Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War
along the whole length of the ridge beyond the railroad long lines of
infantry, streaming forward from the woods, ran down to the embankment.
“The effect,” said an officer who witnessed this unexpected apparition,
“was not unlike flushing a covey of quails.”
Instead of the small rear-guard which Pope had thought to crush by
sheer force of overwhelming numbers, the whole of the Stonewall
division, with Lawton on the left, stood across Porter’s path.
Reynolds, south of the turnpike, and confronting Longstreet, was
immediately ordered to fall back and support the attack, and two small
brigades, Warren’s and Alexander’s, were left alone on the Federal
left. Pope had committed his last and his worst blunder. Sigel with two
divisions was in rear of Porter, and for Sigel’s assistance Porter had
already asked. But Pope, still under the delusion that Longstreet was
not yet up, preferred rather to weaken his left than grant the request
of a subordinate.
Under such a leader the courage of the troops, however vehement, was of
no avail, and in Porter’s attack the soldiers displayed a courage to
which the Confederates paid a willing tribute. Morell’s division, with
the two brigades abreast, arrayed in three lines, advanced across the
meadows. Hatch’s division, in still deeper formation, pushed through
the wood on Morell’s right. Nearer Bull Run were two brigades of
Ricketts; and to Morell’s left rear the division of regulars moved
forward under Sykes.
Morell’s attack was directed against Jackson’s right. In the centre of
the Federal line a mounted officer, whose gallant bearing lived long in
the memories of the Stonewall division, rode out in front of the
column, and, drawing his sabre, led the advance over the rolling
grass-land. The Confederate batteries, with a terrible cross-fire,
swept the Northern ranks from end to end. The volley of the infantry,
lying behind their parapet, struck them full in face. But the horse and
his rider lived through it all. The men followed close, charging
swiftly up the slope, and then the leader, putting his horse straight
at the embankment, stood for a moment on the top. The daring feat was
seen by the whole Confederate line, and a yell went up from the men
along the railroad, “Don’t kill him! don’t kill him!” But while the cry
went up horse and rider fell in one limp mass across the earthwork, and
the gallant Northerner was dragged under shelter by his generous foes.
With such men as this to show the way what soldiers would be backward?
As the Russians followed Skobeleff’s grey up the bloody slopes of
Plevna, so the Federals followed the bright chestnut of this unknown
hero, and not till the colours waved within thirty paces of the parapet
did the charge falter. But, despite the supports that came thronging
up, Jackson’s soldiers, covered by the earthwork, opposed a resistance
which no mere frontal attack could break. Three times, as the lines in
rear merged with the first, the Federal officers brought their men
forward to the assault, and three times were they hurled back, leaving
hundreds of their number dead and wounded on the
blood-soaked turf. One regiment of the Stonewall division, posted in a
copse beyond the railroad, was driven in; but others, when cartridges
failed them, had recourse, like the Guards at Inkermann, to the stones
which lay along the railway-bed; and with these strange weapons, backed
up by the bayonet, more than one desperate effort was repulsed. In
arresting Garnett after Kernstown, because when his ammunition was
exhausted he had abandoned his position, Jackson had lost a good
general, but he had taught his soldiers a useful lesson. So long as the
cold steel was left to them, and their flanks were safe, they knew that
their indomitable leader expected them to hold their ground, and right
gallantly they responded. For over thirty minutes the battle raged
along the front at the closest range. Opposite a deep cutting the
colours of a Federal regiment, for nearly half an hour, rose and fell,
as bearer after bearer was shot down, within ten yards of the muzzles
of the Confederate rifles, and after the fight a hundred dead
Northerners were found where the flag had been so gallantly upheld.
Hill, meanwhile, was heavily engaged with Hatch. Every brigade, with
the exception of Gregg’s, had been thrown into the fighting-line; and
so hardly were they pressed, that Jackson, turning to his signallers,
demanded reinforcements from his colleague. Longstreet, in response to
the call, ordered two more batteries to join Colonel Stephen Lee; and
Morell’s division, penned in that deadly cockpit between Stuart’s Hill
and the Groveton wood, shattered by musketry in front and by artillery
at short range in flank, fell back across the meadows. Hatch soon
followed suit, and Jackson’s artillery, which during the fight at close
quarters had turned its fire on the supports, launched a storm of shell
on the defeated Federals. Some batteries were ordered to change
position so as to rake their lines; and the Stonewall Division,
reinforced by a brigade of Hill’s, was sent forward to the
counter-attack. At every step the losses of the Federals increased, and
the shattered divisions, passing through two regiments of regulars,
which had been sent forward to support them, sought shelter in the
woods. Then Porter and Hatch, under cover of their artillery, withdrew
their
infantry. Ricketts had fallen back before his troops arrived within
decisive range. Under the impression that he was about to pursue a
retreating enemy, he had found on advancing, instead of a thin screen
of skirmishers, a line of battle, strongly established, and backed by
batteries to which he was unable to reply. Against such odds attack
would only have increased the slaughter.
