own; and now his opportunity had vanished. Longstreet's corps had been arriving throughout the day, and was now all present-much of it perfectly fresh, so far as fighting was concerned, and ready for most effective service on the morrow.

31

Pope, so often disappointed and baffled, found his fighting force reduced by casualties and by straggling, on the morning of that eventful morrow, to about 40,000 men. These had had a surfeit of marching and fighting, with very little eating, for the two preceding days; while his artillery and cavalry horses had been ten days in harness, and two days without food. To his appeal of the 28th to Gen. Halleck for rations, for forage, and fresh horses, he had that morning at daylight" received an answer from Gen. Franklin, written by direction of Gen. McClellan, and dated 8 P. M. of the 29th, informarms, within sight and sound of the battle during the whole day. So far as I know, he made no effort whatever to comply with my orders or to take any part in the action. I do not hesitate to say that, if he had discharged his duty as became a soldier under the circumstances, and had made a vigorous attack on the enemy, as he was expected and directed to do, at any time up to 8 o'clock that night, we should have utterly crushed or captured the larger portion of Jack son's force before he could have been by any possibility sufficiently rëenforced to have made an effective resistance. I did not myself feel for a moment that it was necessary for me, having given Gen. Porter an order to march toward the enemy, in a particular direction, to send him in addition specific orders to attack; it being his clear duty, and in accordance with every military precept, to have brought his forces into action wherever he encountered the enemy, when a furious battle with that enemy was raging during the whole day in his immediate presence. I believe-in fact, I am positive-that at 5 o'clock on the afternoon of the 29th, Gen. Porter had in his front no considerable body of the enemy. I believed then, as I am very sure now, that it was easily practicable for him to have turned the right flank of Jackson, and to have fallen upon his rear; that, if he had done so, we should have gained a decisive victory over the army under Jackson before he could have been joined by any of the forces of Longstreet; and that the army of Gen. Lee would have been so crippled

ing him that rations would be loaded in the available wagons and cars at Alexandria so soon as he would send back a cavalry escort to bring out the trains. If cavalry had been ever so necessary to the guarding of railroad trains, he had probably not then a regiment that could have gone to Alexandria and back within 48 hours. He had received no rëenforcements or supplies since the 26th, and had no assurance that any were on the way. To retreat was difficult; to stand still and famish unadvisable; so he ordered Porter, supported by King, to advance down the Warrenton turnpike and attack; while Heintzelman and Reno, supported by Ricketts's division, were to assail and turn the enemy's left.

Porter's attack was feeble; and not unreasonably so, since he encountered the enemy in greatly superior numbers, and was speedily thrown and checked by the destruction of this large force as to have been no longer in condition to prosecute further operations of an aggressive character."

31 In his official report, he says:

"At that time, my effective force, greatly reduced by losses in killed, wounded, missing, and broken-down men, during the severe operations of the two or three days and nights previous; the sharp actions of Hooker, King, and Ricketts on the 27th and 28th, and the furious battle on the 29th, were estimated by me and others as follows: McDowell's corps, including Reynolds's division, 12,000 men; Sigel's corps, 7,000; Reno's corps, 7,000; Heintzelman's corps, 7,000; Porter's corps, which had been in no engagement, and was, or ought to have been, perfectly fresh, I estimated at about 12,000 men, including the brigade of Piatt, which formed a part of Sturgis's division, and the only portion that ever joined me. But of this force the brigades of Piatt and Griffin, numbering, as I understood, about 5,000 men, had been suffered to march off at daylight on the 30th for Centerville, and wero not available for operations on that day. This reduced Porter's effective force in the field to about 7,000 men; which gave me a total force of 40,000 men. Banks's corps, about 5,000 strong, was at Bristow Station, in charge of the railroad trains, and of a portion of the wagon trains of the army, still at that place." Aug. 30

32

position; but Lee, not unmindful of the still recent and sore experience of Malvern Heights, was too good a General to repeat his own blunders. Aware that a demoralized army under an inapt commander may be most safely and surely assailed on its flank and rear by blows that threaten to cut off its line of supply and retreat he started Jackson northward, with his own and Ewell's divisions, at an early hour next morning," with instructions to turn and assail our right. Crossing Bull Run at Sudley Ford, Jackson took a country road thence to Little River turnpike, on which, turning sharply to the right, he moved down toward Fairfax C. H.; and, toward evening of the next day," when nearing the little village of Germantown, a mile or two from Fairfax C. H., he found his advance resisted. Pope, not even threatened with a front attack, had ere this suspected the Rebels of a fresh attempt to flank his right, and had directed Gen. Sumner to push forward two brigades toward the turnpike, while Gen. Hooker was that afternoon dispatched to Fairfax C. H. to support the movement.

