Monday, July 22.
The battle was renewed yesterday at Bull Run, and, as I
anticipated when I began this letter, the rebel batteries have been carried one
after another, and the enemy beaten back to Manassas. A general engagement must
now follow at once, unless they retreat toward Richmond. There is no need of my
saying anything more, because the papers will give you, by telegraph to
Halifax, later intelligence than I can possibly send. Perhaps the success which
I now chronicle may not prove to be authentic. Yesterday Mr. William Dwight
came over to Woodland Hill, and read us a couple of spirited letters from his
son Wilder, major in the Massachusetts Second. It appears, as you will see in
the papers, that Patterson has been superseded by Banks. This I hardly
understand. Banks has great talent, and has generally succeeded in everything
he has undertaken; but he is not an army man, and has had no experience in
actual service. We are still in the dark here as to the important fact whether
Johnston has retired from Winchester and effected his junction with Beauregard
at Manassas, or whether he may still be cut off by the Patterson division
moving from Charlestown. Of course you will get this information by Thursday's
(25th) telegram to Halifax.
To their great disappointment, no doubt, Gordon's regiment
has been detailed from the column to which it belonged, and has been sent from
Charlestown to Harper's Ferry. It is a responsible and important duty, and the
discipline and energy of this regiment were relied upon to quell all secession
at so important a point in the rear, when the great advance was making into the
heart of Virginia. But it is a great sell for Gordon and his comrades, for it
keeps them for a time at a distance from the great scene of action. Wilder
Dwight, in his letter, mentions cases in which the inhabitants of Martinsburg
and its vicinity had been maltreated by the rebel army. After the occupation of
the place by the Union troops, one evening, a farmer of the vicinity invited
Gordon and his officers to supper. He said the rebels took from him and from
all his neighbors everything they wanted, and paid nothing for them except
receipts in the name of the Confederacy — and “there ain't any Confederacy,” he
said. At Harper's Ferry he makes the same report. Women come in and tell of
their husbands and sons having been impressed. Men complain of being driven
from their homes, and of other maltreatment. And, in short, you have here, from
an unimpeachable witness, evidence that, even in Eastern Virginia, the very
hotbed of secession, the rebellion is not over-popular, and that the Stars and
Stripes are hailed, by some of the inhabitants at least, as the symbols of
deliverance from a reign of terror. I shall leave my letter open, in order to
add a P. S. to-morrow.
P. S., July 23, 11:30 A.
M.
Read this sheet first.
I have had half a dozen minds about sending you the
foregoing pages. Since they were written the terrible defeat of Sunday evening
has occurred. We are for the moment overwhelmed with gloom. I pity you and my
children inexpressibly, to be alone there. On the whole, I have decided to send
my letter as it stands. There is no doubt that our troops behaved admirably
during the whole of Sunday; that they charged and carried battery after battery
of rifled cannon; that the colonels of regiments led on their men on foot,
rifle in hand, loading and firing like privates; that our men repeatedly
crossed bayonets with the enemy and drove them off the field. This went on for
nine hours. In the evening it appears that Johnston effected his junction with
Beauregard, and then a panic, commenced by teamsters, together with reporters,
members of Congress, and outsiders generally, who had no business on the field
at all, was communicated to the troops, who fled in disorder. The accounts are
very conflicting as to the behavior of our men after seven o'clock P. M. of
Sunday.
There is no doubt that we have sustained a great defeat. The
measure of our dishonor, which I thought last night so great as to make
me hang my head forever, I cannot now thoroughly estimate. We must wait for the
official reports, both as to the number of killed and wounded (which vary for
our side from 4000 to 200!), and for the more important matter of deciding
whether we have been utterly disgraced as well as defeated. In a brief note
which I wrote early this morning I told you that I should send for you to come
home immediately. I sympathize most deeply with your position. You have many
kind friends — none can be kinder; but the situation admits of no consolation.
Do not, however, believe the sensational reports which have harrowed us here
yesterday. We were very much outnumbered; that is certain. We fought well the
whole of the day, but we were outgeneraled and defeated aftr nine hours' hard
fighting. Whether we have lost everything, even honor, cannot be decided for a
few days. I shall try to write by the intermediate steamer, but certainly by
the next Cunarder, this day week, and I will then let you know what I think you
had best do. I don't feel now as if I could come into England again. Don't show
this letter to any one. I hope you are not in London, and that you are with the
Hugheses.
God bless you and my dear children.
Ever your
affectionate
J. L. M.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition,
Volume 2, p. 187-90
No comments:
Post a Comment