224
THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN.
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RUINS OF THE STONE BRIDGE, LOOKING ALONG THE WARRENTON TURNPIKE TOWARD THE BATTLE-FIELD.
This view is from a photograph taken in March, 1862, tlie the bridge was placed on the left in the felled timber,region having been left open to the Union forces by the which formed an abatis across the road. The battlewithdrawal of the Confederates. The Confederate bat- was opened from beyond the small house, Van Pelt’s,tery which in the first battle of Bull Run commanded on the right, by the Rhode Island troops.— Editors.
cold hearing, or none, to any recommendations of mine. Mr. Davis’s friend-ship, warm at the early period of the war, was changed, some time after thebattle of Manassas , to a corresponding hostility from several personal causes,direct and indirect, of which I need mention but one. My report of Manassas having contained, as part of its history, a statement of the submission ofthe full plan of campaign for concentrating our forces, crushing successivelyMcDowell and Patterson and capturing Washington, Mr. Davis strangelytook offense thereat; and, now that events had demonstrated the practica-bility of that plan, he sought to get rid of his self-accused responsibility forrejecting it, by denying that any such had been submitted — an issue, forthat matter, easily settled by my production of the contemporaneous reportof Colonel James Cliesnut, the bearer of the mission, who, moreover, at thetime of this controversy was on Mr. Davis’s own staff, where he remained.Mr. Davis made an endeavor to suppress the publication of my report of thebattle of Manassas . The matter came up in a secret debate in the Confeder-ate Congress, where a host of friends were ready to sustain me; but I senta telegram disclaiming any desire for its publication, and advising that thesafety of the country should be our solicitude, and not personal ends.
Thenceforth Mr. Davis’s hostility was watchful and adroit, neglecting noopportunity, great or small; and though, from motives all its opposite, it was