United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns
The battle raged furiously until 3 o'clock. The chief object was to
get possession of Henry's Hill. Beauregard, like McDowell on the other
side, led his men in the thickest of the battle. His horse was killed
by a bursting shell, but he mounted another and continued. At about
2 o'clock the Confederates were driven from the field and McDowell
thought he had won the victory, but General Kirby Smith had arrived
from Manassas with the remainder of the Confederate army and was now
on the field, after a double-quick march for four miles under a hot
July sun. Beauregard determined to make another effort and ordered
his troops forward with fresh courage. When the Union army saw the
Confederates again approaching, supported by fresh troops, their
courage failed and they began to retreat. McDowell tried in vain
to rally his men, the Confederates pressed on, the retreat of the
Federals became a panic. He again tried to rally his men and make a
stand at Centreville but to no avail, the troops refused to listen
to his commands. Some of the troops did not stop until they reached
Washington, and the first great battle of the Civil war was now over.
The Federal force engaged was about 19,000 men, of which the loss in
killed, wounded and missing was about 3,000.
The Confederates had about 18,000 men on the field, and their total
loss in killed, wounded and missing was about 2,000. McDowell and
Beauregard, the opposing commanders, were old-time friends, having been
in the same class at West Point.
It was in this battle that Captain Ricketts was severely wounded and
left on the field, and was carried a prisoner to Richmond by the
Confederates.
To commemorate the success of the Southern arms at Bull Run the
Confederate congress voted a day of Thanksgiving.
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH
Many battles had been fought in America, but they were all skirmishes
compared with Shiloh. Napoleon fought but few battles on the Continent
of Europe that were more destructive of human life.
In the beginning of April, 1862, General Albert Sidney Johnston was in
command of 40,000 Confederate soldiers at Corinth, Miss., about twenty
miles from Pittsburgh Landing, on the Tennessee River; the next in
command was General Beauregard, who had fought at Bull Run, and had
come to reënforce Johnston; General Bragg, of Buena Vista fame, was
there, to whom, at Buena Vista, General Taylor had given the famous
command, "A little more grape, Captain Bragg." General Leonidas Polk
was with Johnston also. He was called the "Fighting Bishop," for he had
been a bishop in the church after leaving West Point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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