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rapidly, so that it is not at all beyond the reach | pulse of the Federalists, decided as it was,

of probability that they can collect 150,000 or 160,000 men in Virginia, if that number is not now actually in the State. In cavalry they have a superiority, but the country is not favorable for their operations till the armies approach Richmond. In field-artillery they are not so well provided as the Federalists. They have, however, a great number of heavy batteries and guns of position at their disposal. Food is plentiful in their camps; the harvest is coming in. In general equipments and ammunition the Federalists have a considerable advantage. In discipline there is not much difference, perhaps, in the bulk of the volunteers on both sides, but the United States forces have the benefit of the example and presence of the regular army, the privates of which have remained faithful to the Government. If we are to judge from what may be seen in Washington, there are mauvais sujets in abundance among the United States troops.

might have had no serious effects whatever beyond the mere failure-which politically was of greater consequence than it was in a military sense-but for the disgraceful conduct of the troops. The retreat on their lines at Centreville seems to have ended in a cowardly rout-a miserable, causeless panic. Such scandalous behavior on the part of soldiers I should have considered impossible, as with some experience of camps and armies I have never even in alarms among camp-followers seen the like of it. How far the disorganization of the troops extended, I know not; but it was complete in the instance of more than one regiment. Washington this morning is crowded with soldiers without officers, who have fled from Centreville, and with "three months' men," who are going home from the face of the enemy on the expiration of their term of enlistment. The streets, in spite of the rain, are crowded by people with anxious faces, and groups of wavering politicians are assembled at the corners, in the hotel passages, and the bars. If, in the present state of the troops, the Confederates were to make a march across the Potomac above Washington, turning the works at Arlington, the Capitol might fall into their hands. Delay may place that event out of the range of probability.

The various foreign ministers have been so much persecuted by soldiers coming to their houses and asking for help, that sentries were ordered to be put at their doors. Lord Lyons, however, did not acquiesce in the propriety of the step, and in lieu of that means of defence against demands for money, a document called a safeguard" has been furnished to the domestics at the various legations, in which applicants are informed that they are liable to the penalty of death for making such solicitations. Gen. McDowell writes in his despatch from Fairfax Court-House: "I am distressed to have to report excesses by our troops. The excitement of the men found vent in burning and pillaging, which, however soon checked, distressed us all greatly." What will take place at the close of a hardly contested action in the front of populous towns and villages? The vast majority of the soldiers are very well-gance and supercilious confidence, either real behaved, but it will require severe punishment to deter the evil-disposed from indulging in all the license of war.

The energy displayed in furnishing the great army in the field with transport and ambulances is very great, and I have been surprised to see the rapidity with which wagons and excellent field hospitals and sick carts have been constructed and forwarded by the contractors. The corps in Virginia under McDowell may be considered fit to make a campaign in all respects so far as those essentials are concerned, and the Government is rapidly purchasing horses and mules which are not inferior to those used in any army in the world. These few lines must suffice till the despatch of the mail on Wednesday.

The North will, no doubt, recover the shock. Hitherto she has only said, "Go and fight for the Union." The South has exclaimed, "Let us fight for our rights." The North must put its best men into the battle, or she will inevitably fail before the energy, the personal hatred, and the superior fighting powers of her antagonist. In my letters, as in my conversation, I have endeavored to show that the task which the Unionists have set themselves is one of no ordinary difficulty; but in the state of arro

or affected to conceal a sense of weakness, one might as well have preached to the pyramid of Cheops. Indeed, one may form some notion of the condition of the public mind by observing that journals conducted avowedly by men of disgraceful personal character -the bewhipped, and be-kicked, and unrecognized pariahs of society in New York-are, nevertheless, in the very midst of repulse and defeat, permitted to indulge in ridiculous rhodomontade toward the nations of Europe, and to move our laughter by impotently malignant attacks on "our rotten old monarchy," while the stones of their bran-new Republic are tumbling about their ears. It will be amusing to observe the change of tone, for we can afford to observe and to be amused at the same time.

