In the first place, the history of the battle of Bull's
Run has yet to be written; as yet the history of the flight only has
been given to us.
As far as I can learn, the Northern soldiers did
at first fight well; so well, that the army of the South believed
itself to be beaten. But a panic was created - at first, as it
seems, among the teamsters and wagons. A cry was raised, and a rush
was made by hundreds of drivers with their carts and horses; and
then men who had never seen war before, who had not yet had three
months' drilling as soldiers, to whom the turmoil of that day must
have seemed as though hell were opening upon them, joined themselves
to the general clamor and fled to Washington, believing that all was
lost. But at the same time the regiments of the enemy were going
through the same farce in the other direction! It was a battle
between troops who knew nothing of battles; of soldiers who were not
yet soldiers. That individual high-minded courage which would have
given to each individual recruit the self-sustained power against a
panic, which is to be looked for in a general, was not to be looked
for in them. Of the other courage of which I have spoken, there was
as much as the circumstances of the battle would allow.
On subsequent occasions the men have fought well.
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