The country will join with General Lee, in grateful acknowledgment to the Lord of Hosts, who has thus smiled once more upon our cause. But vain indeed, and costly would be our triumph, if we should fail to grasp the advantages which it offers. We trust and believe that there will be no such failure.
The beaten and demoralized masses of the Yankee army can scarcely be rallied for another struggle south of the Potomac. The road lies open, to the gates of the Yankee Capital. Let our Generals but unleash their victorious legions, and Washington is ours. Maryland will arise and cast aside her fetters; and in thirty days the seat of war will be transferred to the outer boundaries of the Confederacy.
We await with impatience the next tidings from the Potomac. For we believe that there can be no more delays upon the sod which covers the dead heros of Manassas.
The Charleston Mercury
September 3, 1862
The community yesterday was jubilant and sanguine at the news from Manassas. Flags were streaming all day long from the public places, and the discussions at the bulletin boards turned chiefly upon the precise distance from Manassas to Washington, which, as all the world knows, the first ‘Grand Army’ of the Yankees ran in a single night.
Progress of the War from the Seat of the War in Virginia
The extraordinary reticence of the Government throws back all the Virginia papers upon the resources of their old and indefatigable friend ‘The Reliable Gentleman.’ The following account of the events immediately preceding the second great Battle of Manassas is taken from Mondayissue of the Richmond Dispatch.
It is asserted, on what ought to be regarded as reliable authority, that our forces, in large numbers, have gained the rear of the enemy, and that on Saturday, and perhaps yesterday, a bloody struggle was in progress on Bull Run, in the immediate vicinity of the battle field of the 21st July, 1861. Coupled with this statement is another, to the effect that other divisions of our army were pressing the enemy from this side, and forcing him on in the direction of our forces that have already been thrown between him and Washington. These statements we believe to be entitled to fuller consideration than should be given to mere street rumors, but we do not claim for them the sanction of unquestionable authority. We give them because we think them not at all improbable.
There are also reports of a heavy battle on Friday, near BristowStation, four miles south of Manassas, between the division of Gen. Ewell and the forces of the enemy, in which it is said that our forces were twice driven from their position, with severe loss, but receiving reinforcements, finally drove the enemy back, capturing several batteries and some five thousand prisoners. Reports conflict as to the precise locality of this engagement, one representing it at Bristow Station, and the other near the Plains, on the Manassas Gap road. If such a fight really took place, we think it more than likely the latter location is correct. It is also stated by some that the divisions of Jackson, A. P. Hill, and Ewell, were all in the battle, and others that it was fought by Ewell division alone.
Another report, which was brought to the city by passengers on Saturday, and again yesterday, represent that General Stuart has taken HarperFerry, and holds possession of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Bridge at that point. No particulars of the capture of this place are furnished, but those familiar with Stuartdashing exploits are generally ready to believe any report with reference to his daring feats. The latest information from HarperFerry placed the Federal forces there at four regiments. This force may have been withdrawn, or it may have been increased. The Federals have for some time boasted that the town was strongly fortified and prepared to resist the attack of a vastly superior force. How much truth there was in these boasts will be shown by a confirmation or contradiction of the report of its capture. If it has fallen into our hands it has been captured by a cavalry force, unsupported by infantry or artillery.
A member of Congress, who came down on the Central train yesterday afternoon, says that the Baltimore Sun, of Thursday, had been received in the Valley, in which it was stated that our forces had captured at Manassas, on Wednesday, five trains of cars loaded with provisions, and that later on the same day five other trains, on board of which were some two thousand Yankee troops. This affair was commented upon by the Yankee press as very discreditable to their commander, and some harsh reflections as to his fitness for his position indulged.
Our own account of this affair reports that a portion of our cavalry had advanced on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad to Bull Run bridge, about five miles beyond Manassas, and having burned the bridge, continued their advance to Dye Station, where they concealed themselves, and arrested the approach of a number of trains of which they had previously received information. After the trains had passed the concealed portion of the cavalry the track was torn up behind them. When they reached the bridge, the officers on board finding that something was wrong, determined to return to Alexandria, but before backing far they found the track torn up, and their retreat effectually intercepted.
The cavalry then approached in superior numbers, and the enemy surrendered without firing a gun. The number of prisoners reported captured agrees with the statement of the Sun, being estimated at 2,000, together with all the officers, regimental and company, and a quantity of arms and ammunition, which were being conveyed to General Pope. After this brilliant affair, this cavalry returned to Manassas, without sustaining the loss of a single man.
Some fifteen hundred to two thousand Yankee prisoners were yesterday between Rapidan Station and Gordonsville, and may be expected in this city today. It is supposed that these are the prisoners captured at DyeStation by our cavalry.
The Charleston Mercury
September 5, 1862
The News from Richmond
(Correspondence of the Mercury)
Richmond, Tuesday, September 2.
The plains of Manassas have been again dyed in blood, perhaps more deeply than before, and this time there has been no rain to swell the Potomac, no lack of transportation, no army of PATTERSON to come from HarperFerry to defend Washington; and now, shall we cross the Rubicon? The master of Arlington Heights must answer this question.