July 22.-I sit down to give an account- On Saturday night I resolved to proceed to not of the action yesterday, but of what I saw Gen. McDowell's army, as it was obvious to me with my own eyes, hitherto not often deceived, that the repulse at Bull Run and the orders of and of what I heard with my own ears, which the General directed against the excesses of his in this country are not so much to be trusted. soldiery indicated serious defects in his armyLet me, however, express an opinion as to the not more serious, however, than I had reason affair of yesterday. In the first place, the re-to believe existed. How to get out was the

When McDowell moved away, he took so many of the troops about Arlington that the camps and forts are rather denuded of men. I do not give, as may be observed, the names of regiments, unless in special cases-first, because they possess little interest, I conceive, for those in Europe who read these letters; and secondly, because there is an exceedingly complex system-at least to a foreigner-of nomenclature in the forces, and one may make a mistake between a regiment of volunteers and a regiment of State militia of the same number, or even of regulars in the lower figures. The soldiers lounging about the forts and over the Long Bridge across the Potomac were an exceedingly unkempt, "loafing" set of fellows, who handled their firelocks like pitchforks and spades, and I doubt if some of those who read or tried to read our papers could understand them, as they certainly did not speak English. The Americans possess excellent working materials, however, and I have had occasion rewhich they construct earthworks. At the Virginia side of the Long Bridge there is now a very strong tête de pont, supported by the regular redoubt on the hill over the road. These works did not appear to be strongly held, but it is possible men were in the tents near at hand, deserted though they seemed, and at all events reinforcements could be speedily poured in if necessary.

difficulty. The rumors of great disaster and I get across until after 5 o'clock in the morning. repulse had spread through the city. The livery stable keepers, with one exception, refused to send out horses to the scene of action-at least the exception told me so. Senators and Congressmen were going to make a day of it, and all the vehicles and horses that could be procured were in requisition for the scene of action. This curiosity was aroused by the story that McDowell had been actually ordered to make an attack on Manassas, and that Gen. Scott had given him till 12 o'clock to be master of Beauregard's lines. If Gen. Scott ordered the attack at all, I venture to say he was merely the mouthpiece of the more violent civilians of the Government, who mistake intensity of feeling for military strength. The consequences of the little skirmish at Bull Run, ending in the repulse of the Federalists, were much exaggerated, and their losses were put down at any figures the fancy of the individual item who was speaking suggested. "I can assure you, sir, that the troops had 1,500 killed and wounded; I know it." I went off to the head-quar-peatedly to remark the rapidity and skill with ters, and there Gen. Scott's Aid informed me that Gen. McDowell's official report gave 6 killed and 37 wounded. The livery keepers stuck to the 1,500 or 2,000. The greater the number hors de combat, the higher the tariff for the hire of quadrupeds. All I could do was to get a kind of cabriolet, with a seat in front for the driver, to which a pole was affixed for two horses, at a Derby-day price, a strong led horse, which Indian experiences have induced The long and weary way was varied by difme always to rely upon in the neighborhood of ferent pickets along the road, and by the examuncertain fighting. I had to enter into an ination of our papers and passes at different agreement with the owner to pay him for points. But the country looked vacant, in horses and buggy if they were "captured or spite of crops of Indian corn, for the houses injured by the enemy," and though I smiled at were shut up, and the few indigenous people his precautions, they proved not quite unrea- whom we met looked most blackly under their sonable. The master made no provision for brows at the supposed abolitionists. This porindemnity in the case of injury to the driver, or tion of Virginia is well wooded, and undulatthe colored boy who rode the saddle-horse. ing in heavy, regular waves of field and forest; When I spoke with officers at Gen. Scott's but the roads are deeply cut, and filled with head-quarters of the expedition, it struck me loose stones, very disagreeable to ride or drive they were not at all sanguine about the result over. The houses are of wood, with the of the day, and one of them said as much as in- usual negro huts adjoining them, and the speciduced me to think he would advise me to re- mens of the race which I saw were wellmain in the city, if he did not take it for grant- dressed, and not ill-looking. On turning into ed it was part of my duty to go to the scene of one of the roads which leads to Fairfax Courtaction. An English gentleman who accom- House, and to Centreville beyond it, the distant panied me was strongly dissuaded from going sound of cannon reached us. That must have by a colonel of cavalry on the staff, because, he been about 9 A. M. It never ceased all day; at said, "the troops are green, and no one can tell least, whenever the rattle of the gig ceased, the what may happen." But my friend got his pass booming of cannon rolled through the woods from Gen. Scott, who was taking the whole on our ears. One man said it began at 2 affair of Bull Run and the pressure of the mor- o'clock, but the pickets told us it had really row's work with perfect calm, and we started become continuous about 7 or 8 o'clock. on Sunday morning-not so early as we ought, a few minutes afterward, a body of men apperhaps, which was none of my fault-for Cen- peared on the road, with their backs toward treville, distant about 25 miles south-west of Centreville, and their faces toward Alexandria. Washington. I purposed starting in the beau- Their march was so disorderly that I could not tiful moonlight, so as to arrive at McDowell's have believed they were soldiers in an enemy's camp in the early dawn; but the aides could country-for Virginia hereabout is certainly so not or would not give us the countersign over-but for their arms and uniform. It soon apthe Long Bridge, and without it no one could peared that there was no less than an entire

