Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

[187] the Confederates were immensely reassured by it; but there is reason to suppose that McClellan's splendid army, that was constantly entertaining attention with parades and reviews, was performing a well-designed part, and that the gorgeous pageant on the Potomac was intended as a veil to immense military preparations going on in other directions.

The Confederate advance having failed to bring on a general battle, although it was almost daily invited by heavy skirmishing, and it being impossible without a chain of strong fortifications to hold the advanced line of Mason's and Munson's hills, or even the interiour one of Fairfax Court-house and its flanks, it was decided by Gens. Johnston and Beauregard, on the 15th of October, to withdraw the army to Centreville. At the dead of night it was put in motion, and in perfect silence, without the beat of a drum or the note of a bugle, the men marched out of their forsaken entrenchments. and took the road to Centreville.

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The battle of Leesburg.

The apparent retreat of the Confederates to Centreville encouraged McClellan to make an advance on the extreme left wing of their force. This enterprise brought on a conflict among the most sanguinary of the war, in view of the numbers engaged. The design of the Federal commander was to occupy the country covering the northern belt of Fairfax and Loudon counties; and while a column moved towards Dranesville, he ordered Gen. Stone, commanding on the line of the Potomac, nearly opposite to Leesburg, to throw across the river a sufficient force to co-operate with the lower movement.

The Confederate force in and around Leesburg was about two thousand men. It was a brigade composed of three Mississippi regiments and the 8th Virginia, commanded by Gen. Evans, whose name had been conspicuous on the field of Manassas. Before day broke on the 20th of October, the men were drawn up in line of battle, and Evans addressed them thus: “Gentlemen, the enemy are approaching by the Dranesville road, sixteen thousand strong, with twenty pieces of artillery. They want to cut off our retreat. Reinforcements can't arrive in time if they were sent. We must .fight.” The little army was at once put in motion across Goose Creek and along the Dranesville road, anticipating a desperate engagement with the Federal column reported to be moving in that direction under the command of Gen. McCall. A few hours after sunrise a Federal courier was captured proceeding on his way with despatches from McCall to Stone. His papers betrayed sufficient to reveal that it was designed to draw the Confederates from Leesburg along the Dranesville road, while Stone crossed the river and occupied the town.