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attempting to collect a train for carrying provisions to General Pope’s army.Little was accomplished, however. On Friday, the corps was started to thefront with orders to communicate with General Pope, and at the same timeto guard his communications with Alexandria . On the arrival of the leadingdivision, commanded by General W. F. Smith, at Annandale, ten miles to thefront, its commander reported to me that fugitives were constantly comingin, and reported a large force of the enemy near Fairfax Court House, sixmiles distant. As he had with him only ten rounds of ammunition for eachgun, he considered it prudent to await further orders. General McClellan ,upon learning this state of things, directed me to stop at Annandale for thenight, and proceed the next morning at 6.
During the night more ammunition and provision wagons were collected,numbering about one hundred, and as I was starting in the morning at thedesignated time I received orders to delay my start until 8:30 a. m., to protectthe train so formed. When I arrived at Fairfax Court House I detached abrigade of General Slocum’s division and one battery to take position toguard the point where the Little River Turnpike joins the Warrenton pikebetween Centreville and Alexandria . The detachment of this brigade had animportant effect upon the after events of the campaign, as will appear. Pro-ceeding onwards toward Centreville I received, at 1:30 p. m., an order fromGeneral McClellan , directing me to join General Pope at once. The corpsmarched forward through Centreville toward Bull Run about three miles infront of Centreville, without stopping. Going to the front I found GeneralSlocum’s division formed across the road, in front of Cub Run, stopping whatseemed to be an indiscriminate mass of men, horses, guns and wagons, allgoing pell-mell to the rear. As General Slocum expressed it, it was as badas the Bull Run retreat of 1861. Officers of all grades, from brigadier-generaldown, were in the throng, but none of them exercised any authority. Wegathered about three thousand in a yard near by. Presently a force of cav-alry appeared to the left and front, about one mile off, and the fugitives,.imagining that they were the enemy, ran to the rear as one man;—nothingcould stop them.
General W. F. Smith’s division was posted in a good position on hills inthe vicinity, and shortly afterward Generals Pope and McDowell appeared,and I reported to General Pope. He directed me to return to Centreville,upon •which place his army was falling back. The corps remained at Cen-treville during the 31st of August with the bulk of the army, the enormoustrains in the meantime moving toward Washington. On the morning ofthat day, on my own responsibility, I sent a grand guard, consisting of the 5tliWisconsin infantry under Colonel AmasaCobb, and a section of artillery, to theCub Run Bridge, to guard the rear of the army. Large bodies of the enemyappeared in its front, but no attack was made on it. So far as I know, thiswas the only rear-guard between Pope and the enemy on the 31st of August.
On September 1st, the corps marched to Fairfax Court House with GeneralPope, and remained there until the evening of the 2d of September, -when itmoved back to the vicinity of Alexandria .