News of the Battle of Bull Run

 

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Civil War Harper's Weekly, August 10, 1861

This original Civil War Harper's Weekly newspaper has a number of stunning images of the Battle of Bull Run, including a battle map. This paper also has important news on the battle and various other news of the day.

(Scroll Down to see entire page, or Newspaper Thumbnails will take you to the page of interest)

 

Edward Bulwer Lytton

Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton

Bull Run Battle Defeat

Defeat at the Battle of Bull Run

Wounded at Battle of Bull Run

Wounded at Bull Run

Bull Run Infantry Charge

Infantry Charge at Bull Run

Battle of Manassas

Manassas Junction

News of Bull Run

News of the Battle of Bull Run

Bull Run Retreat

The Retreat From Bull Run

Bull Run Picture

Picture of the Battle of Bull Run

Battle of Bull Run Map

Bull Run Battle Map

Battle of Bull Run Infantry Charge

Chesapeake Bay

Scott Bull Run

Gen. Scott Forced to Fight Bull Run

 

 

 

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

[AUGUST 10, 1861.

510

THE INDIANA BRIGADE.

TWELVE thousand stanch, undaunted men, Twelve thousand Hoosiers we

The rifles on our shoulders,

The sabres at our knee.

From Indiana we are come,

Trav'ling mountains o'er;

And the song we sing is, Carry me back To Old Virginia shore !

Our harvest fields of golden grain
Are left with those we love ;

We're fighting to maintain for aye The flag that floats above.

There's many a rebel soldier knows, When welt'ring in his gore,

The reason why we've tramped so far To Old Virginia shore.

The gray-haired man his blessing pours, With tears, as we pass by ;

The red-checked girl her welcome speaks, With a brightly-sparkling eye.

They're glad we've come ; for rebels fly, Their cannon cease to roar,

Their flag to scent the mountain air That wraps Virginia's shore.

Twelve thousand stanch, undaunted men—Twelve thousand more to come ;

And many eyes shall never see

The smiles that welcome home.

But hands are firm, and hearts will dare Brave deeds ne'er heard before

The stars and stripes shall float again O'er all Virginia's shore.

NEW ALBANY, July 20.

THE WOUNDED AT THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN.

ON page 502 we illustrate CARRYING IN THE WOUNDED AT THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN, from sketches by our special artist. The fate of many of the wounded was terrible; they were bayoneted where they lay by the rebel troops. The following, from the New York Tribune, is one of many pieces or evidence which have been laid before the public :

Surgeon Barnes, of the New York Twenty-eighth Volunteers, was in the fight all through, and came out of it in his shirt sleeves, having lost coat, sash, watch, and all his surgical instruments, having been charged on by the Black Horse Cavalry and compelled to leave the field, being driven from under a tree where he had established his temporary quarters, and where he was attending to the wounds of about twenty-five injured men, part of whom were secessionists.

Surgeon Barnes went up to the battle-field in the rear of the attacking column, and, as soon as our men began to fall, he took a position with his assistants under a tree, in a little ravine. The wounded men were brought to him, and he took off his green sash and hung it on the tree to signify that the place was under the charge of a surgeon. The injured men were brought in rapidly, and in fifteen minutes he had under his charge nearly thirty. As fast as possible he attended to their hurts, and in a short time had been compelled to perform a number of capital operations. He amputated four legs, three arms, a hand, and a foot, and attended to a number of minor injuries. By this time the enemy had discovered the place, and the nature of the men in charge, and began to pour in musket-balls, and projectiles from rifled cannon. The place became unsafe for the wounded men, and it was seen to be necessary to remove them. The Surgeon's Assistants and servant had become separated from him, and he had no one to send for ambulances, and was obliged to leave the wounded men and go himself. It was no easy matter to procure ambulances enough, and it was probably thirty minutes before the Surgeon returned with the necessary assistance. When he returned he found that every one of those wounded men had been bayoneted or sabred, and was dead. They were literally cut to pieces.

THE FIRE ZOUAVES AND THE
BLACK HORSE CAVALRY.

WE publish on page 501 an illustration of the terrible conflict which took place at the battle of Bull Run between the Fire Zouaves and the Black Horse Cavalry. One of the lieutenants of the Zouaves thus tells the tale :

The Zouaves rushed out of the woods only to find themselves the target for another body of infantry beyond, while the Black Horse Cavalry were seen charging full upon them. Things looked badly, when, fortunately, the infantry were engaged by another regiment, thus giving the Zouaves time to prepare for the charge from the horsemen. They formed hastily in line, kneeling, semi-kneeling, and standing, that, Ellsworth fashion, they might receive their enemies with successive volleys. On came the Horse—a full regiment of brave men, splendidly mounted, and as ready for mischief as those on whom they hoped to fall. To an early discharge from the cavalry the Zouaves made no response, although several of the men were killed, but waited patiently until the enemy was almost upon them, when, in quick succession, the three ranks fired, each man doing his best for the good cause. The shock to the rebels was great; but they rallied, behaving splendidly, and attempted a renewal of the charge, for which, however, the excited firemen were prepared, and for which the Black Horse Cavalry paid most dearly. They were completely shattered, broken up, and swept away. Not more than a hundred of them rode off, and as they went their rebellious ears were saluted with "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, tigah, Zouave!" and such a "tiger repeat" as one can only appreciate when he has heard it.

