This paper would be incomplete indeed did it fail to contain some short, if entirely insufficient, tribute to that most gallant and loyal soldier, John Buford. I remember very well how surprised I was when I was first placed in command of the Army of Virginia that General Buford, then only a major in the inspector-general’s department, reported to me for duty as inspector. I asked him how he could possibly remain in such a position while a great war was going on, and what objections he could have (if he had any) to being placed in a command in the field. He seemed hurt to think I could have even a doubt of his wish to take the field, and told me that he had tried to get a command, but was without influence enough to accomplish it. I went at once to the Secretary of War and begged him to have Major Buford appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers and ordered to report to me for service. The President was good enough to make the appointment, and certainly a better one was never made. Buford’s coolness, his fine judgment, and his splendid courage were known of all men who had to do with him; but besides, and in addition to these high qualities, he acquired in a few months, through his presence and manner, an influence over men as remarkable as it was useful. His quiet dignity, covering a fiery spirit and a military sagacity as far-reaching as it was accurate, made him in the short period of his active service one of the most respected and trusted officers in the service. His death, brought about by disease contracted during the months of active service and constant exposure, was widely lamented in the army.
On the morning of the 1st of September I directed General Sumner to push forward a reconnoissance toward Little River pike, which enters the Warrenton pike at Fairfax, with two brigades, to ascertain if the enemy was making any movement toward our right by that road. The enemy was found moving again slowly toward the right, heavy columns moving along the Little River pike in the direction of Fairfax. This movement had become so developed by the afternoon of that day, and was so evidently directed to turn our right, that I made the necessary disposition of troops to fight a battle between the Little River pike and the road from Fairfax to Centreville. General Hooker was sent early in the afternoon to Fairfax Court House, and directed to concentrate all the troops in that vicinity and to push forward to Germantown with his advance. I instructed McDowell to move along the road from Centreville toward Fairfax Court House, as far as Difficult Creek, and to connect on his right with Hooker. Reno was directed to push forward north of the road to Centreville, and in the direction of Chantilly, toward the flank of the enemy’s advance; Heintzelman’s corps to support Reno. Just before sunset the enemy attacked us toward our right, but was met by Hooker, McDowell, and Reno, and by Kearny’s division of Heintzelman’s corps. A very severe action was fought in the midst of a terrific thunder-storm, and was only ended by the darkness. The enemy was driven back entirely from our front, and did not again renew his attack upon us.
MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP KEARNY. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
In this short but severe action the army lost two officers of the highest capacity and distinction, whose death caused general lamentation in the army and country. The first was Major-General Philip Kearny, killed in advance of his division and while commanding it. There have been few such officers as Kearny in our own or any other army. In war he was an enthusiast, and he never seemed so much at home and so cheerful and confident as in battle. Tall and lithe in figure, with a most expressive and mobile countenance, and a manner which inspired confidence and zeal in all under his command, no one could fail to admire his chivalric bearing and his supreme courage. He seemed to think that it was his mission to make up the shortcomings of others, and in proportion as these shortcomings were made plain, his exertions and exposure were multiplied. He was a great and most accomplished soldier, and died as he would himself have wished to die, and as became his heroic character, at the head of his troops and in the front of the battle.
General Isaac I. Stevens, who was killed at the same time and nearly on the same ground, was an officer in many respects contrasted to Kearny. He was short and rather stout, with a swarthy complexion and very bright dark eyes. He was a man of very superior abilities and of marked skill and courage. His extreme political opinions before the war, ardently asserted, as was his habit in all matters which interested him, made it somewhat difficult for him to secure such a position in the army as one of his capacity might well have expected. The prejudice against him on this account was soon shown to be utterly groundless, for a more zealous and faithful officer never lived. His conduct in the battle in which he lost his life, and in every other operation of the campaign, was marked by high intelligence and the coolest courage, and his death in the front of battle ended too soon a career which would have placed him among the foremost officers of the war. As an officer of engineers before the war, and as Governor of, and delegate to Congress from Washington Territory, he was always a man of note, and possessed the abilities and the force to have commanded in time any position to which he might have aspired. The loss of these two officers was a heavy blow to the army, not so much perhaps because of their soldierly capacity as because of their well-known and unshakable fidelity to duty, and their entire loyalty to their comrades in arms.