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regiment marching away, singly or in small knots of two or three, extending for some three or four miles along the road. A Babel of tongues rose from them, and they were all in good spirits, but with an air about them I could not understand. Dismounting at a stream where a group of thirsty men were drinking and halting in the shade, I asked an officer, "Where are your men going, sir?" Well, we're going home, sir, I reckon, to Pennsylvania." It was the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment, which was on its march, as I learned from the men. "I suppose there is severe work going on behind you, judging from the firing? "Well, I reckon, sir, there is." "We're going home," he added after a pause, during which it occurred to him, perhaps, that the movement required explanation-"because the men's time is up. We have had three months of this work." I proceeded on my way, ruminating on the feelings of a General who sees half a brigade walk quietly away on the very morning of an action, and on the frame of mind of the men, who would have shouted till they were hoarse about their beloved Union-possibly have hunted down any poor creature who expressed a belief that it was not the very quintessence of every thing great and good in government, and glorious and omnipotent in arms-coolly turning their backs on it when in its utmost peril, because the letter of their engagement bound them no further. Perhaps the 4th Pennsylvania were right, but let us hear no more of the excellence of three months' service volunteers. And so we left them. The road was devious and difficult. There were few persons on their way, for most of the Senators and Congressmen were on before us. Some few commissariat wagons were overtaken at intervals. Wherever there was a house by the roadside, the negroes were listening to the firing. All at once a terrific object appeared in the wood above the trees-the dome of a church or public building, apparently suffering from the shocks of an earthquake, and heaving to and fro in the most violent manner. In much doubt we approached as well as the horses' minds would let us, and discovered that the strange thing was an inflated balloon attached to a car and wagon, which was on its way to enable Gen. McDowell to reconnoitre the position he was then engaged in attacking -just a day too late. The operators and attendants swore as horribly as the warriors in Flanders, but they could not curse down the trees, and so the balloon seems likely to fall into the hands of the Confederates. About 11 o'clock we began to enter on the disputed territory which had just been abandoned by the Secessionists to the Federalists in front of Fairfax Court-House. It is not too much to say, that the works thrown up across the road were shams and make-believes, and that the Confederates never intended to occupy the position at all, but sought to lure on the Federalists to Manassas, where they were prepared to meet

