to its old camp near Alexandria, arriving in the afternoon of the 22nd, in time to hold dress parade.

At the first roll call after the Sixteenth returned from Manassas to its camp, Private Joseph B. Rodden of Company K was the only member reported absent. About noon on the 23rd, he came to camp driving thirty head of beef cattle, which had been taken with Davies' brigade on the campaign.

It is probable that in no battle of modern times, in which thirty-five thousand men were engaged, was there so small a number of officers educated in the science and art of war; nor was there a battle which was the nursery of so many who came to great prominence in the profession of arms, as those who rose from the mob-like forces which contended at Manassas. Those who became the most prominent were of the field or line, and generally the junior in years, as well as in rank, of those holding higher commands; the men who attained the greatest success were, chiefly, graduates of the Military Academy. Colonel William T. Sherman gained a place among the world's great generals; Colonel Henry W. Slocum, who commanded a regiment, Colonel Oliver O. Howard, and Colonel Ambrose E. Burnside, who commanded brigades, rose to the command of armies; Colonels Samuel P. Heintzelman, William B. Franklin, Israel B. Richardson, Erasmus D. Keyes, and Orlando B. Willcox rose to the command of corps. A number of captains and lieutenants rose to the command of corps, divisions, and brigades. John A. Logan, a civilian, who had gone out to the field to witness the operations of the day, resigned his seat in Congress, and raised a regiment; he afterward rose to the head of the Union generals who came from civil life. Lieutenant William A. Elderkin, appointed a cadet from Potsdam, New York, who had gone from the graduating exercises at West Point to the battle-field of Bull Run, where he rendered

exceptional services in rescuing the limbers and caissons of Ricketts' battery after the guns had been captured, was highly commended by his battery commander and by the chief of artillery of McDowell's army, and was promoted to a staff department. Colonel Keyes refers to one of his regimental commanders as follows: "I also observed throughout the day the gallantry and excellent conduct of Colonel Alfred H. Terry, Second Connecticut, from whom I received most zealous assistance." Captain Charles Griffin, who rose to the command of a corps, in his report of the operations of his battery at Bull Run, refers to a subordinate as follows: "In addition, I deem it my duty to add that Lieutenant (Adelbert) Ames was wounded so as to be unable to ride his horse at almost the first fire; yet he sat by his command directing the fire, being helped on and off the caisson during the different changes of front or position, refusing to leave the field until he became too weak to sit up." For this he was given a Congressional Medal of Honor, and, later, promoted to be a general officer; in the capture of Fort Fisher he was second in command to General Terry.

General Barnard E. Bee's brigade of Johnston's army came on the field, and checked the steady advance of McDowell's forces by an attack on his right flank, and started the retreat which degenerated into a rout. In this brigade, was the Sixth North Carolina regiment, commanded by Colonel Charles F. Fisher, who was killed in his successful charge to capture Ricketts' battery. General Bee was killed about the same time and General W. H. C. Whiting assumed command of the brigade.

Later, the Confederate authorities honored the memory of Colonel Fisher by naming the fortification, between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, which had been begun by Captain Bolles, Fort Fisher. This fort, under the supervision of General Whiting as chief engineer, be

came the most important of their sea coast defenses, and was called impregnable until it was captured by the joint expedition on January 15, 1865. Admiral Porter commanded the naval, and General Terry the land, forces; my brigade led the assaulting column. General Whiting, who had been relieved of the command of the Wilmington defenses, went to the fort and tendered his services to Colonel William Lamb, its commander, and, in the hand-to-hand contest for possession of the fourth traverse, received a mortal wound.

On the Confederate side of the battle of Bull Run, there were many who rose to high command and to great prominence during the progress of the war; Thomas J. Jackson, James Longstreet, Richard S. Ewell, and Jubal A. Early were then in command of brigades. Major John B. Gordon, Sixth Alabama rifles, rose to a lieutenant-generalcy, and was recognized as the foremost soldier of the South who came from civil life.