MAJOR-GENERAL ISAAC I. STEVENS. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
On the morning of the 2d of September the army was posted behind Difficult Creek from Flint Hill to the Alexandria pike. The enemy disappeared from our front, moving toward the Upper Potomac with no attempt to force our position. And here the second battle of Bull Run may be said to terminate. On that day I received orders from General Halleck to take position in the intrenchments in front of Washington, with a view to reorganizing the army and eliminating such of the discordant elements in it as had largely caused the misfortunes of the latter part of that campaign.
The transactions at Alexandria and Washington City during these eventful days, as also at Centreville during part of them, are as closely connected with these battles, and had nearly as much to do with their results, as any part of the operations in the field; but they demand more space than is accorded to this article. The materials to write a complete account of these matters are at hand, and it is quite probable that the course of events may yet make their publication necessary.
There are other matters which, although not important, seem not out of place in this paper. A good deal of cheap wit has been expended upon a fanciful story that I published an order or wrote a letter or made a remark that my “headquarters would be in the saddle.” It is an expression harmless and innocent enough, but it is even stated that it furnished General Lee with the basis for the only joke of his life. I think it due to army tradition, and to the comfort of those who have so often repeated this ancient joke in the days long before the civil war, that these later wits should not be allowed with impunity to poach on this well-tilled manor. This venerable joke I first heard when a cadet at West Point, and it was then told of that gallant soldier and gentleman, General W. J. Worth, and I presume it could be easily traced back to the Crusades and beyond. Certainly I never used this expression or wrote or dictated it, nor does any such expression occur in any order of mine; and as it has perhaps served its time and effected its purpose, it ought to be retired.
I thus conclude for the present this account of the second battle of Bull Run. The battle treated of, as well as the campaign which preceded it, have been, and no doubt still are, greatly misunderstood. Probably they will remain during this generation a matter of controversy, into which personal feeling and prejudice so largely enter that dispassionate judgment cannot now be looked for.
I submit this article to the public judgment with all confidence that it will be fairly considered, and as just a judgment passed upon it as is possible at this time. I well understood, as does every military man, how difficult and how thankless was the task imposed on me, and I do not hesitate to say that I would gladly have avoided it if I could have done so consistent with duty.
To confront with a small army greatly superior forces, to fight battles wit
hout the hope of victory, but only to gain time by delaying the forward movement of the enemy, is a duty the most hazardous and the most difficult that can be imposed upon any general or any army. While such operations require the highest courage and endurance on the part of the troops, they are unlikely to be understood or appreciated, and the results, however successful in view of the object aimed at, have little in them to attract public commendation or applause.
At no time could I have hoped to fight a successful battle with the superior forces of the enemy which confronted me, and which were able at any time to outflank and bear my small army to the dust. It was only by constant movement, incessant watchfulness, and hazardous skirmishes and battles, that the forces under my command were saved from destruction, and that the enemy was embarrassed and delayed in his advance until the army of General McClellan was at length assembled for the defense of Washington.
I did hope that in the course of these operations the enemy might commit some imprudence, or leave some opening of which I could take such advantage as to gain at least a partial success. This opportunity was presented by the advance of Jackson on Manassas Junction; but although the best dispositions possible in my view were made, the object was frustrated by causes which could not have been foreseen, and which perhaps are not yet completely known to the country.
* * *
1 Accompanying General Beauregard’s paper on the First Battle of Bull Run (this page) are maps and many pictures of interest with reference to the second battle.—EDITORS.