The following account is from a private letter:

The New York Zouaves received the first charge of the famous Black Horse Guard, about which Governor Wise has so often spoken. It was a splendid corps of cavalry, all the horses of which were coal black. They came upon the Zouave regiment at a gallop, and were received by the brave firemen upon their poised bayonets, followed instantly by a volley, from which they broke and fled, though several of the Zouaves were cut down in the assault. They quickly returned, with their forces doubled—perhaps six or seven hundred—and again they dashed with fearful yells upon the excited Zouaves. This time they bore an American flag, and a part of the Zouaves supposed for an instant that they were fiends, whom they had originally mistaken. The flag was quickly thrown down, however, the horses dashed upon the regiment, the ruse was discovered, and the slaughter commenced. No quarter, no halting, no flinching now, marked the rapid and death-dealing blows of our men as they closed in upon the foe, in their madness and desperation. Our brave fellows fell, the ranks filled up, the sabres, bowie-knives, and bayonets glistened in the sunlight, horse after horse went down, platoon after platoon disappeared—the rattle of musketry, the screams of the rebels, the shout of " Remember Ellsworth!"

from the lungs of the Zouaves, and the yells of the wounded and crushed belligerents filled the air, and a terrible carnage succeeded. The gallant Zouaves fought to the death, and were sadly cut up ; but of those hundreds of Black Horse Guards not many left that bloody encounter!

THE RETREAT.

OUR special artist has supplied us with the sketch which we reproduce on page 500, representing the RETREAT FROM BULL RUN on 21st ult. It shows the stragglers and fugitives well covered by Colonel Blenker's brigade. The Tribune correspondent thus depicted the movement :

Stretching far across the road, long before the hoped-for refuge of Centreville was reached, was a firm, unswerving line of men, to whom the sight of the thousands who dashed by them was only a wonder or a scorn. This was the German rifle regiment; and to see the manly bearing of their General, and feel the inspiration which his presence gave at that moment, was like relief to those who perish in a desert. At least, then, all was not lost ; and we knew that, let our destiny turn that night as it should, there was one man who would hold and keep the false of the nation unsullied to the end.

I need not speak much in praise of the action of Blenker and the officers who served him so well. The events speak for them. Steady and watchful, he held his line throughout the evening, advancing his skirmishers at every token of attack, and spreading a sure protection over the multitudes who fled disordered through the columns. With three regiments he stood to fight against an outnumbering enemy already flushed with victory, and eager to complete its triumph. As the darkness increased his post became more perilous and more honorable. At 11 o'clock the attack came upon the advance company of Colonel Stahel's Rifles, not in force, but from a body of cavalry whose successful passage would have been followed by a full force, and the consequent destruction of our broken host. The rebel cavalry was driven back, and never returned, and at two in the morning, the great body of our troops having passed and found their road to safety, the command was given to retreat in order, and the brigade fell slowly and regularly back, with the same precision as if on parade, and as thoroughly at the will of their leader as if no danger had ever come near them. Over and over again Blenker begged permission to maintain his post, or even to advance. " Retreat !" said he to McDowell's messenger; "bring me the word to go on, Sir!" but the command was peremptory, and he was left no alternative.

CONCERNING FIRE-ARMS.

FIELD ARTILLERY.

SIEGE guns are never made of wrought iron or bronze, owing to their expensiveness and lack of durability. Field Artillery comprises the smaller guns and howitzers, including 6 and 12-pound guns and 12 and 24-pound howitzers. All of these are made of bronze, the superior tenacity of which renders it the best material for light artillery. The effective range of field artillery is as follows :

12-pounder    1000 yards.

6-pounder    800 yards.

24-pounder (howitzer)    600 yards.

12-pounder (howitzer)    500 yards. Do. do., grape and canister, 300 to 500 yards.

THE ARMSTRONG GUN.

