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Chapter 3: early's brigade at Manassas.
At this time the largest organizations in our army were brigades, and each brigade commander received his orders directly from headquarters.
Since the conference at Fairfax Station, when
General Beauregard stated that his effective strength did not exceed 15,000 men, one regiment, the 1st South Carolina, had been sent off by reason of expiration of term of service, and one regiment, the 7th Louisiana, had joined my brigade.
Besides this,
General Beauregard's troops had been augmented, since the advance of the enemy, by the arrival of six companies of the 8th Louisiana, the 5th North Carolina State Troops, the 11th North Carolina Volunteers, the 13th Mississippi, three companies of the 49th Virginia and
Hampton's South Carolina Legion; the latter containing six companies of infantry.
His whole effective force, however, did not probably much exceed the estimate made at the time of the conference, as the measles and typhoid fever, which were prevailing, had reduced very much the strength of the regiments, especially among the
Virginia troops which Were entirely new. To reinforce him,
Holmes' brigade of two regiments had arrived from
Aquia Creek, and
Johnston's troops were arriving by the railroad, after much delay by reason of accidents or mismanagement on the part of the railroad officials.
On the 20th we were not molested by the enemy, and on the morning of the 21st the position of
Beauregard's troops was pretty much the same as it had been on the 18th, to wit:
Ewell at
Union Mills;
D. R. Jones at McLean's Ford;
Longstreet, reinforced by the 5th North Carolina, at Blackburn's Ford;
Bonham, reinforced by six companies of the 8th Louisiana and the 11th North Carolina Volunteers., at Mitchell's Ford;