2 This request was complied with, and on the 29th of June, 1862, General Franz Sigel assumed command of the First Corps.—EDITORS.
3 On the 27th of June, according to the “Official Records,” the strength of the Army of Virginia appears to have been about as follows: Headquarters, 200; Sigel’s corps (Frémont’s), 13,200; Banks’s, 12,100; McDowell’s, 19,300; cavalry, 5800. Total of the three army corps, 44,600, or 6600 more than General Pope’s estimate; aggregate, 50,600, or 7600 more than General Pope’s estimate. On the 31st of July the consolidated report showed 46,858 “effectives.” An error in the report of Banks’s corps reduced this aggregate to 40,358. After the battle of Cedar Mountain, and when he had been reënforced by Reno (7000), Pope estimated his force at barely 40,000. With this force were 25 field-batteries numbering about 150 guns.—EDITORS.
4 The President’s order constituting the Army of Virginia is dated June 26th. On that day the second of the Seven Days’ battles referred to in the next paragraph began with Lee’s attack on McClellan’s right near Mechanicsville. General Pope took command on the 27th; on that day was fought the battle of Gaines’s Mill, and the march to the James began that night.—EDITORS.
5 General Lee says in his report dated April 18th, 1863:
“To meet the advance of the latter [Pope]…General Jackson, with his own and Ewell’s divisions, was ordered to proceed toward Gordonsville on July 13th. Upon reaching that vicinity he ascertained that the force under General Pope was superior to his own, but the uncertainty that then surrounded the designs of McClellan rendered it inexpedient to reënforce him from the army at Richmond.… Assistance was promised should the progress of General Pope put it in our power to strike an effectual blow without withdrawing the troops too long from the defense of the capital. The army at Westover [Harrison’s Landing], continuing to manifest no intention of resuming active operations, and General Pope’s advance having reached the Rapidan, General A. P. Hill, with his division, was ordered on July 27th to join General Jackson. At the same time, in order to keep McClellan stationary, or, if possible, to cause him to withdraw, General D. H. Hill, commanding south of James River, was directed to threaten his communications.”
And in his report, dated June 8th, 1863:
“The victory at Cedar Run [August 9th] effectually checked the progress of the enemy for the time, but it soon became apparent that his army was being largely increased. The corps of Major-General Burnside from North Carolina, which had reached Fredericksburg [August 4th and 5th], was reported to have moved up the Rappahannock a few days after the battle, to unite with General Pope, and a part of General McClellan’s army was believed to have left Westover for the same purpose. It therefore seemed that active operations on the James were no longer contemplated, and that the most effectual way to relieve Richmond from any danger of attack from that quarter would be to reënforce General Jackson and advance upon General Pope.”
—EDITORS.
6 On the 30th of July General Halleck ordered General McClellan to send away his sick as rapidly as possible. On the 3d of August General Halleck telegraphed: “It is determined to withdraw your army from the Peninsula to Aquia Creek. You will take immediate measures to effect this.… Your material and transportation should be removed first.” General McClellan protested against the movement, as did Generals Dix, Burnside, and Sumner. General Halleck replied to General McClellan that he saw no alternative. “There is no change of plans.” “I … have taken the responsibility … and am to risk my reputation on it.”
The movement of the sick began at once. Between the 1st of August, when the order was received, and the 16th, when the evacuation of Harrison’s Landing was completed, 14,159 were sent away, many of them necessarily to the North. The first troops arrived at Aquia within seven days, and the last of the infantry within 26 days, after the receipt of the order.
(The original movement of the Army of the Potomac, from Alexandria to Fort Monroe, had taken 37 days, and Mr. Tucker, who had superintended its transport, said of it: “I confidently submit that for economy and celerity this expedition is without a parallel on record.”)