Two guns of modern invention are worthy of particular description from the notice they have attracted from the first European nations, as well as from the peculiarities of their construction—these are the Armstrong and Whitworth guns. Mr. W. G. Armstrong, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (now Sir William Armstrong), about the year 1854 constructed a field-piece upon plans which he had long studied, and which he considered destined to change the whole system of modern ordnance. The Arm-strong gun is formed with a steel tube, rifled with thirty or forty grooves, and bound round on the outside with strips of wrought iron laid on spirally, of course materially strengthening the gun. The projectile is a pointed cylinder, similar in shape to a Minie ball, made of cast iron and coated with lead. The gun is breech-loading, in order to admit of a larger ball, to insure its tilling the grooves. The ball can be used either as shot or shell ; the latter by filling it with powder and attaching a detonating fuse at the point. The gun is mounted on a carriage with pivot-frame, recoil-slide, and screw for elevating and depressing, and for horizontal movements. The ball acts as a shot before bursting as a shell; penetrating the object and bursting immediately after. This gun has an enormous range, twice or three times that of other field guns of the same calibre, and with remarkable accuracy. It is stated, however, that, owing to various reasons, it has been condemned by the Horse Guards. Mr. Armstrong has an immense manufactory, and for the past five years has had the name of having produced the most effective gun ever invented. Various objections have been urged against it ; the fact of its being breech-loading and complicated, and the use of lead on the ball, which was liable to stripping, being the most important.

THE WHITWORTH GUN.

The Whitworth rifled cannon obtains its remarkable power and accuracy by the adoption of a polygonal spiral bore of uniform pitch, more rapid than could be obtained by grooves. The 12-pounder-one of which was a few days since exhibited in this city—with a bore of 3.2 inches, has one turn in sixty inches; it is eight feet long and breech-loading. The projectile is oblong, made of cast iron, and formed to fit the grooves of the barrel. The breech of the gun is covered with a cap which screws on, and on being removed swings to one side upon a hinge ; the projectile is then inserted into the open breech, and followed by a tin cartridge-case containing the powder, and capped by a cake of wax or other lubricating composition; the breech-cap is then swung too and screwed on by its handles, a fuse inserted into the vent, and the gun is discharged. The lubricating matter being carried out with the ball effectually cleanses the gun, and the deposit is afterward withdrawn with the cartridge-case. As there is no exhalation of gases from the breech-cap, one of the worst features of breech-loading guns is avoided. The range of this gun is said to be greater than the Armstrong gun, and its accuracy more positive. Guns of the size herein described cost £300 in England.

OTHER GUNS.

Other new guns and implements of war have been named ; as " Hotchkiss's Rifled Cannon," "Winans Steam-gun," the " Centrifugal gun," etc., but these have been fully described in the daily papers as they have made their appearance. Of course the inventive talent of the country will now be chiefly directed toward producing those articles which will become necessary in prosecuting the present war.

PROJECTILES.

It remains only to name and describe the missiles used in artillery warfare : these are solid shot, shells, strap-shot, case or canister shot, grape-shot, light and fireballs, carcasses, grenades, and rockets.

Of the various kinds of solid shot, we have already described those prepared for rifled cannon, and the rest are too common and well known to need any careful description. They are made of cast iron, in sand or iron moulds. Hot shot is used for firing ships or forts, and other combustible matter ; they are heated in furnaces to a red or white heat. Shells, bombs, grenades, and hollow shot are made of cast iron, and usually spherical. They are filled with combustible matter, and fired by means of a fuse, regulated to explode the projectile at the desired moment. Grenades are frequently fired from howitzers on the field of battle to dislodge cavalry or infantry from some important post.

Strap-shot is so called from the fact that the ball is attached or strapped by bands of tin to the cartridge. Canister is prepared by filling a tin canister with grape-shot or musket-balls and attaching it to a cartridge. Light-balls and fire-balls are composed of combustible material, which lights up very brilliantly, and are fired at night for the purpose of exposing an enemy's actions or illuminating a camp. Carcasses, smoke-balls, and suffocating-balls are shells with several fuse holes, from which horrible fumes, vapors, or flames rush forth, blinding and suffocating all around. They are used to drive an enemy from mines or galleries, or to clear a breach in a fortress. Grape-shot are larger than musket-balls, and are fastened together between plates in the form of a bunch of grapes. Shrapnel are spherical shells filled with bullets and powder, and fired by a common fuse.

HUMORS OF THE DAY.

EXTRAVAGANCE IN CUPID'S GARDEN. As down in Cupid's Garden

For pastime I did go,

Considering Fashion's flowers

Which in that garden grow;

Which in that garden grow. I see a fine young lady,

And unto her did say,

"Beest thee engaged to e'er a young Swell? Come tell me now, I pray;

Come tell me now, I pray?" "I ben't engaged to ne'er a young Swell, I'm sorry to declare :

For I cost so much in Crinoline, And the other things I wear;

And the other things I wear."

ADVICE TO OPERA-GOERS.—Never volunteer to take any lady to a performance which you are particularly desirous of hearing, for fear she should be taken ill soon after it has begun, and want to go home. The observance of this rule will by no means be necessarily mere selfishness. If you wish to be kind to her, and treat her to an opera, do so, only wait till you are asked. Then you will find that she will not fall ill at the theatre, or if she does, so much the better, as far as your entertainment is concerned; for you will have taken her to hear music which you don't care about, and from which you will be glad to get away.