General Gordon relates, in his Reminiscences, two interesting incidents which occurred on the Confederate side, where General Ewell's troops were stationed opposite those of Davies and Richardson.

"The most serious one was, that the order from Beauregard to Ewell, directing an assault on the Union left, failed to reach that officer. This strange miscarriage prevented General Ewell from making a movement which, it then seemed probable and now appears certain, would have added materially to McDowell's disaster. I had already been instructed by him to make a reconnaissance in the direction of the anticipated assault, but I had been suddenly recalled just as my skirmishers were opening fire. I was recalled because General Ewell had not received the promised order. For me it was perhaps a most fortunate recall, for in my isolated position I should have probably been surrounded and my little command cut to pieces. I found General Ewell

in an agony of suspense. He would walk rapidly to and fro, muttering to himself, 'no orders, no orders.'

"I can not conclude this imperfect portrayal of the peculiarities of this splendid soldier and eccentric genius without placing upon record one more incident connected with the first battle of Bull Run. While he awaited the order from Beauregard (which never came), I sat on my horse near him, as he was directing the location of a battery to cover the ford and fire upon a Union battery and its supports on the opposite hills.

"As our guns were unlimbered, a young lady, who had been caught between the lines of the two armies, galloped up to where the General and I were sitting on our horses, and began to tell the story of what she had seen. She had mounted her horse just in front of General McDowell's troops, who it was expected would attempt to force a crossing at this point. This Virginian girl, who appeared to be seventeen or eighteen years of age, was in a flutter of martial excitement. She was profoundly impressed with the belief that she really had something of importance to tell. The information which she was trying to convey to General Ewell she was sure would be of vast importance to the Confederate cause, and she was bound to tell it. General Ewell listened to her for a few minutes, and then called her attention to the Union batteries that were rushing into position and getting ready to open fire upon the Confederate lines. He said to her, in his quick, quaint manner: 'Look there, look there, Miss! Don't you see those men with blue clothes on, in the edge of the woods? Look at those men loading those big guns. going to fire, and to fire quick, and fire right here. killed. You'll be a dead damsel in less than a minute. Get away from here! Get away!' The young woman looked over at the blue coats and the big guns, but paid not the slightest attention to either. Nor did she make any reply to his urgent injunction, 'to get away from here!' but continued the story of what she had seen. General Ewell, who was a crusty old bachelor at that time, and knew far less about women than he did about wild Indians, was astonished at this exhibition of feminine courage. He gazed

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at her in mute wonder for a few minutes, and then turned to me suddenly, and, with a sort of jerk in his words, said: 'WomenI tell you sir, women would make a grand brigade-if it were not for snakes and spiders!' He then added much more thoughtfully: 'They don't mind bullets-women are not afraid of bullets; but one big black snake would put a whole army to flight."

The fire opened by Major Gordon's skirmishers, just as he was hurriedly recalled, was upon my detachment whose recall was simultaneous with that of Gordon's troops. When the pioneer corps of Davies' brigade was felling trees, to blockade the roads leading to the left of our position, a young woman on horseback rode up to the party and asked, “Why are you obstructing our road?" I answered, "To prevent the approach of those whom we are not ready to receive." She was, no doubt, the young girl who soon after became the heroine of General Gordon's story. Counsellor J. B. T. Thornton of Manassas informs me that the young lady, whose splendid courage was such a revelation to General Ewell, was Miss Oceola Mason, daughter of Dr. J. Seddon Mason, a descendant of the author of the Bill of Rights of Virginia, George Mason of Gunston Hall. She certainly showed the independent spirit and courage of her distinguished progenitor.

General McDowell had at Centreville about thirty thousand men, of which number eighteen thousand were engaged with the enemy. The Confederates had at Manassas about thirtytwo thousand men of which number eighteen thousand were engaged. The Confederates lost 387 killed, 1,582 wounded, 13 missing, a total of 1,982. The Union army lost 481 killed, 1,011 wounded, 1,216 missing, a total of 2,708. The Confederates had a much larger cavalry force than the Federals, and its operations at the close very materially increased their list of prisoners. They also had the ad