In the terms of General Halleck’s order of August 3d, there were to be transported first the 14,159 sick; next all the material of the army, and the transportation, embracing 3100 wagons, 350 ambulances, 13,000 horses and mules; then 89,407 officers and men, 360 guns, and 13,000 artillery and cavalry horses, together with the baggage and stores in use; but in order to hasten the movement this routine was not rigidly observed, and the movement of Peck’s division (ordered to move last) of 7581 men and 10 guns was countermanded by General Halleck.—EDITORS.
7 The first step toward calling General Halleck to Washington appears in the President’s telegram of July 24 asking if he could not come “for a flying visit.” On the 6th, Governor Sprague was sent to him at Corinth, on a confidential mission, arriving there on the 10th. Meanwhile the President had visited General McClellan and received from his hands the Harrison’s Bar letter. On the 11th, General Halleck was appointed General-in-chief. Mr. Chase says in his diary (see “Life and Public Services of S. P. Chase,” by J. W. Schuckers, p.447) that he and Mr. Stanton “proposed to the President to send Pope to the James and give [Ormsby M.] Mitchel the command of the front of Washington.… The President was not prepared for anything so decisive, and sent for Halleck and made him Commander-in-chief.” Secretary Welles says (“Lincoln and Seward,” p.191): “Pope also … uniting with Stanton and General Scott in advising that McClellan should be superseded and Halleck placed in charge of military affairs at Washington.”—EDITORS.
8 Reynolds’s division of Porter’s corps, having arrived at Aquia on August 13th and 20th, joined General Pope on the 22d, and was assigned to McDowell’s corps. General Porter reported to General Burnside (who had arrived at Aquia on August 5th with about 12,000 men from North Carolina) for orders on the 21st. Being pushed out toward the Upper Rappahannock to connect with Reno, his advance under Morell, on the 24th, found Reno and Reynolds gone; no troops of General Pope’s were to be seen or heard of (except one company of cavalry, afterward discovered, which had been left to guard Kelly’s ford), nor were any orders from General Pope or any information as to his whereabouts received by General Porter or General Burnside until the 26th. So far as appears, no information of this movement was communicated to General Halleck. On the 24th, in reply to General McClellan’s inquiry from Falmouth, 9:40 P.M., “Please inform me exactly where General Pope�
��s troops are.… Up to what point is the Orange and Alexandria railroad now available? Where are the enemy in force?” General Halleck telegraphed: “You ask me for information which I cannot give. I do not know either where General Pope is or where the enemy in force is. These are matters which I have all day been most anxious to ascertain.”—EDITORS.
9 General Pope’s orders of the 25th disposed his troops on the line of the Rappahannock, from Waterloo to Kelly’s Ford, as for an advance toward the Rapidan. Reno was ordered back to Kelly’s Ford to resume communication with the forces under Burnside at Falmouth.—EDITORS.
10 The first information appears to have been received in a communication between the telegraph operators at Pope’s headquarters and at Manassas Junction, dated 8:20 P.M., on August 26th. From this time until the 30th all direct communication between General Pope and Washington remained cut off, and nothing was heard of him except via Falmouth.—EDITORS.
11 August 18th, skirmishes at Rapidan Station and on Clark’s Mountain, near Orange Court House; 20th, skirmishes at Raccoon Ford, Stevensburg, Brandy Station, Rappahannock Station, and near Kelly’s Ford; 21st, skirmishes along the Rappahannock, at Kelly’s, Beverly (or Cunningham’s), and Freeman’s Fords; 22d, actions at Freeman’s Ford and Hazel River, and skirmishes along the Rappahannock; 23d, engagement at Rappahannock Station, action at Beverly Ford, and skirmish at Fant’s Ford, 23d and 24th, actions at Sulphur (or Warrenton) Springs; 24th and 25th, actions at Waterloo Bridge; 25th, skirmish at Sulphur Springs; 26th, skirmishes at Bristoe Station, Bull Run Bridge, Gainesville, Haymarket, Manassas Junction, and Sulphur Springs.—EDITORS.
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