All we know, up to the present moment, is that McClellan and Pope have been routed, and that our boys are pursuing the fragments of the two armies towards the Occoquan – it is believed – for all seem to agree that McClellan landed there. A part of McCarmy (five or six thousand men) had not left Fortress Monroe on Saturday, the day of the decisive battle; and we hear nothing of Burnside, who has been at Fredericksburg, and is now, doubtless, en route to McClellan. Hence we see that there are still some veteran troops to encounter, in addition to the raw recruits now at Washington. Still, we ought to be able to advance.
We look anxiously for the train this evening, to hear what losses we have sustained. They have been heavy, unquestionably. Pope admits a loss of 8,000 in Thursday fight, which Lee speaks of as an affair of small moment.
There is wailing in all New England,
And by Schuylkill banks a knell,
Yes, and there is sorrow enough in all the South.
Gen. Lee will probably head the army of invasion, or, at least, of deliverance to Maryland. That he has been meditating work in and beyond his present vicinity, was inferred weeks ago from an expression of impatience which escaped him at hearing that some of our guerillas had again broken up the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. ‘It will be invaluable to us,’ said he.
Much dissatisfaction is expressed against the course pursued by Congress in regard to extending the Conscript Law and making adequate preparation for the new Yankee levies. But Job is in Congress as well as in the Chair of the Executive, and Job is timid and afraid to look a coming danger in the face. De Quincy, considering murder as a Fine Art, says that a man who begins with murder may gradually rise to the high crime of procrastination. In our case, just at the present time, procrastination is not paradoxically worse than murder–it is murder of the direct proportion–national murder.
Congress appears timid in the matter of retaliation. Why, Popelate backdown ought to encourage them. By the way, I am glad to hear from a friend, just from the departments, that we have captured Gens. Blenker and Thomas, of Popearmy. The common sense of the country long since called for retaliation, and the success which has attended even its semblance, as given in General Order No. 54, ought to induce our legislators to put more trust in the sense of their fellow countrymen.
I hear that Gen. Beauregard has been assigned to the command of the Atlantic coast, with his headquarters at Charleston. Gen. J. E. Johnston takes charge of the TransMississippi Department, with Gens. Price, Magruder and Holmes under him. Gen. G. W. Smith retains command here, and has taken a house not far from the President.
THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC MARCHING OVER THE SECOND BULL RUN BATTLEGROUND NEAR GROVETON (FORBES). LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
Frank Vizitelly, a well known artist of the London Illustrated News, has been at the Spotswood for some weeks, having a gay time with a number of young bloods of the army and navy. Vizitelly had to run the underground railroad to get to our side; after being with the Yankee army of the Potomac for a year, no wonder they refused him a pass to our lines. He has made a number of sketches of scenes in and around Richmond.
The weather has been singularly cool today.
HERMES.
The Charleston Mercury
September 5, 1862
News by Telegraph
The Latest from the Seat of War
Particulars of the Battle of Saturday – the Casualties
Manassas, August 30 (via RAPIDAN, September 4) – The second Battle of Manassas has been fought on precisely the same spot as that of 21st of July, 1861, with the difference that our forces occupied many of the positions which were held by the enemy at that time, and that the enemy fought upon the ground that had been held by us. Several of our regiments entered the field just where McDOWELL’S divisions did a year ago. The fight began about three o in the afternoon, near Groveton, on the Warrenton turnpike. LONGSTREET was on the right and JACKSON on the left, their line being in the form of a broad V, with the enemy within. The enemy made their first advance by endeavoring to turn JACKSON’S flank, but were repulsed in great confusion–a battery of twenty pieces of artillery, commanded by Col. STEPHEN D. LEE, of South Carolina, mowing them down by scores. LONGSTREET at once threw forward HOODS’S and BRYSON’S brigades, and advanced his whole line, which was in a short time separately engaged. JACKSON now gave battle, and the enemy was attacked on every side. The fight was fiercely contested until after dark, when the Yankees gave way and were driven in disorder for a distance of three miles. Their forces consisted of McDOWELL’S, SEIGEL’S, BANKS’, MORELL’S, SICKLES’, MILROY’S, McCLELLAN’S, and POPE’S divisions. The loss of the enemy exceeds that of the Confederates in the ratio of five to one. Their dead literally cover the field. Our men captured a number of batteries, numerous regimental colors, thousands of prisoners, and from six to ten thousand stand of arms. We might have taken more of these last; but the men could not be burdened with them. One Yankee Brigadier General is now lying dead at the negro Robinsonhouse, where the Yankee bodies are so thickly strewn that it is difficult to pass without stepping on them. Generals EWELL, JENKINS, MAHONE and TRIMBLE, are wounded. Colonels MEANS, MARSHALL and GADBERRY, of South Carolina, are killed. Colonels BENBOW, MOORE and McGOWAN, of the same State, are wounded. Major D. C. KEMPER is severely wounded in the shoulder; Captain TABB and Captain MITCHEL, of the First Virginia (the latter a son of JOHN MITCHELL, the Irish patriot), are wounded. Adjutant TOMPKINS, of the Hampton Legion, and Adjutant CAMERON, of the Twenty-Fourth Virginia, were both wounded. About fifty Yankee of Washington, who had come out to witness the show, have been bagged by our forces.