them. Had it been otherwise, the earthworks would have been of a different character, and the troops would have had regular camps and tents, instead of bivouac huts and branches of trees. Of course, the troops of the enemy did not wish to be cut off, and so they had cut down trees to place across the road, and put some field-pieces in their earthworks to command it. On no side could Richmond be so well defended. The Confederates had it much at heart to induce their enemy to come to the strongest place and attack them, and they succeeded in doing so. But, if the troops behaved as ill in other places as they did at Manassas, the Federalists could not have been successful in any attack whatever. In order that the preparations at Manassas may be understood, and that Gen. Beauregard, of whose character I gave some hint at Charleston, may be known at home as regards his fitness for his work, above all as an officer of artillery and of skill in working it in field or in position, let ine insert a description of the place and of the man from a Southern paper:

"MANASSAS JUNCTION, VIRGINIA, June 7, 1861. "This place still continues the head-quarters of the army of the Potomac. There are many indications of an intended forward movement, the better to invite the enemy to an engagement, but the work of fortification still continues. By nature, the position is one of the strongest that could have been found in the whole State. About half-way between the eastern spur of the Blue Ridge and the Potomac, below Alexandria, it commands the whole country between so perfectly, that there is scarcely a possibility of its being turned. The right wing stretches off toward the head-waters of the Occoquan, through a wooded country, which is easily made impassable by the felling of trees. The left is a rolling table-land, easily commanded from the successive elevations, till you reach a country so rough and so rugged that it is a defence to itself. The key to the whole position, in fact, is precisely that point which Gen. Beauregard chose for his centre, and which he has fortified so strongly, that, in the opinion of military men, 5,000 men could there hold 20,000 at bay. The position, in fact, is fortified in part by nature herself. It is a succession of hills, nearly equidistant from each other, in front of which is a ravine so deep and so thickly wooded that it is passable only at two points, and those through gorges which 50 men can defend against a whole army. It was at one of these points that the Washington artillery (of New Orleans) were at first encamped, and though only half the batallion was then there, and we had only one company of infantry to support us, we slept as soundly under the protection of our guns as if we had been in a fort of the amplest dimensions. Of the fortifications superadded here by Gen. Beauregard to those of nature, it is, of course, not proper for me to speak. The general reader

in fact, will have a sufficiently precise idea of |
them by conceiving a line of forts some two
miles in extent, zigzag in form, with angles,
salients, bastions, casemates, and every thing
that properly belongs to works of this kind.
The strength and advantages of this position at
Manassas are very much increased by the fact
that 14 miles further on is a position of similar
formation, while the country between is ad-
mirably adapted to the subsistence and in-
trenchment of troops in numbers as large as
they can easily be manoeuvred on the real
battle-field. Water is good and abundant, for-
age such as is everywhere found in the rich
farming districts of Virginia, and the commu-
nication with all parts of the country easy.
Here, overlooking an extensive plain, watered
by mountain streams which ultimately find
their way to the Potomac; and divided into
verdant fields of wheat, and oats, and corn,
pasture and meadow, are the head-quarters of
the advanced forces of the army of the Poto-
mac. They are South Carolinians, Louisian-
ians, Alabamians, Mississippians, and Virgi-
nians, for the most part; the first two, singular
enough, being in front, and that they will keep
it, their friends at home may rest assured.
Never have I seen a finer body of men-men
who were more obedient to discipline, or
breathed a more self-sacrificing patriotism. |
As might be expected from the skill with
which he has chosen his position, and the sys-
tem with which he encamps and moves his
men, Gen. Beauregard is very popular here.
I doubt if Napoleon himself had more the un-
divided confidence of his army. By nature, as
also from a wise policy, he is very reticent.
Not an individual here knows his plans or a
single move of a regiment before it is made,
and then only the colonel and his men know
where it goes to. There is not a man here
who can give any thing like a satisfactory an-
swer how many men he has, or where his exact
lines are. For the distance of 14 miles around,
you see tents everywhere, and from them you
can make a rough estimate of his men; but how
many more are encamped on the by-roads and
in the forests, none can tell. The new-comer,
from what he sees at first glance, puts down the
numbers at about 30,000 men; those who have
been here longest estimate his force at 40,000,
50,000, and some even at 60,000 strong. And
there is the same discrepancy as to the quan-
tity of his artillery. So close does the general
keep his affairs to himself, that his left hand
hardly knows what his right hand doeth, and
so jealous is he of this prerogative of a com-
manding officer, that I verily believe, if he sus-
pected his coat of any acquaintance with the
plans revolving within him, he would cast
it off."

