap-pened upon and captured a soldier of the regulars, who proved to be a clerkin the adjutant-general’s office of General McDowell, intrusted with the specialduty of compiling returns of his army—a work which he confessed, withoutreluctance, he had just executed, showing the forces under McDowell aboutthe 1st of July. His statement of the strength and composition of that forcetallied so closely with that which had been acquired through my Washingtonagencies, already mentioned, as well as through the leading Northern news-papers (regular files of which were also transmitted to my headquarters fromthe Federal capital), that I could not doubt them.
) The professionally educated officers on the Confederate side at Bull Run included Generals Johnston,Beauregard, Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet, Kirby Smith , Ewell, Early, Bee, D. R. Jones, Holmes,Evans, Elzey, and Jordan, all in high positions, besides others not so prominent.— Editors.