THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN.

465

TIIE REAR OF THE COLUMN. FROM A WAR-TIME SKETCH.

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that night, to report thence at once to General McDowell, and to support him.in operations against the enemy which were expected near Gainesville . WithHooker’s division of Heintzelman’s corps I moved along the railroad towardManassas Junction , to reopen our communications and to be in position tocooperate with the forces along the Warrenton pike.

On the afternoon of that day a severe engagement took place betweenHooker’s division and Ewell’s division of Jackson’s corps, near Bristoe Station,on the railroa’d. Ewell was driven back along the railroad, but at dark stillconfronted Hooker along the banks of Broad Run. The loss in this actionwas about three hundred killed and wounded on each side. Ewell left hisdead, many of his wounded, and some of his baggage on the field. J,

I had not seen Hooker for many years, and I remembered him as a veryhandsome young man, with florid complexion and fair hair, and with a figureagile and graceful. As I saw him that afternoon on his white horse riding inrear of his line of battle, and close up to it, with the excitement of battle in hiseyes, and that gallant and ehivalric appearance which he always presentedunder fire, I was struck with admiration. As a corps commander, with hiswhole force operating under his own eye, it is much to be doubted whetherHooker had a superior in the army.

The railroad had been torn up and the bridges burned in several placesjust west of Bristoe Station. I therefore directed General Banks , who hadreached Warrenton Junction, to cover the railroad trains at that place untilGeneral Porter marched, and then to run back the trains toward Manassas as

$t This engagement is known as Kettle Run (see two of Lawton’s, and Brown’s and Johnson’s bat-map, p. 467). The Confederate force consisted of teries. After disputing Hooker’s advance for someEarly’s brigade, with two regiments of Forno’s, hours, Ewell withdrew under bre.— Editors.