It was after four o’clock. Three hours of daylight yet remained, time
enough still to secure a victory. But the Federal army was in no
condition to renew the attack. Worn with long marches, deprived of
their supplies, and oppressed by the consciousness that they were
ill-led, both officers and men had lost all confidence. Every single
division on the field had been engaged, and every single division had
been beaten back. For four days, according to General Pope, they had
been following a flying foe. “We were sent forward,” reported a
regimental commander with quiet sarcasm, “to pursue the enemy, who was
said to be retreating; we found the enemy, but did not see them
retreat.”
Nor, had there been a larger reserve in hand, would a further advance
have been permitted. The Stonewall division, although Porter’s
regiments were breaking up before its onset, had been ordered to fall
back before it became exposed to the full sweep of the Federal guns.
But the woods to the south, where Longstreet’s divisions had been lying
for so many hours, were already alive with bayonets. The grey
skirmishers, extending far beyond Pope’s left, were moving rapidly down
the slopes of Stuart’s Hill, and the fire of the artillery, massed on
the ridge in rear, was increasing every moment in intensity. The
Federals, just now advancing in pursuit, were suddenly thrown on the
defensive; and the hand of a great captain snatched control of the
battle from the grasp of Pope.
As Porter reeled back from Jackson’s front, Lee had seen his
opportunity. The whole army was ordered to advance to the attack.
Longstreet, prepared since dawn for the counterstroke, had moved before
the message
reached him, and the exulting yells of his soldiers were now resounding
through the forest. Jackson was desired to cover Longstreet’s left; and
sending Starke and Lawton across the meadows, strewn with the bloody
_débris_ of Porter’s onslaught, he instructed Hill to advance _en
échelon_ with his left “refused.” Anticipating the order, the commander
of the Light Division was already sweeping through the Groveton wood.
The Federal gunners, striving valiantly to cover the retreat of their
shattered infantry, met the advance of the Southerners with a rapid
fire. Pope and McDowell exerted themselves to throw a strong force on
to the heights above Bull Run; and the two brigades upon the left,
Warren’s and Alexander’s, already overlapped, made a gallant effort to
gain time for the occupation of the new position.
But the counterstroke of Lee was not to be withstood by a few regiments
of infantry. The field of Bull Run had seen many examples of the attack
as executed by indifferent tacticians. At the first battle isolated
brigades had advanced at wide intervals of time. At the second battle
the Federals had assaulted by successive divisions. Out of 50,000
infantry, no more than 20,000 had been simultaneously engaged, and when
a partial success had been achieved there were no supports at hand to
complete the victory. When the Confederates came forward it was in
other fashion; and those who had the wit to understand were now to
learn the difference between mediocrity and genius, between the
half-measures of the one and the resolution of the other. Lee’s order
for the advance embraced his whole army. Every regiment, every battery,
and every squadron was employed. No reserves save the artillery were
retained upon the ridge, but wave after wave of bayonets followed
closely on the fighting-line. To drive the attack forward by a quick
succession of reinforcements, to push it home by weight of numbers, to
pile blow on blow, to keep the defender occupied along his whole front,
and to provide for retreat, should retreat be necessary, not by
throwing in fresh troops, but by leaving the enemy so crippled that he
would be powerless
to pursue—such were the tactics of the Confederate leader.
The field was still covered with Porter’s and Hatch’s disordered masses
when Lee’s strong array advanced, and the sight was magnificent. As far
as the eye could reach the long grey lines of infantry, with the
crimson of the colours gleaming like blood in the evening sun, swept
with ordered ranks across the Groveton valley. Batteries galloped
furiously to the front; far away to the right fluttered the guidons of
Stuart’s squadrons, and over all the massed artillery maintained a
tremendous fire. The men drew fresh vigour from this powerful
combination. The enthusiasm of the troops was as intense as their
excitement. With great difficulty, it is related, were the gunners
restrained from joining in the charge, and the officers of the staff
could scarcely resist the impulse to throw themselves with their
victorious comrades upon the retreating foe.
The advance was made in the following order:
Wilcox’ division, north of the turnpike, connected with Jackson’s
right. Then came Evans, facing the two brigades which formed the
Federal left, and extending across the turnpike. Behind Evans came
Anderson on the left and Kemper on the right. Then, in prolongation of
Kemper’s line, but at some interval, marched the division of D. R.
Jones, flanked by Stuart’s cavalry, and on the further wing, extending
towards Bull Run, were Starke, Lawton, and A. P. Hill. 50,000 men,
including the cavalry, were thus deployed over a front of four miles;
each division was formed in at least two lines; and in the centre,
where Anderson and Kemper supported Evans, were no less than eight
brigades one in rear of the other.
The Federal advanced line, behind which the troops which had been
engaged in the last attack were slowly rallying, extended from the
Groveton wood to a low hill, south of the turnpike and east of the
village. This hill was quickly carried by Hood’s brigade of Evans’s
division. The two regiments which defended it, rapidly outflanked, and