It was noon when we arrived at Fairfax Court-House-a poor village of some 30 or 40 straggling wooden and brick houses, deriving its name from the building in which the Circuit

Court of the county is held, I believe, and looking the reverse of flourishing-and one may remark, obiter, that the state of this part of Virginia cannot be very prosperous, inasmuch as there was not a village along the road up to this point, and no shops or depots, only one mill, one blacksmith and wheelwright. The village was held by a part of the reserve of McDowell's force, possibly 1,000 strong. The inhabitants were, if eyes spoke truth, secessionists to a man, woman and child, and even the negroes looked extra black, as if they did not care about being fought for. A short way beyond this village, Germantown, the scene of the recent excesses of the Federalists, afforded evidence in its blackened ruins that Gen. McDowell's censure was more than needed. Let me interpolate it, if it be only to show that Gen. Beauregard and his rival are at least equal in point of literary power as masters of the English tongue:

"HEAD-QUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, FAIRFAX COURT-HOUSE, July 18.

"GENERAL ORDERS, No. 18.-It is with the deepest mortification the general commanding finds it necessary to reiterate his orders for the preservation of the property of the inhabitants of the district occupied by the troops under his command. Hardly had we arrived at this place, when, to the horror of every right-minded person, several houses were broken open, and others were in flames, by the act of some of those who, it has been the boast of the loyal, came here to protect the oppressed, and free the country from the domination of a hated party. The property of this people is at the mercy of troops who, we rightly say, are the most intelligent, best educated, and most lawabiding of any that ever were under arms. But do not, therefore, the acts of yesterday cast the deepest stain upon them? It was claimed by some that their particular corps were not engaged in these acts. This is of but little moment; since the individuals are not found out, we are all alike disgraced. Commanders of regiments will select a commissioned officer as a provost-marshal, and ten men as a police force under him, whose special and sole duty it shall be to preserve the property from depredations, and to arrest all wrong-doers, of whatever regiment or corps they may be. Any one found committing the slightest depredation, killing pigs or poultry, or trespassing on the property of the inhabitants, will be reported to head-quarters, and the least that will be done to them will be to send them to the Alexandria jail. It is again ordered, that no one shall arrest, or attempt to arrest, any citizen not in arms at the time, or search or attempt to search any house, or even to enter the same without permission. The troops must behave themselves with as much forbearance and propriety as if they were at their own homes. They are here to fight the enemies of the country, not to judge and punish the unarmed and defenceless, however guilty they may be.

When necessary, that will be done by the prop- | a meal for himself and the driver. On the hill er person.

66

By command of Gen. McDowell: "JAMES B. FRY, Assistant Adjutant-General."

