ero.--Desperate attempt
to stop the retreat.--Recruiting the decimated
ranks.--Fredericksburg.--Bravery of Meagher's brigade.--The
impregnable heights.--The cost of battles.--Death of
Bayard.--Outline of his life.

The plains of Manassas still speak to us. The smoke of battle that once
hung over them has long since rolled away, but the blood of over forty
thousand brave men of both North and South who here met, and fighting
fell to rise no more, consecrates the soil. Between them and us the
grass has grown green for many and many a summer, but it cannot hide the
memory of their glorious deeds. From this altar of sacrifice the incense
yet sweeps heavenward. The waters of Bull Run Creek swirl against their
banks as of old, and, to the heedless passer-by, utter nothing of the
despairing time when red carnage held awful sway, and counted its
victims by the thousand; yet, if one strays thitherward who can listen
to the mystic language of the waves, they will reword their burden of
death and of dark disaster which "followed fast and followed faster,"
and at last overtook the devoted Northern army, and made wild confusion
and wilder flight.

No general description of the battle need be given here. That portion
only which concerns the subject of this biography, now promoted to the
rank of Sergeant, will be set in the framework of these pages.
Concerning the part which he took in the action, and which occurred
under his own observation, he says:

"On the eventful thirtieth--it was August, 1862--our artillery occupied
the crest of a hill a short distance beyond Bull Run Creek, the cavalry
regiments under Bayard being stationed next, and the infantry drawn up
in line behind the cavalry.

"A short time before the battle opened, I was sent to a distant part of
the field to deliver an order. An ominous stillness pervaded the ranks.
The pickets as I passed them were silent, with faces firmly set towards
the front, and the shadow of coming battle hovered portentously, like a
cloud with veiled lightnings, over the Union lines.

"It was the calm which precedes a storm, and the thunderbolts of war
fell fast and heavy when the storm at length broke over our heads. I had
just taken my place in the cavalry ranks when a shell from the enemy's
guns whizzed over our heads with a long and spiteful shriek. One of the
horses attached to a caisson was in the path of the fiery missile, and
the next instant the animal's head was