he fight. His own presence was required by law at
Richmond on July 20, for the delivery of his message to the assembled
Congress. It was impossible for him to leave for the front before Sunday
morning the 21st.

The battle began at eight o'clock.

General McDowell's army had moved to this attack hounded by the clamor
of demagogues for the immediate capture of Richmond by his "Grand Army."

Every Northern newspaper had dinned into his ears and the ears of an
impatient public but one cry for months:

"On to Richmond!"

At last the news was spread in Washington that the army would move and
bivouac in Richmond's public square within ten days. The march was to be
a triumphal procession. The Washington politicians filled wagons and
carriages with champagne to celebrate the victory. Tickets were actually
printed and distributed for a ball in Richmond. The army was accompanied
by long lines of excited spectators to witness the one grand struggle of
the war--Congressmen, toughs from the saloons, gaudy ladies from
questionable resorts, a clamoring, perspiring rabble bent on witnessing
scenes of blood.

The Union General's information as to Beauregard's position and army was
accurate and full. He knew that Johnston's command of ten thousand men
had begun to arrive the day before. He did not know that half of them
were still tangled up somewhere on the railroad waiting for
transportation. Even with Johnston's entire command on the ground his
army outnumbered the Southerners and his divisions of seasoned veterans
from the old army and his matchless artillery gave him an enormous
advantage.

With consummate skill he planned the battle and began its successful
execution.

His scouts had informed him that the Southern line was weak on its left
wing resting on the Stone Bridge across the river. Here the long drawn
line of Beauregard's army thinned to a single regiment supported at some
distance by a battalion. Here the skillful Union General determined to
strike.

At two-thirty before daylight his dense lines of enthusiastic men swung
into the dusty moonlit road for their movement to flank the Confederate
left.

Swiftly and silently the flower of McDowell's army, eighteen thousand
picked men, moved under the cover of the night to their chosen crossing
at Sudley's Ford, two miles beyond the farthest gray picket of
Beauregard's left.

Tyler's division was halted at the Stone Bridge on which the lone
regiment of Col. Evans