Skirmishing commenced at 5 P. M. Gen. Reno, near Chantilly, with the remains of two divisions, poorly supplied with ammunition, found himself confronted by Jackson's far superior numbers, but composed wholly of infantry; the rapidity of his march having left his artillery behind on the road. Gen. Isaac J. Stevens, commanding Reno's 2d or left divi

was shot dead while leading it, by a bullet through his head. His command thereupon fell back in disorder, uncovering the flank of Reno's other division, which thereupon fell back also.

Gen. Phil. Kearny, with his division of Heintzelman's corps, now advanced and renewed the action, in the midst of a thunder-storm so furious that ammunition could with great difficulty be kept serviceable; while the roar of cannon was utterly unheard at Centerville, barely three miles distant. Riding forward too recklessly, Kearny, about sunset, was shot dead, when almost within the Rebel lines, and the command of his division devolved on Gen. Birney, who promptly ordered a bayonetcharge by his own brigade, consisting of the 1st, 38th, and 40th New York. The order was executed by Col. Egan with great gallantry, and the enemy's advance driven back considerably; Gen. Birney holding the field of conflict through the night, burying our dead and removing our wounded. Our total loss here cannot have exceeded 500 men; but among them were Gens. Kearny and Stevens, and Maj. Tilden, 38th New York, who fell in the closing bayonetcharge.

Jackson's flanking movement and attack, though wisely conceived and vigorously made, had failed to achieve any material results. His report claims no prisoners nor arms captured."

Pope's retreat from Centerville

were in position on our right and front, covering his line of retreat from Centerville to Fairfax Court House. Our line of battle was formed-Gen. Hill's division on the right; Ewell's division, Gen. Lawton commanding, in

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Gen. Lee officially claims to have captured, during his campaign against Pope, more than 7,000 prisoners, beside 2,000 of our wounded left in his hands, with 30 pieces of artillery, and 20,000 small arms; while our losses of railroad cars, munitions, tents, and camp equipage, must have been immense. Lee's Medical Director makes the Rebel losses in the two days' fighting on Manassas Plains, 1,090 killed, 6,154 wounded: total, 7,244. Longstreet reports his losses from the 23d to the 30th of August, inclusive, at 4,725. A. P. Hill reports the losses in his division, from the 24th to the 31st, at 1,548. Probably the entire Rebel loss from Cedar Mountain to Chantilly did not fall short of 15,000 men; while Pope's, if we include that by stragglers who never rejoined their regiments, must have been fully double that number. Among our the center, and Jackson's division, Gen. Starke commanding, on the left-all on the right of the turnpike road. Artillery was posted on an eminence to the left of the road. The brigades of Branch and Field, Col. Brockenbrough commanding the latter, were sent forward to feel and engage the enemy. A cold and drenching thunder-shower swept over the field at this time, striking directly into the faces of our troops. These two brigades gallantly engaged the enemy; but so severe was the fire in front and flank of Branch's brigado as to produce in it some disorder and falling back. The brigades

How far Pope's disasters are justly attributable to his own incapacity, and how far to the failure or withholding of support on which he had a right to calculate, it is time now to consider. In his report, he says:

"It seems proper for me, since so much misrepresentation has been put into circulation as to the support I received from the Army of the Potomac, to state precisely what forces of that army came under my the active operations of the campaign. command, and were at any time engaged in Reynolds's division of Pennsylvania Reserves, about 2,500, joined me on the 23d of August, at Rappahannock Station. The corps of Heintzelman and Porter, about 18,000 strong, joined me on the 26th and and 27th of August, at Warrenton Junction. The Pennsylvania Reserves, under Reynolds, and Heintzelman's corps, consisting rendered most gallant and efficient service of the divisions of Hooker and Kearny, in all the operations which occurred after they had reported to me. Porter's corps. frequent and flagrant disregard of my from unnecessary and unusual delays, and orders, took no part whatever except in of Gregg, Thomas, and Pender were then thrown into the fight. Soon, a portion of Ewell's division became engaged. The conflict now raged with great fury; the enemy obstinately and desperately contesting the ground until their Gens. Kearny and Stevens fell in front of Thomas's brigade; after which, they retired from the field. By the following morning, the Federal army had entirely disappeared from our view; and it soon appeared, by a report from Gen. Stuart, that it had passed Fairfax Court House and had moved in the direction of Washington city."