214

THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN.

do anything for him. He answered that he wanted to be sent back to Wash-ington. As some of our prisoners were there held under threats of not beingtreated as prisoners of war, I replied that that must depend upon how ourprisoners were treated, and ordered him to be carried to the rear. I mentionthis, because the report of the Federal Committee on the Conduct of theWar exhibits Captain Ricketts as testifying that I only approached him tosay that he would be treated as our prisoners might be treated. I sent myown surgeons to care for him, and allowed his wife to cross the lines andaccompany him to Richmond; and my adjutant-general, Colonel Jordan,escorting her to the car that carried them to that city, personally attended tothe comfortable placing of the wounded enemy for the journey.

That part of the enemy who occupied the woods beyond our left andacross the Sudley road had not been reached by the headlong charge whichhad swept their comrades from the plateau; but the now arriving reenforce-ments (Kershaw’s 2d and Cash’s 8th South Carolina ) were led into thatquarter. Kemper’s battery also came up, preceded by its commander,who, while alone, fell into the hands of a number of the enemy, who tookhim prisoner, until a few moments later, when he handed them over to someof our own troops accompanying his battery. A small plateau, within thesouth-west angle of the Sudley and turnpike cross-roads, was still held bya strong Federal brigade — Howard’s troops, together with Sykes’s battalionof regulars; and while Kershaw and Cash , after passing through the skirtsof the oak wood along the Sudley road, engaged this force, Kemper’s bat-tery was sent forward by Kershaw along the same road, into position nearwhere a hostile battery had been captured, and whence it played upon theenemy in the open field.

Quickly following these regiments came Preston’s 28th Virginia, which,passing through the woods, encountered and drove back some Michigan troops, capturing Brigadier-General Willcox. It was now about 3 o’clock,when another important reenforcement came to our aid—Elzey’s brigade,1700 strong, of the Army of the Shenandoah, which, coming from Pied-mont by railroad, had arrived at Manassas station, 6 miles in rear of thebattle-field, at noon, and had been without delay directed thence towardthe field by Colonel Jordan, aided by Major T. G. Rhett, who that morninghad passed from General Bonham’s to General Johnston’s staff. Uponnearing the vicinity of the Lewis house, the brigade was directed by a staff-officer sent by General Johnston toward the left of the field. As it reachedthe oak wood, just across the Sudley road, led by General Kirby Smith, thelatter fell severely wounded; but the command devolved upon ColonelElzey, an excellent officer, who was now guided by Captain D. B. Harrisof the Engineers , a highly accomplished officer of my staff, still farther tothe left and through the woods, so as to form in extension of the line of thepreceding reenforcements. Beckham’s battery, of the same command, washurried forward by the Sudley road and around the woods into position nearthe Chinn house; from a well-selected point of action, in full view of theenemy that filled the open fields west of the Sudley road, it played with