MARCHING ON MANASSAS.
Proceeding on our way, when we reached Manas-sas Plains on the morning of the 27th, a mileor a mile and a half from the Junction , our brigadein the van of Jackson’s corps,—a staff-officer ofGeneral Pitz Lee’s,— who had preceded us againafter our late encounter,—rode back to explain thenew situation.
He said that Fitz Lee had reached ManassasJunction at daybreak and made his appearancebefore the enemy. General George W. Taylor, ofthe U. S. army, commanding a brigade of Frank-lin’s division advancing from Alexandria for theprotection of the stores at Manassas Junction ,supposing that Lee was making a mere cavalryreconnoissance, and not aware of the Confederateforces between General Pope and himself, haddemanded Fitz Lee’s unconditional surrender,adding that, as Pope was in the rear and hisretreat was entirely cut off, there was no alterna-tive. Lee returned him a facetious answer,requesting an hour to consider the question, sup-posing by that time that General Jackson wouldbe up with him.
When we appeared from the woods which hadconcealed the infantry, General Taylor, still con-sidering, when he saw us, that we were only abrigade of infantry that supported Lee’s cavalry,advanced toward us in three lines of battle. Webrought our batteries, four in number, to bear,tlie shot and shell from which began to plowthrough their ranks before we opened on themwith our infantry. They closed up the gaps andmarched toward us in the most perfect line ofbattle that I had seen during the war, and it wasonly when General Jackson’s corps envelopedthem front and flanks that they broke. GeneralTaylor was mortally wounded, almost in the firstonset, and his men were nearly all captured, orrendered hors de combat, as we chased them towardWashington for many miles.
That evening we took possession of the enor-mous commissary and quartermaster stores of theenemy.
The buildings that sheltered them were shedsreaching, as well as my memory serves me, formany hundred yards, and containing everythingnecessary to the equipment of an army, but, havingonly ambulances with us, we could carry awaynothing but medical supplies, which we found inabundance. The first order that General Jacksonissued was to knock out the heads of hundreds ofbarrels of whisky, wine, brandy, etc., intended forthe army. I shall never forget the scene whenthis was done. Streams of spirits ran like waterthrough the sands of Manassas , and the soldierson hands and knees drank it greedily from theground as it ran.
General C. W. Field and staff took possession ofthe Federal headquarters. When we reachedthem, we found spread upon the table, untouched,
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a breakfast of cold chicken, lamb, and biscuit,and coffee that by this time, had also grown cold.It had not been spread for us, but— “Telle est lafortune de la guerre.'’ There were also a barrel ofcut sugar, a sack of Java coffee, and similar luxu-ries. There I found for the first time a bed withfeather pillows and bolster, upon which I at oncethrew myself, begging to be allowed to rest, if butfor ten minutes.
In a short time General A. P. Hill sent us anorder to burn all the quartermaster and commis-sary stores with all the buildings, and requestedme to superintend the execution of the order. Itwas with the greatest pain that I complied withthis order, as there were so many things that we ofthe South absolutely required; but we had nowagons to transfer them. It must be rememberedthat we were within twenty miles of Washington,with Pope ’s enormous army between us and Long-street’s corps, which we had left at the FauquierWhite Sulphur Springs.
Before I executed my order in burning the com-missary and quartermaster stores, however, I tookthe bolster-case from the headquarters tent, filledit with cut sugar, and tied it at one end, and filledthe pillow-case with Java coffee, and succeeded instrapping both behind my horse, for which smallact of providence I was amply praised by GeneralField. I had hoped to get an ambulance to carrythese, but was unfortunate enough to miss it.
As I before remarked, the army was far frombeing happy about its position, of which we knewthe really critical nature, and just below us, a fewmiles over the plains, we could hear a terrific artil-lery fire. I became uneasy as it continued, andseeing General Jackson, who stood in the porchof one of the commissary depots, I proposed toGeneral Field to let me go over and ask him ifGeneral Longstreet had passed through Thorough-fare Gap. Through this he must necessarily passto reach us, and it was known to have been heldby the enemy, and was, besides, a sort of secondPass of Thermopylae in its difficulties. When Imade this proposition to General Field, who wasan old army officer, he replied promptly: “No,sir,—you cannot carry any such message from meto General Jackson.”
“ Well, Field, then I am going over to ask on myown account,” I said.
“ Then let it be distinctly understood ”— wasthe answer— “that you don’t go officially.”
Walking over to where General Jackson stood,and saluting him, I remarked : “ General, we areall of us desperately uneasy about Longstreet andthe situation, and I have come over on my ownaccount to ask the question : Has Longstreet passedThoroughfare Gap successfully ? ” With a smileGeneral Jackson replied : “Go back to your com-mand, and say, ‘Longstreet is through, and weare going to whip in the next battle.’ ”