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[52] success for the excellence of his generalship. A powerful body was, by a flank movement, planted on the thither side of Bull Run, and Beauregard's defensive line was taken in reverse. It is true this part of the plan should have reached this stage of development by six o'clock in the morning, and it was now ten; but this was not enough to jeopardize the success of the scheme, for Beauregard was ignorant of what had taken place. It is also true that Colonel Evans, divining the move, had effected his change of front to meet the Federal advance; but his entire force consisted of but nine weak companies, and Hunter had twelve thousand men. But there was present neither the skill nor the energy to take advantage of these circumstances; and the manner in which the troops were brought up affords a striking illustration of the then greenness of even the foremost officers of the army. In place of making proper dispositions in a line of battle, General Hunter caused a feeble fusilade to be opened from the head of the column; and Colonel Burnside's Rhode Island regiments, thrown in alone, were speedily cut up. This wasted an hour. To aid Burnside's hard-pressed command, the brigade of Colonel A. Porter was ordered up and deployed on his right, and Sykes' battalion of Regulars relieved him on the left. A serious advance of this line soon began to press the handful of Confederates back; but Evans was speedily re-enforced by portions of the brigades of Colonels Bee and Barton, who were at hand near the Stone Bridge, and, by these united forces, a fresh stand was made on a position still west of Young's Branch. But the increasing pressure of the Union line, strengthened now by the addition of portions of Heintzelman's division coming in on the left, compelled the Confederates to yield ground, and they were presently forced back sufficiently to allow Tyler's force near Stone Bridge to commence crossing to the south side and join in the combat. Commanding one of Tyler's brigades was one Colonel W. T. Sherman, afterwards of some repute in the world as the man who led the armies that marched from Chattanooga to
1866.
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