Mr. Merryman Lathrop says when he went on the steamer to California, they kept the chickens in the hatchway, the beef in the bullworks, near the steerage, and when they ran out of eggs the ship lay too.

OLD FOGY'S GLEE. OH, the girls that we have seen All in their time so fair!

Now some are fat, and some are lean, So much the worse for wear. To think I see my early flame In yonder Mrs. Grundy! Once I was mad for that old dame! Sic transit gloria mundi!

THE DEAR CREATURES.—When a certain Oriental potentate wants to ruin one of his principal subjects he makes him a present of a white elephant, which the poor man is obliged to keep, and by which, therefore, he is soon financially eaten up. In this country the fashionable mamma, who contrives to inveigle a soft young man into marriage with her expensive daughter, saddles him with an incumbrance corresponding exactly to the white elephant, in very speedily reducing him to ruin, and, as it were, eating him out of house and home.

 

A SECRET OUT OF THE PRISON-HOUSE.—Women, when they get together, talk about themselves, or their children, their servants, their dresses, their rivals, their conquests, their pleasures; men, when they get together, talk of nothing but their dear wives !

CENSUS CURIOSITIES.—As one of the enumerators for the burgh of Brechin was transferring the census papers he had distributed and collected into his book, he came upon one that had termed himself "a ten-feet weaver," meaning by this, we suppose, that he "tramped ten treddles." An Irishman, in Maxwelltown, Dundee, under the column "Deaf, dumb, or blind," entered opposite his own name, "Not deaf—I wish I was;" while opposite his spouse he had inserted, "Not dumb—I wish she were." Under the heading, "Rank, profession, or occupation," for his wife he wrote, " God help her, for she can do nothing." In one of the numerous streets that branch off from the Hawkhill, Dundee, resides an old woman and her daughter. Both being, like Jeanie Deans, "but indifferent pen-women," they requested a neighboring young man to fill up their census paper. He got on quite satisfactorily until the column "Age" came to be filled up, when, with the elderly woman. there seemed to be is shortness of memory. The young man, after waiting a short time, asked what he should put down. "Oh," said she, "ye may pit doon sixty." The daughter's line was then commenced to be filled up, but the age again seemed to puzzle the mother. The young man had once more to ask what he would put down, and the mother, after a moment's consideration, said, " Ye may ca' her fifty."

An eccentric genius, we believe in Inverness, who lives in a house which he calls a " castle," gave the following answers to the queries in the census paper. Under the heading "Domestic servants, lodgers, and visitors," he wrote

" Plenty of mice, and lots of rats,

A nice young dog, and two young cats." Under the head "Age" was written

"I will not swear that I am fifty,

Though growing wise, and also thrifty."

His "castle" he describes as consisting of one room, one window, one door, and thirty air-holes." Happy man! he is evidently a philosopher as well as a wit.

Sheridan's neglect of letters was a standing joke against him. He never took the trouble to open any that he did not expect, and often left sealed many that he was most anxious to read. He once appeared with his begging face at the bank, humbly asking an advance of twenty pounds. "Certainly, Sir; would you like any more—fifty or a hundred? said the smiling clerk. Sherry was overpowered. He would like a hundred. "Two or three?" asked the scribe. Sherry thought he was joking, but was ready for two, or even three—he was always ready for more. But he could not conceal his surprise. "Have you not received our letter?" the clerk asked, perceiving it. Certainly he had received the epistle, which informed him that his salary as Receiver-General of Cornwall had been paid in, but he had never opened it.

"If you marry," said a Roman consul to his son, "let it be to a woman—" "Very proper advice," said Mrs. Partington, interrupting Ike, who was reading; "but I don't know how he could have given any other under the circumstance, seeing that Providence foreordained that it should be so, previously beforehand, though in one sense all the girls that marry are not women either, because they toil not, neither do they spin, and know no more about housekeeping than the fifth wheel of a coach."

"But," said Ike, putting in, "you didn't hear it all. ' If you marry,' said a Roman consul to his son, 'let it be a woman who has judgement and industry enough to get a meal of victuals, taste enough to dress neat, pride enough to wash before breakfast, and sense enough to hold her tongue.'" " Very good," said the old lady, and she nodded her head as though the idea were adjusting itself to a satisfactory place in her mind.

Those who take no account of their own sins in life may expect to be brought one day to a " dead reckoning."

AN UNWELCOME RETURN.

THREE MONTHS' VOLUNTEER. "What! don't you know me—your own husband ?"

DAUGHTER OF COLUMBIA. " Get away! No husband of mine would be here while the country needs his help."

Civil War Deserter Cartoon

 

 

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