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The chimney stacks, being of brick, are the sole remains of the few good houses in the village. Here our driver made a mistake, which was the rather persisted in, that a colored chattel informed us we could get to Centreville by the route we were pursuing, instead of turning back to Germantown, as we should have done. Centreville was still seven miles ahead. The guns sounded, however, heavily from the valleys. Rising above the forest tops appeared the blue masses of the Alleghanies, and we knew Manassas was somewhere on an outlying open of the ridges, which reminded me in color and form of the hills around the valley of Baidar. A Virginian who came out of a cottage, and who was assuredly no descendant of Madame Esmond, told us that we were "going wrong right away." There was, he admitted, a byroad somewhere to the left front, but people who had tried its depths had returned to Germantown with the conviction that it led to any place but Centreville. Our driver, however, wished to try "if there were no Seseshers about?" "What did you say?" quoth the Virginian. "I want to know if there are any Secessionists there." "Secessionists!" (in a violent surprise, as if he had heard of them for the first time in his life.) "No, Sir-ee, Secessionists indeed!" And all this time Beauregard and Lee were pounding away on our left front, some six or seven miles off. The horses retraced their steps, the colored youth who bestrode my charger complaining that the mysterious arrangement which condemns his race to slavery was very much abraded by the action of that spirited quadruped, combined, or rather at variance with the callosities of the English saddle. From Germantown, onward by the right road, there was nothing very remarkable. At one place a group of soldiers were buying "Secession money" from some negroes, who looked as if they could afford to part with it as cheaply as men do who are dealing with other people's property. Buggies and wagons (Anglicé, carriages) with cargoes of senators, were overtaken. The store cars became more numerous. At last Centreville appeared in sight a few houses on our front, beyond which rose a bald hill-the slopes covered with bivouac huts, commissariat carts and horses, and the top crested with spectators of the fight. The road on each side was full of traces of Confederate camps; the houses were now all occupied by Federalists. In the rear of the hill was a strong body of infantry-two regiments of foreigners, mostly Germans, with a battery of light artillery. Our buggy was driven up to the top of the hill. The colored boy was despatched to the village to look for a place to shelter the horses while they were taking a much required feed, and to procure, if possible,

there were carriages and vehicles drawn up as if they were attending a small country race. They were afterwards engaged in a race of another kind. In one was a lady with an opera-glass; in and around and on others were legislators and politicians. There were also a few civilians on horseback, and on the slope of the hill a regiment had stacked arms, and was engaged in looking at and commenting on the battle below. The landscape in front was open to the sight as far as the ranges of the Alleghanies, which swept round from the right in blue mounds, the color of which softened into violet in the distance. On the left the view was circumscribed by a wood, which receded along the side of the hill on which we stood to the plain below. Between the base of the hill, which rose about 150 feet above the general level of the country, and the foot of the lowest and nearest elevation of the opposite Alleghanies, extended about five miles, as well as I could judge, of a densely wooded country, dotted at intervals with green fields and patches of cleared lands. It was marked by easy longitudinal undulations, indicated by the form of the forests which clothed them, and between two of the more considerable ran small streams, or "runs," as they are denominated, from the right to the left. Close at hand a narrow road descended the hill, went straight into the forest, where it was visible now and then among the trees in cream-colored patches. This road was filled with commissariat wagons, the white tops of which were visible for two miles in our front.

On our left front a gap in the lowest chain of the hills showed the gap of Manassas, and to the left and nearer to me lay the "Junction " of the same name, where the Alexandria Railway unites with the rail from the west of Virginia, and continues the route by rails of various denominations to Richmond. The scene was so peaceful, a man might well doubt the evidence of one's sense that a great contest was being played out below in bloodshed, or imagine, as Mr. Seward sometimes does, that it was a delusion when he wakes in the morning and finds there is civil war upon him. But the cannon spoke out loudly from the green bushes, and the plains below were mottled, so to speak, by puffs of smoke and by white rings from bursting shells and capricious howitzers. It was no review that was going on beneath us. The shells gave proof enough of that, though the rush of the shot could not be heard at the distance. Clouds of dust came up in regular lines through the tree-tops where infantry were acting, and now and then their wavering mists of light-blue smoke curled up, and the splutter of musketry broke through the booming of the guns. With the glass I could detect, now and then, the flash of arms through the dust-clouds in the open, but no one could tell to which side the troops who were moving belonged, and I could only judge from the smoke whether the guns were

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