Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[592] than McDowell's by at least four thousand men. He was the senior officer, and took the chief command of the army. He approved of Beauregard's plan for an attack on the left wing of the Nationals; and both generals, before daybreak on the morning of the 21st, made active preparations for its execution. A few hours later the Confederates, instead of being the aggressors, were fighting on the defensive on their side of Bull's Run.

The general disposition of the Confederate army on the 21st

July 1861.

was nearly the same as on the 18th.¹ The arrival of re-enforcements, and preparations for the attack on the National left, had made some changes. The detachments of the brigades of Bee of South Carolina, and Bartow of Georgia, that came from the Shenandoah Valley with Johnston, about three thousand in number, had been placed in reserve between McLean's and Blackburn's Fords; and Colonel Cocke's brigade, with which were connected two companies of cavalry and a battery of four 6-pounders, occupied a line in front of Bull's Run, below the Stone Bridge, to guard Island, Ball's, and Lewis's Fords. Three hundred of Stuart's cavalry, of the Army of the Shenandoah, and two companies of Radford's cavalry, were in reserve not far from Mitchell's Ford. Near them was a small brigade under General Holmes, and some cavalry.²

The three divisions of the National army moved from Centreville in the bright moonlight at the appointed hour.

July 21, 1861.

They advanced slowly, for raw troops were difficult to handle. After crossing Cub Run, Hunter and Heintzelman turned into the road to the right that led through the “Big woods,” whilst Tyler moved along the Warrenton turnpike directly toward the Stone Bridge, with the brigades of Schenck and Sherman, leaving Keyes to watch the road that came up from Manassas, and Richardson

Fourteenth Virginia Cavalry.

to co-operate with Miles in keeping ward over Blackburn's Ford and vicinity, on the extreme left. Tyler's division was accompanied by the batteries of Ayres and Carlisle; and its first business was to make a feigned attack near the bridge at dawn, to deceive the foe and divert his attention until Hunter and Heintzelman should fall upon the flank and rear of his left wing. McDowell, who was ill, had followed the columns from Centreville in a carriage, and he took a position at the junction of the turnpike and the forest road, where he might be in quick communication with all his forces.

These movements were all much slower than had been calculated upon, and the mistake in not making an advance the previous evening was soon painfully apparent. The advantage of a surprise was lost. It was half-past 6 o'clock, when the sun had been shining on the Stone Bridge nearly two hours, before Tyler was ready to open fire on the Confederates there; and