Second Bull Run.
Sleeping on their arms on the night of August 29th, the
Federal veterans were as confident of having won a victory as were the raw troops in the beginning of the
first battle of Bull Run.
But the next day's fighting was to tell the tale.
General Ewell had been wounded in the knee by a minie ball in the severe fight at
Groveton and was unable to lead his command; but for the impetuosity of this commander was substituted that of
Longstreet, nicknamed “the
War-Horse,” whose arrival in the midst of the previous day's engagement had cost the
Federals dear On the morning of the second day
Longstreet's batteries opened the engagement.
When the general advance came, as the sun shone on the parallel lines of glittering bayonets, it was
Longstreet's men bringing their muskets to “the ready” who first opened fire with a long flash of flame.
It was they who pressed most eagerly forward and, in the face of the
Federal batteries, fell upon the troops of
General McDowell at the left and drove them irresistibly back.
Although the right Federal wing, in command of
General Heintzelman, had not given an inch, it was this turning of the left by
Longstreet which put the whole Federal army in retreat, driving them across
Bull Run.
The Confederates were left in possession of the field, where lay thousands of Federal dead and wounded, and
Lee was free to advance his victorious troops into the
North unmolested.
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The battle-field of second Bull Run (Manassas), August 29-30, 1862: the twice-won field |
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