Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[241] who was supported on his left by a battalion of regular troops from Porter's brigade, and on his right by Griffin's regular battery of artillery. Bee, forming his line with admirable judgment, soon changes the aspect of the combat and checks the Federals, who are already attacking Evans's positions.

The battle was at its height; there were many killed and wounded on both sides. Hunter was among the first to be. struck down; and the loss of a considerable number of superior officers, who were obliged to expose themselves in order to urge their troops forward, caused trouble and hesitation in the Federal movements. If at this moment Tyler had shown some of that daring he had so uselessly displayed at Blackburn's Ford, he might have seized a fine opportunity for striking a blow at the enemy which might have proved decisive.

In fact, some spectators who had climbed the trees signalled to him the movements of Hunter and the combat that was going on at Young's Branch. He had four or five thousand men, and there were only two hundred riflemen of the enemy before him to dispute the passage of Bull Run. The military instinct of one of his lieutenants, who was destined for a glorious career, had discovered a ford. Colonel Sherman had seen in the morning a Confederate horseman plunge into the woods which skirt the left bank of Bull Run above the bridge, and shortly after had perceived him galloping across a field on the other side of the stream. There was, consequently, a practicable ford at that point; but Tyler, fearing that he could not cross with his artillery, did not dare to venture to pass the river.

Richardson's division and a portion of Miles's occupied the Confederate troops posted in the vicinity of Blackburn's Ford, while the Federal artillery, ably handled by Major Hunt, kept up a vigorous cannonade. It was half-past 10 in the morning. The staff of the Confederate army, however, was so poorly organized that Beauregard, posted in person in the rear of his long army line along Bull Run, was not aware of the attack that had been made upon Evans; for the slopes of the Manassas plateau concealed it from sight, and did not allow him to distinguish whence came the sound of cannon that he heard on that side; moreover, the orders he had sent to his right wing had