atic intrigue, and hinting at General
Scott's insincerity.[785]

[Footnote 783: June 24, 1861.]

[Footnote 784: _Ibid._, June 27.]

[Footnote 785: "Do you pretend to know more about military affairs than
General Scott? ask a few knaves, whom a great many simpletons know no
better than to echo. No, Sirs! we know very little of the art of war,
and General Scott a great deal. The real question--which the above is
asked only to shuffle out of sight--is this: Does General Scott
contemplate the same ends, and is he animated by like impulses and
purposes, with the great body of the loyal, liberty-loving people of
this country? Does he want the Rebels routed, or would he prefer to
have them conciliated?"--_Ibid._, July 1, 1861.]

General Scott did not approve a battle at that time. He thought the
troops insufficiently drilled and disciplined. On the other hand, the
President argued that a successful battle would encourage the country,
maintain the unanimity of the war sentiment, and gain the respect of
foreign governments. General McDowell had 30,000 men in the vicinity
of Bull Run, Virginia, of whom 1,600 were regulars--the rest, for the
most part, three months' volunteers whose term of enlistment soon
expired. At Martinsburg, General Patterson, a veteran of two wars,
commanded 20,000 Federal troops. Opposed to the Union forces, General
Beauregard had an effective army of 22,000, with 9,000 in the
Shenandoah Valley under command of Joseph E. Johnston. In obedience to
the popular demand McDowell moved his troops slowly toward
Beauregard's lines, and on Sunday, July 21, attacked with his whole
force, gaining a complete victory by three o'clock in the afternoon.
Meantime, however, Johnston, having eluded Patterson, brought to the
field at the supreme moment two or three thousand fresh troops and
turned a Confederate defeat into a Union rout and panic.[786]

[Footnote 786: Of 49 regiments engaged, 19 were from New York, and of
the 3,343 killed, wounded, and missing, 1,230 were New Yorkers.--Official
Records, Series 1, Vol. 2, pp. 314, 315, 351, 387, 405, 426.]

After coolness and confidence had displaced the confusion of this wild
stampede, it became clear that the battle of Bull Run had been well
planned, and that for inexperienced and undisciplined troops
McDowell's army had fought bravely. It appeared plain that had
Patterson arrived with 2,300 fresh troops instead of Johnston, the
Confederates must have been the routed