Advance at daylight.
A part of the Union army, Gen. Tyler's troops, engaged. This conflict the
rebels call battle of Bull Run. While the contest was raging, our division
halted two miles to the left of Fairfax Court House, at a place called
Germantown. We could plainly hear the distant booming of artillery, and were
impatiently waiting for the order, "forward." Towards four o'clock P.
M., we advanced again; preparations were made to get in action; sponge buckets
filled with water, and equipments distributed among the cannoniers. But when we
approached Centreville, intelligence came that our troops got worsted and the
contest was given up. Our division went to camp within a mile and a half of
Centreville. Strong picket lines we drawn up.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First
Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 10-1
