Original Photographs Taken on the Battlefields during the Civil War of the United States — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Original Photographs Taken on the Battlefields during the Civil War of the United States
John Stuart Mill · en
Only rations enough for a single day
were saved by the captors. The conflict was too hot and the action too
swift to allow carrying them along on the movement into the North. With
these provisions gone the Union army was in dire want.
[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT RUINS OF MANASSAS JUNCTION, VIRGINIA,
IN 1862]
THE pursuit by the Confederates toward the very gates of Washington,
after the route of the Union army along Bull Run, was stopped only by
the thoughtfulness of the retreating Federals in destroying their
bridges. Lee, in his report after the battle, says: "After a fierce
combat, which raged until after nine o'clock, Pope's Union Army was
completely defeated and driven beyond Bull Run. The darkness of the
night, his destruction of the Stone Bridge after crossing, and the
uncertainty of the fords, stopped the pursuit." This photograph is an
actual verification of the truth of Lee's excuse. Brady arrived on the
following day and this picture shows the ruins as he found them. It
would have been foolhardy for an army in the blackness of night to have
attempted to tramp through wreckage, the extent of which they knew
nothing, and water the depth of which was questionable. Bull Run was a
treacherous stream with its rocks and holes. Moreover, the Confederate
soldiers, after the fearful struggle through which they had passed, were
not in a condition to travel through the night in drenched and
mud-soaked clothing. The Union forces at the fierce battle of Manassas
were: Army of Virginia, under Pope--1st Corps under Major-General Franz
Sigel; Third Corps under Major-General Irvin McDowell; Second Corps
under Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks; Army of the Potomac--Third Corps
under Major-General S. P. Heintzelman; Fifth Corps under Major-General
Fitz John Porter; Ninth Corps under Major-General Jesse L. Reno.
[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT RUINS OF STONE BRIDGE OVER BULL RUN
IN 1862]
[Illustration: THE DEAD ALONG HAGERSTOWN ROAD AFTER BATTLE OF ANTIETAM]
[Illustration: SIGNAL CORPS WATCHING BATTLE FROM HILLSIDE AT ANTIETAM]