Today in History:

472 Series I Volume II- Serial 2 - First Manassas

Page 472 OPERATIONS IN MD., PA., VA., AND W. VA., Chapter IX.

the Third Tennessee Regiment, which had just arrived at Winchester. During that day and the next the heavy baggage and remaining public property were sent to Winchester by the railway, and the bridges on the Potomac destroyed.

On the morning of the 15th the Army left Harper's Ferry for Winchester-the force had been increased by three regiments since the 1st of June-and bivouacked four miles beyond Charlestown.

On the morning of the 16th intelligence was received that General Patterson's army had crossed the Potomac at Williamsport; also, that the United States force at Romney had fallen back. A courier from Richmond brought a dispatch authorizing me to evacuate Harper's Ferry at my discretion. The Army was ordered to gain the Martinsburg turnpike by a flank movement to Bunker Hill, in order to place itself between, Winchester and the expected advance of Patterson. On hearing of this, the enemy recrossed the river precipitately.

Resuming my first direction and plan, I proceeded to Winchester. There the Army was in position to oppose either McClellan from the west or Patterson from the northeast, and to form a junction with General or Patterson from the northeast, and to form a junction with General Beauregard when necessary. Lieutenant Colonel George H. Steuart, with his Maryland battalion, was sent to Harper's Ferry to bring off some public property said to have been left. As McClellan was moving southwestward from Grafton Colonel Hill's command was withdrawn from Romney. The defense of that region of country was intrusted to Colonel McDonald's regiment of cavalry.

Intelligence from Maryland indicating another movement by Patterson, Colonel Jackson, with his brigade, was sent to the neighborhood of Martinsburg to support Colonel Stuart. The latter officer had been placed in observation on the line of the Potomac with his cavalry, his increasing vigilance and activity relied on the repress small incursions of the enemy, to give intelligence of invasion by them, and to watch, harass, and circumscribe their every movement. Colonel Jackson was instructed to destroy such of the rolling stock of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as could not be brought off, and to have so much of it as could be made available to our service brought to Winchester.

Major Whiting was ordered to plan defensive works, and to have some heavy guns and navy carriages mounted. About twenty-five hundred militia, under Brigadier-General Carson, were called out from Frederick and the neighborhood counties to man them.

On the 2nd of July General Patterson again crossed the Potomac. Colonel Jackson, pursuant to instructions fell back before him. In retiring he gave him a severe lesson in the affair at Falling Waters. With a battalion of the Fifth Virginia Regiment (Harper's) and Pendleton's battery of field artillery he engaged the enemy's advance. Skillfully taking a position where the smallness of his force was concealed, he engaged them for a considerable time, inflicted a heavy loss, and retired when about to be outflanked, scarcely losing a man, but bringing off forty-five prisoners.

Upon this intelligence the Army, strengthened by the arrival of General Bee and Colonel Elzey and the Ninth Georgia Regiment, was ordered forward to the support of Jackson. It met him at Darkesville, six miles from Martinsburg, where it took up a position for action, as General Patterson, it was supposed, was closely following Colonel Jackson. We waited for him in this position four days, hoping to be attacked by an adversary at least double our numbers, but unwilling to attack him in a town so defensible as Martinsburg, with its solied buildings and enclosures of masonry. Convinced at length that he would not approach


Page 472 OPERATIONS IN MD., PA., VA., AND W. VA., Chapter IX.