THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN.

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him to put Ms corps into the action where he was, and that he (McDowell)would move farther to the right and go into the battle there. Upon Porterremarking that he could not go in there without getting into a fight, McDowellreplied, “ I thought that was what we came here for.”

General J. E. B. Stuart, who commanded the cavalry in Lee’s army, tellsin his official report above quoted precisely what was in General Porter’sfront, and -what means he took to produce upon General Porter the impressionthat there were heavy forces in front of him and advancing toward him.General Porter certainly made no reconnoissance in force to ascertain whetheror not there was a heavy force in his front; and Stuart’s report makes itquite certain that, at the time referred toby him, Porter could easily have movedforward from Dawkins’s Branch andseized the ridge on which are the Hamp-ton Cole and Monroe houses, from •whichhe would have had a complete view ofthe field from right to left. Not only this,but his occupation of that ridge wouldhave connected him closely with our leftand absolutely prevented Longstreet fromforming on Jackson’s right until he haddislodged Porter, which would have oc-cupied him too long to have permittedthe effective use of his troops for anyother purpose, and certainly for the ad-vance which he subsequently made againstour left. Longstreet now asserts that hewas in front of Porter with part of hiscorps at some indefinite hour of the day,variously fixed, but according to him by 11 o’clock in the morning, aboutthe time that Porter’s corps reached Dawkins’s Branch. He further asserts,somewhat extravagantly, that if Porter had attacked he (Longstreet) wouldhave annihilated him. He seems to have thought it a simple matter to anni-hilate an army corps of ten or twelve thousand men, much of which wascomposed of regular troops, but perhaps his statement to that effect wouldhardly be accepted by military men. If such an assertion made by a corpscommander of one army is sufficient reason for a corps commander of theopposing army not to attack, even under orders to do so, it is hard to seehow any general commanding an army could direct a battle at all; and cer-tainly if such assertions as Longstreet’s are considered reliable, there wouldhave been no battle fought in our civil •war, since they could easily have beenhad from either side in advance of any battle that was fought.

It seems pertinent to ask why General Longstreet did not annihilatePorter’s corps during the day if it were so easily in his power to do so. It is alsoproper to suggest that it would have required a long time and all of his forceto do this annihilating business on such a corps as Porter’s ; and in that case,

MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE SVKES.FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.