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| The Stone Bridge.2 |
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enemies of the country, not to judge or punish the unarmed and defenseless, however guilty they may be.”
The excesses were not repeated.1
General McDowell, pretty well informed concerning the strong position of the Confederate force; intended to turn its right flank at Manassas by a sudden movement to his left, crossing the Occoquan River below the mouth of Bull's Run, and, seizing the railway in the rear of his foe, compel both Beauregard and Johnston to fall back from their positions, so menacing to the National Capital.
With this view, he made a reconnoissance on the morning of the 18th, while Tyler moved forward with his division, and at nine o'clock marched through Centreville without any opposition, and halted in a little valley between it and Bull's Run.
This movement was intended as a feint, but ended in a sharp engagement.
Centreville was a small village on the west side of a ridge running nearly parallel with the general course of Bull's Run, which was west of it five or six miles, and near it the Confederates had erected strong earthworks.
These were occupied by a brigade of South Carolinians under General Bonham, who fled, at the approach of Tyler, to the wooded banks of bull's Run. Several roads, public and private, led to that stream from Centreville.
One was the Warrenton Turnpike, that crossed at the Stone Bridge, a structure of a single arch that spanned the Run; another led to Mitchel]s Ford, midway between Centreville and Manassas Junction; and still another led to Blackburn's Ford, over which General James Longstreet was watching.
Toward noon, Tyler went out on a reconnaissance toward Blackburn's
1 Many of the inhabitants abandoned their houses and fled in terror at the approach of the troops. Some of these houses were entered and plundered by the National soldiers, and some barns and other out-houses on the outskirts of the village were burnt, one of the troops, it was said, having been shot by a man concealed in one of them. Some of the soldiers appeared in the streets in the evening, dressed in women's apparel, which they had found in the houses; and one man, with the gown and bands of a clergyman, which he had found, went through the streets with an open book, reading the funeral service of the “President of the Southern Confederacy.” These shameful scenes were soon ended when the conduct of the soldiers was reported to the officers. General McDowell issued a stringent order, and threatened the severest penalties for a violation of it.
2 this is a view of the Stone Bridge and its vicinity, as it appeared after the battle there on the 21st of July, and, with pictures of several buildings mentioned in connection with that event, was kindly given to me by Mr. Gardner, the well-known photographer of Washington City, who took them from nature.
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