THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN.

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and the Southern troops stood as defenders of their homes, and further thanthis we need not go. The armies were vastly greater than had ever beforefought on this continent, and were the largest volunteer armies ever assem-bled since the era of regular armies. The personal material on both sideswas of exceptionally good character, and collectively superior to that of anysubsequent period of the war. f The Confederate army was filled withgenerous youths who had answered the first call to arms. For certainkinds of field duty they were not as yet adapted, many of them having atfirst come with their baggage and servants; these they had to dispense with,but, not to offend their susceptibilities, I then exacted the least work fromthem, apart from military drills, even to the prejudice of important field-works, when I could not get sufficient negro labor; they “ had come to fight,and not to handle the pick and shovel,” and their fighting redeemed well theirshortcomings as intrenchers. Before I left that gallant army, however, it hadlearned how readily the humbler could aid the nobler duty.

As to immediate results and trophies, we captured a great many stands ofarms, batteries, equipments, standards, and flags, one of which was sent tome, through General Longstreet, as a personal compliment by the Texan“ crack shot,” Colonel B. F. Terry, who lowered it from its mast at FairfaxCourt House, by cutting the halyards by means of his unerring rifle, as ourtroops next morning reoccupied that place. We captured also many pris-oners, including a number of surgeons, whom (the first time in war) wetreated not as prisoners, but as guests. Calling attention to their bravedevotion to their wounded, I recommended to the War Department thatthey be sent home without exchange, together with some other prisoners,who had shown personal kindness to Colonel Jones, of the 4th Alabama ,who had been mortally wounded early in the day.

SUBSEQUENT RELATIONS OF MB. DAVIS AND THE WRITER.

The military result of the victory was far short of what it should havebeen. It established as an accomplished fact, on the indispensable basis ofmilitary success, the Government of the Confederate States, which beforewas but a political assertion; but it should have reached much further. Theimmediate pursuit, but for the false alarm which checked it, would have con-tinued as far as the Potomac , but must have stopped there with no greaterresult than the capture of more prisoners and material. The true immediatefruits of the victory should have been the dispersion of all the Federal forcessouth of Baltimore and east of the Alleghanies, the liberation of the State ofMaryland , and the capture of Washington, which could have been made onlyby the Upper Potomac. And from the high source of this achievement otherdecisive results would have continued to flow. From my experience in the

| This battle was noteworthy for the number ton, Fitzhugh Lee , Thomas Jordan, R. E. Rodes,of participants whose names are now prominently E. P. Alexander, and others. On the Federal sideassociated with the war. On the Confederate side, were Generals McDowell, W. T. Sherman , Burn-besides Generals Johnston and Beauregard, were side, Hunter, Heintzelman, Howard, Franklin,Generals Stonewall Jackson , Longstreet, Ewell, Slocum, Keyes, Hunt, Barry, Fry, Sykes, Barnard,Early, J. E. B. Stuart , Kirby Smith, Wade Hamp- Wadsworth, and others.— Editors.