Richmond, September 3
No official despatches have been received from the seat of war in Northern Virginia today. The reports brought by passengers all indicate that our victory over the Yankees was complete, and that our troops are in pursuit of the routed enemy.
The Casualties at Manassas
The Columbia Carolinian, of yesterday, gives a telegraphic report from Richmond, that Gen. JENKINS and Col. BENBOW, of this State, are mortally wounded. The Federal Generals POPE and McDOWELL are also mortally wounded, and Gen. SICKLES killed.
The Charleston Mercury
September 6, 1862
Manassas
Slowly the smoke is clearing away from the famous field of Manassas, and, while we can learn but little of the later movements of the opposing forces, it is easy to see that the struggle of Saturday was, indeed, for us, signal victory. Already the sounds of wailing and lamentation come echoing from the North. Thousands upon thousands of the invading host have gone down before the valor of our veteran troops; the third Grand Army which had been marshalled upon Virginia soil for the subjugation of that noble State, is beaten, and has fled utter rout; Maryland, from her eastern shore to the Blue Ridge, is throbbing with the hope of an early deliverance, and sits uneasy in her chains; while Washington, the centre of official falsehood and corruption, is quaking at the approach of the very army that the Yankee leaders were lately so confident of crushing and driving the wall.
But new blows must be struck and new victories won before the enemy can be brought to his senses. The army of KIRBY SMITH must press forward from Lexington until the tramp of its brigades shall startle the people who dwell beyond the Ohio. Our victorious troops in Virginia, reduced though they be in numbers, and shattered in organization, must be led promptly into Maryland, before the enemy can rally the masses of recruits whom he is rapidly and steadily gathering together. When the Government of the North shall have fled into Pennsylvania, when the public buildings in Washington shall have been razed to the ground, so as to forbid the hope of their ever again becoming the nest of Yankee despotism, then, at last, may we expect to see the hope of success vanish from the Northern mind, and reap the fruit of our bloody and long continued trials.
The Charleston Mercury
September 8, 1862
Proclamation by the President
To the People of the Confederate States
Once more upon the plains of Manassas have our armies been blessed by the Lord of Hosts with a triumph over our enemies. It is my privilege to invite you once more to His footstool, not now in the garb of fasting and sorrow, but with joy and gladness, to render thanks for the great mercies received at His hands. A few months since, and our enemies poured forth their invading legions upon our soil. They laid waste our fields, polluted our altars, and violated the sanctity of our homes. Around our capital they gathered their forces, and with boastful threats claimed it as already their prize. The brave troops which rallied to its defence have extinguished these vain hopes, and under the guidance of the same Almighty hand, have scattered our enemies and driven them back in dismay. Uniting these defeated forces and the various armies which had been ravaging our coasts with the army of invasion in Northern Virginia, our enemies have renewed their attempt to subjugate us at the very place where their first effort was defeated, and the vengeance of retributive justice has overtaken the entire host, in a second and complete overthrow.
To this signal success accorded to our arms in the East, has been graciously added another equally brilliant in the West. On the very day on which our forces were led to victory on the plains of Manassas in Virginia, the same Almighty arm assisted us to overcome our enemies at Richmond, in Kentucky. Thus at one and the same time, have the two great hostile armies been stricken down, and the wicked designs of our enemies set at nought.
In such circumstances, it is meet a
nd right that, as a people, we should bow down in adoring thankfulness to that gracious God who has been our bulwark and defence, and to offer unto Him the tribute of thanksgiving and praise. In His hand are the issues of all events, and to Him should we, in an especial manner, ascribe the honor of this great deliverance.
Now, therefore, I, JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Confederate States, do issue this my proclamation, setting apart THURSDAY, the 18th day of September, instant, as a day of prayer and thanksgiving to Almighty God, for the great mercies vouchsafed to our people, and more especially for the triumph of our arms at Richmond and Manassas; and I do hereby invite the people of the Confederate States to meet on that day at their respective places of public worship, and to unite in rendering thanks and praise to God for these great mercies, and to implore Him to conduct our country safely through the perils which surround us, to the final attainment of the blessings of peace and security.
Given under my hand, and the seal of the
Confederate States, at Richmond, this fourth day of
September, A.D. 1862.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
By the President:
J.P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.
The Charleston Mercury
September 8, 1862
The Casualties in the Late Battles at Manassas – The lists of casualties in the recent battles in Northern Virginia, owing, doubtless, to the distance intervening between the scene of hostilities and the nearest telegraph station, come in very slowly. We gather, however, from private sources the following details:
Gen. JENKINS has telegraphed that he will be home in ten days. We are induced to hope, therefore, that his wound is not serious.
The Words of War Page 9
